Jack Mintz, president and CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute since 1999, today announced that he will step down from the position in the summer of 2006.

“I will have enjoyed seven years in a great job with an outstanding research institute, but by next year I must return to my university and the time is right for me to pursue my other interests, as well,” said Mintz, in a release.

Mintz is also the Deloitte & Touche LLP Professor of Taxation, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, and co-director of the International Tax Program, Institute of International Business, both at the University of Toronto.

“I am confident that the Institute’s excellent reputation and solid financial position will enable it to recruit a top-notch leader who will guide it to even greater success as it approaches its 50th Anniversary in 2008,” he added.

Mintz doubled the Institute’s annual budget, made it pan-Canadian in scope and increased its presence in national and international media.

A widely published author, Mintz’s book, “Most Favored Nation: A Framework for Smart Economic Policy”, won the Purvis Prize for best book in economic policy and was runner-up for the Donner Prize for best book in public policy in 2002. He was also the founding editor-in-chief of International Tax and Public Finance from 1994 to 2001.

Mintz was the Clifford Clark Visiting Economist at the federal finance department and chairman of the federal government’s Technical Committee on Business Taxation in 1996 and 1997.

He has consulted widely with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the governments of Canada, Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario, Saskatchewan, as well as serving on the boards of several leading companies.

The Institute’s board of directors has appointed a search committee and its members will work with a leading executive-recruitment firm in the coming months to find a suitable replacement says Institute chairman Tim Hearn.