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The Lazaridis School of Business and Economics is a business school of Wilfrid Laurier University located in Waterloo, Ontario. Originally the Laurier School of Business and Economics, it was renamed in September 2015 to recognize Mike Lazaridis, co-founder of Research In Motion. The re-branding followed a 2014 announcement of his pledge of $20-million for a new technology-focused management institute at the business school. In 2016, the School and the new institute will move to a new facility, the Lazaridis Hall building (still under construction), at 200 University Avenue West in Waterloo.
Dean Micheál Kelly said the prominence of the Lazaridis name "provides us with a great opportunity now to tell the story on a much wider level of what a great school this is." Laurier president Max Blouw told Lazaridis that the renaming "reinforces our commitment to embody your pioneering vision and sense of innovation in our programs and in our students." With more than 4,500 students overall, and more than 108 full-time and 65 part-time faculty in 2014, the School is the largest faculty at Wilfrid Laurier University.
The main campus is located 100 km (62 mi) west of Toronto and offers full-time and part-time PhD, MBA, Master's, Economics and Honours BBA; the Brantford, Ontario campus offers a Bachelor of Business Technology Management program (administered by the business school). Diploma programs in Accounting and Business Administration are also offered by the School of Business and Economics. A program in association with the University of Waterloo confers double degrees. The Lazaridis School also offers a part-time MBA program in downtown Toronto at the St. Andrew’s Club and Conference Centre.
The Lazaridis School has more than 108 full-time and 65 part-time faculty. As of 2011, the School had over 20,000 alumni (16,700 undergraduate and 3,300 masters/graduate/phd) working in Canada, the United States and around the world. In 2010, the (then) Laurier School of Business and Economics was named an "outstanding business school" by The Princeton Review, which acknowledged that “We are pleased to recommend Laurier as one of the best institutions students could attend to earn an MBA”. The School is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) for all of its Undergraduate, Master's, and Ph.D programs.