21
ANNA MARIA TREMONTI
BA ’78, LLD ’01
A
nna Maria Tremonti, one of the most trusted voices
in Canadian journalism for three decades, now digs
behind the headlines for listeners across Canada weekday
mornings as host of CBC radio’s The Current.
Between 1991 and 2000, Tremonti filed reports for
CBC Television from a rotating cast of international
home bases: Berlin, London, Jerusalem, and Washington.
She has covered conflict and crisis in more than 30
countries, providing the CBC with eyewitness accounts of
the war in Bosnia, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the break-
up of the Soviet Union.
When she began her career at a small radio station in
1978, she was the first woman hired to go on the air. “In my career, I’ve seen women move
into all levels of newsgathering,” says Tremonti. “Now, our bosses send reporters on any
story regardless of gender.”
Tremonti has won two Gemini awards and an outstanding achievement award from
Toronto Women in Film and Television. A graduate of UWindsor’s Communications
Studies program, she was given an honorary doctorate in 2001.
SERGIO MARCHIONNE
BComm ’79, LLD ’05
S
ergio Marchionne, chairman and CEO of Chrysler
Group LLC, and CEO, Fiat S.p.A., is an auto industry
legend, having brought both companies back from the
brink of bankruptcy to profitability.
Marchionne is known for his affinity for sweaters,
driving, and emailing via several cell phones at one time.
He spends much of his time on airplanes journeying
between the home bases of his companies in Detroit,
Mich., and Turin, Italy.
Although a native son of that Mediterranean country,
Marchionne was raised in Canada, and studied business at
the University of Windsor. His career trajectory took him
from accountant and tax specialist for Deloitte Touche in
Canada through senior roles in finance at a series of corporations and, ultimately, to the
helm of Fiat S.p.A. in 2004.
He has served as chair of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association,
Swiss-based SGS and the Italian Branch of the Council for the United States and Italy.
Marchionne is a member of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
In accepting an honorary degree from the University in 2005, the graduate said
that he was proud to be back at, “this illustrious university, respected in Canada and
internationally.”Marchionne’s continued interest in UWindsor contributed to the 2011
agreement between the Politecnico di Torino (Italy) and UWindsor that created a co-
operative international engineering master’s program working on cutting-edge research
and development projects with Chrysler and Fiat.
Marchionne was the 2013 recipient of the Award for Excellence in Global Business
from the Order of the Sons of Italy in America.
LINDA STAUDT
BHK ’81, BEd ’85, MEd ’95
L
inda Staudt first attracted attention
as an outstanding distance runner but
eventually made her name as stellar teacher
and school administrator.
The London District Catholic school
board recently named Staudt as its new
director of education. Previously, she spent
25 years with the Windsor-Essex District
Catholic school board as a teacher, track
coach, principal and superintendent.
Since 2009, she worked in Toronto with
the Education Ministry to boost high
school grad rates, where she oversaw the
department’s Student Success/Learning to
18 program.The initiative helps Ontario
students who are struggling to succeed
academically and reaches out to those who
have dropped out of school to encourage
them to graduate.The program also allows
students to focus their studies on their own
areas of interest through a specialist major.
“I’ve always had a love of learning,”
Staudt told the
London Free Press
when
her new appointment was announced. “It’s
always fun to be around young people.The
students are always the same age.They keep
us young and they inspire and motivate us.”
At the University of Windsor, Staudt
twice won the “Banner Shield” as the
Female-Athlete-of-the-Year, in 1978
and 1980.
As a runner, 1981 was her most
impressive year, during which she won the
Tokyo marathon, the Montreal International
Marathon and was selected as the Canadian
Runner-of-the-Year by
Canadian Runner
Magazine
. She competed for a spot on
Canada’s 1984 Olympic team but was
sidelined by an injury.
