Dr. Elizabeth Cannon is president emerita of the University of Calgary after serving as president and vice chancellor from 2010 until 2018. A champion for advancing the mission of the university and fostering excellence in higher education, she led the development of the university’s transformational Eyes High strategy and its $1.3 billion energize campaign through a focus on impact and a strong institutional culture. Prior to her term as president, Dr. Cannon was dean of the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Cannon is currently a corporate director in companies in the energy, technology, real estate and corporate ventures sectors, and is seed-stage investor, particularly in female-founded companies. She has been a leader in science, technology and higher education policy through numerous boards, committees and panels. She served as co-chair of the Business-Higher Education Roundtable, chair of Universities Canada, member of the federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development’s Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC) as well as being a member of the Expert Panel on Federal Government Science in 2014. She chaired the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on the labour market transition of PhD graduates in Canada, and also chaired the federal government’s Strategic Science Fund (SSF) expert panel. Dr. Cannon has been a member of numerous international committees and boards including NASA’s National Space-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board. Currently, Dr. Cannon is a member of the Board of Trustees the Aga Khan University, the Strategic Advisory Board of the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), and a Director of the Gairdner Foundation and the Rideau Hall Foundation, in addition to crown corporations in the economic development and investment areas.

In 2019, Dr. Cannon received the Peter Lougheed Award for Leadership from the Public Policy Forum for her contributions to public policy in Canada. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Academy of Engineering as well as an elected foreign associate of the US National Academy of Engineering and the Mexican Academy of Engineering. In 1998, Dr. Cannon was selected as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 and in 2006 was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network. In 2019, she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2021 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Axis Connects Calgary Influential Women in Business Awards. In 2022, Dr. Cannon was awarded the Alberta Order of Excellence and was inducted into the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame – Southern Alberta. She has received honorary degrees from the University of Ottawa, Acadia University, the Université de Montréal, SAIT and the University of Toronto.

An expert in geomatics engineering and a Professional Engineer, Dr. Cannon’s research has been on the forefront of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) since 1984 in both industrial and academic environments, and she has commercialized technology to over 200 agencies worldwide. Dr. Cannon’s work has been recognized with many national and international honours including the Johannes Kepler Award from the U.S. Institute of Navigation, an NSERC Steacie Award and the Gold Medal Award from Engineers Canada. From 1997-2002, Dr. Cannon was the NSERC/Petro-Canada Chair for Women in Science and Engineering of the Prairie Region.

Dr. Cannon is the author of Enhancing Your Higher Education Presidency: Fifteen Lessons on Leadership and co-author of Strategic University Management: Future-Proofing Your Institution.