The Bank of Nova Scotia is donating $1.9 million donation to the Richard Ivey School of Business to fund scholarships for MBA and undergraduate business students.

The Scotiabank Leadership Awards will create an endowment that offers two scholarships to exemplary students on an annual basis.

“The Scotiabank Leadership Awards will serve as key recruiting tools, enabling Richard Ivey School of Business to continue to grow and strengthen a curriculum that is already among the best in the world,” says Sylvia Chrominska, executive vp, human resources and public, corporate and government affairs, Scotiabank.

Scotiabank and Richard Ivey School of Business have a longstanding relationship that involves philanthropy, student recruitment and executive education. Chrominska graduated from Ivey and joined the bank in 1979 as a credit analyst, working her way up to the bank’s senior executive ranks.

“This outstanding gift from Scotiabank supports students with talent, drive and commitment and ensures that financial need is not a barrier to success,” says Carol Stephenson, Dean, Richard Ivey School of Business. “I am extremely proud of the multifaceted relationship that Ivey shares with Scotiabank.”

This year’s Scotiabank HBA Leadership Continuing Award recipient is Dan Annie Zhu. She has achieved academic excellence during her first two years at Western and has demonstrated her commitment to London’s Chinese community by spearheading several fundraising initiatives for the local Heart & Stroke Foundation.

The Scotiabank MBA Leadership Award was presented to Jennifer Mitchell of Vancouver, who spent a summer in Bolivia working on a housing development project in a rural community while completing her civil engineering degree.

The Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario offers full-time undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Ivey has campuses in London (Ont.), Toronto, and Hong Kong.