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For their inspiring leadership and positive impact within the U of T community and beyond, two staff members – Horatio Bot and Archana Sridhar – have received the Influential Leader Chancellor’s Award.

The honour is one of  in collaboration with the university. The prestigious program dates back to 1921 and recognizes outstanding faculty, staff and students.

As executive director of budget, planning and finance in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Horatio played a crucial role in the achievement of a key objective for the university sector – the creation of the Ontario University Pension Plan – while providing expertise, diplomacy and exceptional negotiation skills to successfully and positively engage non-unionized employees at U of T and collaborate with colleagues across U of T, Queen's University and the University of Guelph. He also helped form a new standard in defined benefit pension management within the university sector.

that his colleagues praise him as an exceptional ambassador who patiently guided and motivated his peers throughout previously uncharted waters, with his outstanding negotiation, advocacy and interpersonal skills.

Sridhar, assistant provost since 2012, has demonstrated strong leadership in her roles as crisis manager, project leader, adviser, advocate and mentor. Widely regarded as a master of crisis management, she was chosen to lead the working group that revised U of T’s crisis and emergency response framework, and has presented on the topic to university associations across Canada. She was also at the forefront of U of T’s crisis response to COVID-19, quickly organizing a co-ordinated response across the entire institution.

In honouring Sridhar, that supervisors and colleagues describe Sridhar as a compassionate relationship builder with superb consensus-building skills and unique talents for empathy, nuance and communication.