– Invested with Order of Ontario and the Guyana High Commissioner to Canada Award for Excellence

IN January, Guyana-born Winston Kassim, a retired Executive Officer at the Royal Bank of Canada, was conferred with the Order of Ontario. On  June 15, Kassim was formally invested for his more than four decades of worldwide humanitarian and volunteer work in over 25 countries.

He was the first born-Guyanese to be awarded a Member of the Order of Canada (C.M.), the nation’s highest civilian honour for Canadian citizens, in 2009, and was recently accorded the Guyana High Commissioner Award for Excellence on June 1 in Ottawa. He is also a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and many other awards for volunteerism.

Winston began his business career with Barclays Bank in Guyana and the Caribbean before immigrating to Canada in 1975. He then joined the Royal Bank of Canada, where he enjoyed a distinguished 40-year career, eventually retiring as the Executive Head of Financial Performance Management and Business Strategy.

Winston is a certified board director and has served on various boards, including Royal Bank Barbados Limited. He also supported a number of not-for-profit boards, including the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, the Canadian Museum of Indian Civilisation, the Sunatul Jamaat of Ontario, Canada, and private companies.

In Guyana, he, along with his late mother, Noorun Nisa Kassim; his late brother, Dr. Sultan Farook Kassim; his retired uncle, Deputy Commissioner of Police Sultan Feroze Kassim; and his sisters, Bibi, Dolly, Anne, and Ingrid, have been supporting the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana for over 40 years. Kassim also played a key role in establishing the Canada-Guyana Chamber of Commerce and the Doobay Gafoor Medical Centre.

“Winston, along with his wife Kameni and children Nadina, Shaun and Sara, have been significant supporters of the One Guyana Forum (Canada) initiatives,” according to Jerry Karamat, one of OGF’s primary convenors.

Kassim has advised global organisations on business opportunities in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, India, South America, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Winston holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA), an Advanced Graduate Diploma in Management (AGDM), and is a Certified Corporate Director, Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D., University of Toronto).

Guyana’s President, His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, was among the hundreds of Guyanese at home and abroad congratulating Kassim on his latest accolade.

According to the Lieutenant Governor, Honourable Edith Dumont, “The appointees to the Order of Ontario have enriched the lives of countless people in our province and well beyond. Together, they have attained the highest level of excellence in many fields, and may we all be inspired by their remarkable contributions.”

The Order of Ontario is the province’s highest civilian honour. It is awarded to an Ontarian who has demonstrated the highest level of excellence and achievement in their field, and whose impact has left a lasting legacy in the province, Canada, and around the world.

Members of the Order are a collective of Ontario’s finest citizens, whose contributions have shaped—and continue to shape—the province’s history and place in Canada.