Quick Facts
Biography
Paul M. Grod (*Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian entrepreneur and a leading activist of the Ukrainian-Canadian community. He is President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), which represents the interests of 1.2 million Ukrainians in Canada. He is also President & CEO of Rodan Energy, a leading North American smart grid company. He holds Bachelor of Political Science, Bachelor of Laws, and Master of Business Administration degrees. He is married and has four children.
Career
He was a corporate and investment banker with CIBC World Markets and a lawyer with Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP practicing corporate finance and M&A law.
He has been always engaged in affairs of the Ukrainian Canadian community and promoting democracy in Ukraine, the country of his ancestors.
In 2001 he became Vice President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, 2007 he followed Orysia Sushko as President of the UCC. In 2010 and 2013 Grod has been reelected for a third term he has been reelected in that influential position.
Since 2007 Grod is the National President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress which coordinates and represents the interests of one of Canada’s largest ethnocultural communities (1.25 million). He is also Vice President of the Ukrainian World Congress. He has led several international election observation missions in Ukraine.
He visits Ukraine on a regular basis and has met with leading Ukrainian politicians such as, President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Yuliya Tymoshenko. He also accompanied Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s and Foreign Minister John Baird`s delegations to Ukraine.
During his tenure as UCC President, he has successfully ensured Ukraine becoming a top foreign policy priority for Canada. He negotiated the recognition of Canada’s first national internment operations along with Lubomyr Luciuk and Andrew Hladyshevsky and establishment of a $10 Million endowment by the Government of Canada. He also ensured that Canada recognized the Holodomor as a genocide of the Ukrainian people.
Honours and Sanctions
Grod was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal at a ceremony on Parliament Hill on May 17, 2012 by Immigration, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney in recognition for his significant contributions and achievements in service to Canada.
For a third consecutive year, Grod was named in 2014 as one of the top 100 people influencing Canada’s global future by Embassy Magazine & Hill Times’ Power and Influence magazine.
In March 2014 he was one of 13 Canadians sanctioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin and barred from entering Russia.
He is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Paul Grod, President of Rodan Energy and National President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), has been named by the Embassy Magazine & Hill Times’ Power and Influence magazine as one of the top 100 people influencing Canada’s global future.