K. George Pedersen, Canada
George Pedersen is former chancellor of the University of Northern British Columbia and former president of the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Pedersen has served as president of the University of British Columbia; founding president of Royal Roads University in Victoria and of Simon Fraser University; and the interim president of the University of Northern British Columbia. He has held teaching and administrative posts at the University of Toronto, the University of Chicago, and the University of Victoria. He has held the positions of board member and president of the Canadian Club of Vancouver, chair of both the Council of Ontario Universities and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, served twice on the executive board of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, and twice as vice president (Canada) for the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education. In June 2000, Dr. Pedersen was elected chair of the board of the Bill Reid Foundation. Dr. Pedersen holds an M.A. in geography and administration from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in the economics of education from the University of Chicago. He is an alumnus of several Universities Project symposia, and has participated in consultant visits by Visiting Advisors Program teams to the Russian Federation.