SET UP FOR SUCCESS
Ed McCauley, appointed the new president of University of Calgary on Thursday, said the biggest issue facing the institution is living up to high expectations.
The University of Calgary announced Thursday that Ed McCauley will be its next president and vice-chancellor, succeeding Elizabeth Cannon in the new year.
McCauley is currently the university ’s vice-president (research). He moves into his new role as the U of C’s ninth president on Jan. 1.
Cannon has served as president of the university since 2010.
She announced in January she would be stepping down at the end of 2018, a year-and-a-half before her contract was set to expire in June 2020.
“The university is on a tremendous trajectory. We’re set up for success by the wonderful work that’s been done over the last eightand-a-half years,” McCauley said. “The university’s in great shape. We have huge community support, which is just essential if you want to become a great research university. We’re all doing very, very well. People see how we’ve moved up in the world rankings.”
Originally from Ottawa, McCauley arrived at the U of C in 1985, serving as a professor of biological sciences and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair until 2009.
He later relocated to the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he worked as a professor in the field of ecology and evolutionary biology, and served as director of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.
McCauley returned to the U of C in 2011, where he has served in his current role of vice-president ever since.
“The task of a university president in modern day is a challenge,” he said.
But the biggest issue facing the U of C is living up to high expectations, according to McCauley.
“Right now, I think the community expects a lot of us in terms of having an impact and we have to hold ourselves accountable,” he said.
“If we looked at the new academic and research plan that we’ve developed, impact on student experience are central values, our core values for those plans and we have to deliver for Calgary, for the province and for the country.”
The university began searching for Cannon’s replacement in March, following the announcement of her impending departure.
Jill Wyatt, chair of U of C’s board of governors and its presidential search committee, described it as a “long process” and “truly a global search,” noting the committee reached out to nearly 400 applicants and interviewed candidates from seven countries.
But it turned out the best candidate for the job was already working at the school.
“He is a man of principle, he’s a man of character and he is a man who is so loyal to the idea of the post-secondary system and the importance of higher education for the development of our society,” Wyatt said.
“After eight-and-a-half years of great accomplishment, it’s so exciting to be able to bring another fantastic person, who will become his own person in the presidency. The role takes everything you have to give to it.”
Cannon will return to a faculty position at the university’s Schulich School of Engineering at the end of her term, according to Wyatt. Cannon called her successor “a true visionary.”
“I feel really good to be able to hand the baton over to someone with Ed’s calibre, with his passion energy and vision. I can finish my time here at the University of Calgary as president knowing the institution’s in great hands,” she said.
“There couldn’t have been a better choice. Ed’s been a critical part of the team that’s helped build the University of Calgary into what it is today.”
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT McCAULEY
Originally from Ottawa, McCauley earned a BSc and MSc from the University of Ottawa and a PhD from McGill University; McCauley first joined the U of C in 1985, serving as a biological sciences professor; In 2009, he relocated to the University of California, Santa Barbara to serve as ecology and evolutionary biology professor, and director of the National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis; He has been U of C’s vice-president (research) since July 1, 2011; McCauley is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a former Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Population Ecology; He has held visiting international professorships in Germany, Sweden, Norway, the U.K. and France; He was a founding co-director of the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Water Research; McCauley has served on several national boards, including Mitacs, TRIUMF, the Pacific Institute for Mathematic Sciences and Compute Canada.