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John Robert Stobo Prichard, OC , OOnt , LLM , PhD (born 1949) is a Canadian lawyer, economist, and academic.
Born in London, England, Prichard attended prep school at Upper Canada College before studying economics at Swarthmore College, business at the University of Chicago, and law at the University of Toronto and Yale Law School.
Joining the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto in 1976, he was its dean from 1984 to 1990. Between 1990 and 2000 he was the thirteenth president of the university.
During his ten years as president, the U of T's endowment rose to $1.4 billion dollars, the most of any Canadian university.
Also during his tenure as president, Prichard endured the agony of having his youngest son battle a very dangerous form of cancer.
He became the president of the Torstar Media Group and chief operating officer of the Torstar Corporation in May 2001, after completing his term as the thirteenth President of the University of Toronto.
Prichard is the past Vice-Chair of the Upper Canada College Board of Governors and is currently a Governor of the Canadian Unity Council. Prichard is also a member of the Order of Ontario and an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Prichard has also been a member of Imasco's board of directors since 1993. Imasco owns and controls Imperial Tobacco, the largest tobacco manufacturer in Canada. Prichard was subjected to considerable criticism for his dual role as university head and director of the tobacco corporate giant.
While Prichard was president, U of T accepted $2 million dollars from Imasco between 1997 and 1999. In 1998, Imasco contributed just over $2.5 million to educational institutions across the country.
Political work
In 1995, Prichard served on a committee struck by Mike Harris' transition team in the wake of his 1995 Ontario election win. Initiated by Bill Farlinger, the committee numbered Prichard, former Tory provincial treasurer Darcy McKeough, and party insider Jim Bailey, assisted by a group of lawyers of Conservative sympathies. Their task was to vet the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario caucus for potential cabinet ministers for Harris' incoming provincial government.
Prichard was later named a trustee of the Ontario Innovation Trust, established by the Harris government to fund scientific research and development. The provincial auditor questioned the trust's transparency, and political critics attacked it as a vehicle to fund programs outside regular channels of public scrutiny.
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