Appointed as an independent director of global commercial real estate services firm

Toronto, ON – Mark Rose, Chair and CEO of Avison Young, announced today that Eva Maglis has been appointed to the commercial real estate firm’s board of directors. As former Executive Vice President and Global CIO for one of the world’s largest IT companies, CGI, Maglis has led significant technology initiatives, acquisitions and integrations in North America, Europe and Asia over the course of her 35+ year career.

Maglis brings a track record of delivering enterprise wide IS/IT services at a global scale. The last acquisition that she delivered added 40,000 IT professionals focused on harnessing technology for Fortune 500 and government clients to bring value-added services for customers and citizens. During the course of her decades-long career with CGI, Maglis delivered network and data center services to all CGI global clients, successfully transforming multiple independent infrastructure divisions into a cohesive global delivery unit with a yearly P&L of CA$920 and a team of 5,000 professionals, and was responsible for application delivery services in the Banking, Insurance, Manufacturing, Retail and Distribution sectors.

“Eva’s deep strategic and operational experience is a wonderful addition to Avison Young’s board of directors,” said Rose. “She is a transformational leader and strategic thinker who, in addition to her exceptional professional experience, has advised a number of private company boards. We look forward to benefiting from her perspective and leadership as we continue to execute against the next phase of our business growth strategies.”

Maglis began her career at Bell Canada, working across a variety of business areas, including network planning, service assurance, operator services and billing. She held various leadership positions until the Bell Sygma merger with CGI in 1998. Following her retirement from CGI in 2015, she serves on the boards of FXinnovation, Intelcom Express and Transtex/E-Smart. In addition, she serves on the board for the Fondation du Centre jeunesse de Montréal (Children’s Aid). She resides in Montréal, Quebec.

“As I was considering the appointment and reading through large amounts of data, I noticed a comment by an Avison Young Principal who said, ‘I’ll take 50 people working together versus 1,000 people working independently, any day,’ and that really started to resonate with me as I met many of the Avison Young principals and professionals across geographies,” said Maglis. “I know from my years of IT experience and countless special missions on behalf of commercial and government clients, it is people collaborating that makes a significant difference in client outcomes. Driven by professionals working together across geographies to bring new and innovative solutions to their customers, Avison Young has enormous potential in this industry.” 

Maglis joins eight additional board members, comprised of independent directors and members of the firm’s executive leadership team. In addition to Maglis, the board consists of Rose, France Desharnais, Tod Hughes, Carol Johnson, Arthur Mirante, Benoit Raillard, Robert Slaughter, and Earl Webb.

“The intersection of Eva’s deep technology and professional services expertise brings a powerful point of view to Avison Young’s board of directors,” added Slaughter, Avison Young board member and Chief Legal Officer. “She will bring exceptional work experience, knowledge and thinking to the board’s discussions.”