Donor Profile

Outstanding Corporate Philanthropy

Introducing the D+H Summer Student Research Program at Sunnybrook Research Institute

Gerrard Schmid, CEO and director of D+H, speaks with Alisa Kim about his company's five-year, $250,000 investment into hands-on learning at SRI.

D+H is the first corporate sponsor of the SRI Summer Student Research Program. Gerrard Schmid, CEO of D+H, says the donation was fuelled by the opportunity to help students become the innovators of tomorrow.

Photo: Matthew Sherwood

Why is D+H investing in the summer student research program at Sunnybrook Research Institute specifically? You had your pick of institutes, I'm sure.

There are a couple of reasons why this particular program is of interest to D+H. First, we really believe in the program mandate itself. The opportunity to help students who are going to be the researchers and innovators of the future is really compelling for a company like ours. D+H has been in business for over a century, and innovation in order to stay relevant to our customers today and tomorrow is the cornerstone of our success. The tie-in to the SRI summer student program is a natural fit for us. Second, the geographic proximity of the program is attractive to us. Sunnybrook is very close to the D+H corporate office, and we have a strong history and firm commitment to give back to the communities in which we live and work.

What do you hope the donation will do?

Every brilliant invention starts with an idea. As a society, we need innovation more than ever to identify viable new technologies and solutions that will reinvent health care to create more capacity, develop less invasive procedures, and create more rapid and accurate diagnostics. Our hope is that our support of the summer student research program will help spawn some of those ideas and innovations and give them an early start.

There's a culture of innovation at D+H. How does this gift fit with your corporate mandate?

There's a real recognition in our company that innovation plays, and will continue to play, a key role in our success. We have to be constantly innovating to meet our customers' evolving needs, much in the same way as advances in medical research continue to make a difference for its "customers," the patients. The medical advances resulting from research at Sunnybrook are a shining example of the difference true innovation can have in people's lives. There is a pretty clear parallel for us, and because the program aligns so well with our corporate mandate, it was an easy decision for us to support it.

Community involvement is a core value of D+H. Why is philanthropy so important to the company?

We believe that corporate community involvement and philanthropy deliver value to society and to our business. We see an inextricable link between behaving well internally and externally—whether it is by respecting our employees, delivering value to our customers or engaging with the community in which we operate. Therefore, it is very important to us to be a "good corporate citizen."

Why do you think it's important for corporations to give back to the community?

None of us operates in a vacuum, whether as individuals or as corporations. We are part of a bigger community, and it is important to respect and appreciate that fact. It's imperative to recognize that delivering value to the community delivers value to a corporation also.

D+H is a leading provider of secure and reliable technology solutions to North American financial institutions. With a long history as a trusted partner to banks, credit unions and other financial services providers, D+H's solutions help customers grow, compete and optimize operations. D+H is ranked #24 on the Branham 300 listing of Top Canadian Information and Technology Companies and #35 on American Banker, Bank Technology News, and IDC Financial Insights FinTech 100. For more information, visit www.dhltd.com.