Ratna Omidvar , (born November 5, 1949) is a Canadian politician and academic, who was named to the Senate of Canada to represent Ontario on March 18, 2016.Originally from Amritsar, India, she was educated at the University of Delhi. Later moving to Canada, she became executive director of the Maytree Foundation, a charitable organization to combat poverty in Canada, before departing in 2014 to found the Global Diversity Exchange at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University where she is currently a distinguished visiting professor. Wikipedia