james_hughes

James Hughes, BCom, received the John B. Stirling Montreal Medal in May. It is the highest honour bestowed by the Montreal branch of the Queen’s University Alumni Association. Hughes received the award in part for his devotion to causes such as poverty reduction, homelessness and mental health. Hughes was working as a lawyer when he decided to switch careers to work in the non-profit sector, in 2002. He was director general of Old Brewery Mission, the largest organization serving homeless men and women in Quebec, from 2004 to 2008. “When I got there, the organization, established in 1889, was essentially managing homelessness by simply helping people get through the day. We turned it into a centre that focused on reducing homelessness permanently through long-term solutions,” he recently told the Queen’s Gazette. Today, he is a government relations executive with the non-profit McConnell Foundation.