List of University of Ottawa people

This is a list of University of Ottawa people.

Notable people

Athletes and leaders in sports

• Caleb Agada (born 1994), Nigerian-Canadian basketball player in the Latvian-Estonian Basketball League and for the Nigerian national basketball team
• Bianca Borgella, para-athlete
• James Cartwright, Olympic athlete (kayak)
• Michael A. Chambers, former president of the Canadian Olympic Committee and Olympic Order recipient
• Sonia Denoncourt, association football referee
• Doug Falconer, CFL football player, film producer
• Julia Hanes, para-athlete
• Brianna Hennessy, para-canoeist
• Lou Lefaive, Canadian sports administrator and civil servant
• Trinity Lowthian, wheelchair fencer
• Neil Lumsden, CFL football player
• Sherraine MacKay, Olympic athlete (épée fencing)
• Silver Quilty, Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductee
• Margot Shore, association football player
• Brad Sinopoli, CFL football player
• Miranda Smith, association football player
• Charles Thiffault (born 1939), NHL ice hockey coach
• Ibrahim Tounkara, CFL football player
• Ousmane Tounkara, CFL football player

Business leaders

• France Chrétien, prominent lawyer and businesswoman; daughter of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
• André Desmarais, President and CEO of Power Corp. Canada
• Paul Desmarais, entrepreneur
• Daniel Lamarre, president and chief operating officer of Cirque du Soleil
• Chuck Rifici, Canadian entrepreneur, former CEO of Tweed Marijuana Inc, and former CFO of the Liberal Party of Canada.
• Sherrexcia Rolle, Bahamian attorney and VP of Operations & General Counsel of Western Air

Civil servants and public sector leaders

• Johanne Bélisle, former Commissioner of Patents, Registrar of Trademarks and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)
• Jocelyne Bourgon, Canadian representative to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); former Clerk of the Privy Council
• William J. S. Elliott, former commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• Robert John Giroux, university president
• Ahmed Hussen, Federal Cabinet Minister and President of the Canadian Somali Congress
• Christiane Ouimet, first Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada
• Sheridan Scott, Commissioner of Competition of the Competition Bureau
• Paul Tellier, former Clerk of the Privy Council

Journalists

• Aaron Badgley, music journalist and radio host
• Samantha Bee, host of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
• Scott Burnside, journalist and sportswriter
• Marcel Desjardins, political commentator and news director
• Pierre Dufault, journalist and sports commentator for Radio-Canada
• Mary Lou Finlay, journalist for the CBC
• Peter Jennings, journalist and news anchor for ABC News
• Lisa LaFlamme, journalist
• Alex Trebek, former broadcaster for CBC, host of the game show Jeopardy!

Jurists

• Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; former Supreme Court Justice
• Michel Bastarache, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
• Louise Charron, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
• Gérald Fauteux, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
• Louis LeBel, Justice of the Supreme Court
• Richard Wagner, Chief Justice of Canada

Musicians

• Joyce El-Khoury, opera singer
• Angela Hewitt, pianist
• Roch Voisine, singer-songwriter

Media personalities

• George Aryee, Director General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (1991–1992)
• Randall Dark, director, producer, and HDTV pioneer
• Erica Ehm, television personality and songwriter, former MuchMusic VJ
• Jeanette Jenkins, Hollywood fitness trainer, spokeswoman for BET's Television foundation, "A Healthy BET Campaign"
• Suzanne Pinel, children's entertainer (Marie-Soleil)
• Quddus, model, MTV VJ

Natural scientists and engineers

• Xiaoyi Bao, professor, Canada Research Chair in Fiber Optics and Photonics
• Robert W. Boyd, physicist, Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate in Quantum Nonlinear Optics
• Richard L'Abbé, engineer
• Timothy C. Lethbridge, professor of computer science and software engineering
• Yashpal Singh Malik, virologist
• Tuncer Őren, professor emeritus of computer science
• Tito Scaiano, professor of chemistry, photochemist
• Dafydd Williams, astronaut

Physicians and other health care professionals

• Mark Aubry, Chief Medical Officer of Hockey Canada, and the International Ice Hockey Federation
• Anna Baranowsky, clinical psychologist; founder and CEO of the Traumatology Institute
• Margaret Beznak, physiologist
• Walter Douglas Boyd, cardiothoracic surgeon and innovator, developed minimally invasive robotic cardiac surgery and cardiac regeneration procedures
• Dave Holmes, University Research Chair in Forensic Nursing; Editor-in-Chief of Aporia – the Nursing Journal
• Wilbert Joseph Keon, cardiovascular surgeon, first Canadian to implant an artificial heart in a human
• Padmaja Subbarao, respirologist and scientist in physiology and experimental medicine
• Philip Steven Wells, hematologist, developed the Wells risk score for pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis

