Donor impact

The Asper School announces the Chiu Centre for Business Serving Community

Thanks to a $5.4 million gift from Drs. Wayne and Elanor Chiu, The new centre will address sustainability in capitalism.

Elanor and Wayne Chiu speaking at a podium.
Estimated Read Time:
3 minutes
Drs. Wayne and Elanor Chiu
Drs. Wayne and Elanor Chiu
Estimated Read Time:
3 minutes
By

Brett Maclaren

What if we can rethink the way we do business? The Asper School of Business is expanding to answer that very question.

Thanks to a generous $5.4 million gift by Drs. Wayne [BSc(ME)/80, LLD/23] and Elanor Chiu, The Chiu Centre for Business Serving Community was announced on November 4, 2025. It will soon be established inside the walls of the Drake Centre.

“Wayne and Elanor Chiu are some of Canada’s most prominent philanthropists in sustainability,” said Bruno Silvestre, Dean of the I.H. Asper School of Business and CPA Manitoba Chair in Business Leadership. “We are truly honoured they chose to give back to the Asper School of Business, where we can continue to advance one of our greatest and oldest values: to keep community in business.”

Doing well by doing good

The Chiu Centre aims to start important conversations about how firms can do well, not by making the most money, but by doing the most good.

The goal is to become a nationally recognized research centre that will address the social and ecological crises facing humanity by promoting business models that foster culture change in capitalism.

The Centre’s Inaugural director is Asper Professor and Norman Forhlich Professor in Business Sustainability, Bruno Dyck.

“With our current system, some research says that 95% of the financial gains of globalization have gone to the richest 5 per cent,” Dyck told UM President Michael Benarroch on the podcast What’s the big idea?

“That’s unconscionable, we should not be able to sleep after we hear those things.”

The original purpose of business was not to make money, but to provide goods and services that help people. “What if the economy was about getting enough, instead of getting ahead and wanting more,” he said.

The centre will contemplate how businesses can be profitable through a purpose that helps people and creates community, care, and compassion.

The mission covers all sectors of business, and the purpose can mean anything from environmental issues like creating less harmful emissions, to supporting local businesses, to simply creating a better work experience for your employees.

“Research suggests that the world’s largest 1200 businesses create about $5 trillion of negative ecological externalities every year, which is greater than all their profits combined,” Dyck said.

The everyday work of the centre will foster new, purpose-driven opportunities in areas such as research and grants, thought leadership, experiential learning, career development and cross-faculty engagements.

Dyck looks forward to establishing the centre in the Asper School community and nationwide. He has already begun the work of having one-on-one meetings with scholars and businesses, spreading the vision and listening for opportunities.

Donors pose by a framed photo gifted to them.
(L-R)Dr. Bruno Silvestre, Dr. Wayne Chiu, Dr. Elanor Chiu, and Dr. Michael Benarroch

Intertwining purpose and innovation

By donating $5.4 million to create the centre, Dr. Wayne and Elanor Chiu have encapsulated their lifetime of purpose-driven business and a commitment to its future.

As the founders of Calgary’s Trico Group, they created a business model that prioritizes support for families, new Canadians, and communities in need. In 2008, they expanded to solve greater societal issues by creating the Trico Charitable Foundation.

During their speech, they gave examples of other business models that had been true changemakers.

“Patagonia built a business model around protecting the planet,” Wayne Chiu said. The company’s clothing is designed to be durable, reducing waste, and sources the most sustainable and environmentally friendly materials.

IBM uses AI to improve climate forecasting to help farmers adapt to changing weather.

DoorDash partners with local restaurants to help small businesses stay competitive in a challenging market.

Novo Nordisk, a global pharmaceutical company, innovated their diabetes strategy to focus not only on medicine, but also educating the public on how to prevent diabetes.

“Purpose gives innovation direction, and innovation gives purpose power,” Wayne Chiu said. “We’re entering an era where a company’s worth will be measured not by what it earns, but by what it contributes.”

Elanor Chiu said, “Doing well by doing good, it’s not a slogan. It’s a strategy for sustainable growth. It’s about aligning profit with purpose, about seeing social investment not as a cost, but as a source of competitive advantage and to enduring value.”

The announcement of the Chiu Centre for Business Serving Community filled our imaginations with a vision for what capitalism can be. Now, it’s time to make the first steps.

Research from the Asper School of Business influences business and leadership in Canada and throughout the world. Explore our graduate research programs today, and learn more about how you can pursue opportunities at the Chiu Centre for Business Serving Community, and more of our world class facilities.