The International Insolvency Institute is pleased to recognize The Honourable Geoffrey B. Morawetz, Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario, as the recipient of the 2026 III Outstanding Contributions Award. Over the course of a distinguished career spanning private practice and the judiciary, Chief Justice Morawetz has made extraordinary contributions to the development of restructuring and insolvency law in Canada and internationally.

Chief Justice Geoffrey B. Morawetz will retire on May 15, 2026. He will do so after serving as Chief Justice of the Ontario Superior Court Justice for almost seven years and after being a judge for over 21 years.

Before his judicial career, Chief Justice Morawetz practiced law for 25 years, specializing in insolvency and restructuring law. His expertise in these areas was consistently and widely recognized in both Canadian and international publications. He is a named author of Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law of Canada and editor of the Canadian Bankruptcy Reports. In addition to being a member of III, he is a fellow of both the Insolvency Institute of Canada (2005) and the American College of Bankruptcy (2010), and a member of INSOL International. Since 2008, he has been an advisor to the Canadian Delegation at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law – Insolvency Law.

During his time on the bench, he was named three times in Canadian Lawyer magazine as one of the “Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada” for his work in the justice system. He also serves as the current chair of the Judicial Insolvency Network, a network of judges from across the world, which serves as a platform to facilitate communications and cooperation amongst national courts in cross-border insolvency and restructuring matters.

Through his judicial leadership, scholarship, and commitment to the advancement of cross-border insolvency practice, Chief Justice Morawetz has had a lasting impact on the restructuring profession. The III is honored to recognize his outstanding contributions to the field.

A founding member of the III since 2003, Steven Kargman has played an active role in the Institute’s leadership and intellectual development for more than two decades. He served two terms on the III Board of Directors (2007–2013) and has contributed to a number of important institutional initiatives, including serving as Rapporteur for the III Special Task Force on Extraordinary Restructuring Solutions following the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 and as Rapporteur for the Board of Governors’ strategic planning project. He also served as Vice-Chair of the Board’s Corporate Governance Committee.

Steven has been particularly influential on emerging market and sovereign debt restructuring issues. He served as Co-Chair of the Sovereign Debt Committee, Project Director of the III project on the restructuring and privatization of state-owned enterprises in Greece during the Greek financial crisis, and Co-Chair of the Institute’s Athens conference on that topic in 2011. He also co-authored an III-endorsed proposal for the establishment of a Sovereign Debt Tribunal and represented the Institute at meetings of a United Nations ad hoc committee on principles for sovereign debt restructuring.

Steven has also been a consistent presence at III Annual Conferences, as a frequent speaker as well as a moderator of panels in conference cities such as New York, Berlin, Rome, Paris, Naples, and Singapore. In addition, he has supported the growth of the Institute by sponsoring numerous candidates for membership and for the NextGen program, particularly from emerging markets and developing countries.

Through his leadership, scholarship, and sustained engagement with the III community, Steven Kargman has made a lasting contribution to the Institute and to the broader international restructuring field. The III is honored to recognize him with the 2026 Founders Award.