Alumni Connection

Carl Mitchell, the newly elected president of the University of Toronto Alumni Association (UTAA), has returned to university life full speed over the last decade. The computer-science grad has served as treasurer on the UTAA Board of Directors, as a member of the industry advisory board for the department of computer science, and as a member of several awards committees. Mitchell (BSc 1984 St. Michael’s) was partially motivated to re-engage with U of T to promote the high quality of its computer-science program – especially against rival Waterloo. (He was the first computer graduate to donate to the Bahen Centre for Information Technology, which opened in 2002. A computer lab within the centre bears Mitchell’s name.)

A software engineer after graduation, Mitchell is now a partner at the business advisory practice Barrington Capital Corp. Elected in June, he is still setting broad objectives for his tenure – including higher visibility for the association at university events and increased direct interaction with alumni. Mitchell aims to make U of T grads aware of the benefits of networking with an alumni association. “We have a number of highly skilled directors from a wide variety of backgrounds, and I don’t think the membership is aware of that,” he says.

Mitchell was born in Jamaica, but has spent almost his entire life in Toronto. He has been married to a fellow alum for 19 years, and they have two children, ages 11 and 14. So is Mitchell steering his kids toward a U of T education? “We’ve had them on campus tours a couple of times,” he says, “and I’m hoping for future alumni.”