Political leaders

• Philémon Yunji Yang, Former Cameroon Prime minister

Federal and international

• Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, former Prime Minister of Somalia
• Bernard Chidzero, former Finance Minister of Zimbabwe
• Ousainou Darboe, former Vice-President of the Gambia
• Greg Fergus, 38th Speaker of the House of Commons, Member of Parliament
• Salter Hayden, Senator and lawyer
• Rahim Jaffer, former Canadian Member of Parliament
• John Manley, former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
• Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada
• Gabriela Michetti, former Vice President of Argentina
• Sir Edward Morris, former Prime Minister of Newfoundland
• André Ouellet, former Minister and CEO and president of Canada Post
• Jean-Luc Pepin, politician, Cabinet minister
• John Richardson, Brigadier General in the Canadian Forces and Member of Parliament
• Pauline Rochefort, member of Parliament
• Allan Rock, former Minister of Justice, among other ministerial portfolios, Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, President of the University of Ottawa
• Hugh Segal, politician and Senator

Provincial & Territorial

• Howard Hampton, former leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party
• Dalton McGuinty, former Premier of Ontario
• Paul Okalik, first premier of Nunavut
• Michael Connolly, former MLA for Calgary-Hawkwood
• Bernard Drainville, MNA for Lévis
• David Piccini (born 1988), politician, Ontario’s Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training & Skills Development

Municipal

• Bob Chiarelli, former mayor of the City of Ottawa
• Mathieu Fleury, former Ottawa City Councillor for Rideau-Vanier
• Jean-Paul L'Allier, former mayor of Quebec City
• Gérald Tremblay, former mayor of Montreal

Social scientists

• Merridee Bujaki, manager of Accounting Studies
• Michel Chossudovsky, economist and author
• Dimitri Kitsikis, geopolitician
• Anna Koutsoyiannis, economist
• Joel Westheimer, American-born professor at the University of Ottawa

Visual artists

• Rhonda Abrams, classically trained painter and video artist
• Jean-Marc Carisse, photographer, author and recipient of Library and Archives Canada Scholar Award
• Philippe Falardeau, Oscar-nominated director

Writers and literature experts

• Angèle Bassolé-Ouédraogo, Ivoirian poet
• Michel Marc Bouchard, playwright
• Cyril Dabydeen, author and Professor of English
• Andrew Donskov, professor of modern languages, Tolstoy expert
• Faisal Kutty, lawyer, writer, human rights activist, academic teaching at Osgoode Hall Law School and at Valparaiso University
• Angela Narth, children's author
• Carol Shields, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer
• Kim Renders (BA in drama 1977), playwright, theatre director and actor; co-founder of Nightwood Theatre
• Christl Verduyn, professor of English Literature and Canadian Studies; recipient of the Governor General's International Award for Canadian Studies (2006)

Governor General's Literary Awards

• Michel Bock, professor of history, Governor General's literary award winner

Other

• Abdul Rahman Jabarah, alleged al-Qaeda member killed in 2003
• Ahmed Khadr, alleged by Canada and the United States of being a "senior associate" and financier of al-Qaeda killed in Afghanistan in 2003
• Denis Rancourt, former physics professor, scientist, academic dissident

Chancellors and presidents

List of chancellors

(1889–1965) University of Ottawa

• 1889–1909 Mgr Joseph-Thomas Duhamel
• 1911–1922 Mgr Charles-Hugues Gauthier
• 1922–1927 Mgr Joseph-Médard Émard
• 1928–1940 Mgr Joseph-Guillaume-Laurent Forbes
• 1940–1953 Mgr Alexandre Vachon
• 1953–1965 Mgr Marie-Joseph Lemieux, OP

(1965–present) University of Ottawa (reorganised)

• 1966–1973 The Right Honourable Pauline Vanier
• 1973–1979 The Right Honourable Gérald Fauteux
• 1979–1985 Gabrielle Léger
• 1985–1990 The Honourable Maurice Sauvé
• 1991–1993 Gordon F. Henderson
• 1994–2012 Huguette Labelle
• 2012–2015 The Right Honourable Michaelle Jean
• 2015–2022 Calin Rovinescu
• 2022–present: Claudette Commanda

List of presidents

(1848–1861) Le Collège de Bytown / The College of Bytown

• 1848–1849 Édouard Chevalier, OMI
• 1849–1850 Jean-François Allard, OMI
• 1850–1851 Napoléon Mignault, OMI
• 1851–1853 Augustin Gaudet, OMI
• 1853–1861 Joseph-Henri Tabaret, OMI

(1861–1889) Collège d'Ottawa / College of Ottawa

• 1861–1864 Joseph-Henri Tabaret, OMI
• 1864–1867 Timothy Ryan, OMI
• 1867–1874 Joseph-Henri Tabaret, OMI
• 1874–1877 Antoine Paillier, OMI
• 1877–1886 Joseph-Henri Tabaret, OMI
• 1886 Philémon Provost, OMI
• 1886–1887 Antoine Paillier, OMI
• 1887–1889 Jean-Marie Fayard, OMI

(1889–1965) Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa

• 1889–1898 James McGuckin, OMI
• 1898–1901 Henri-Antoine Constantineau, OMI
• 1901–1905 Joseph-Édouard Émery, OMI
• 1905–1911 William Murphy, OMI
• 1911–1914 Adrien-Bruno Roy, OMI
• 1914–1915 Henri Gervais, OMI
• 1915–1921 Louis Rhéaume, OMI
• 1921–1927 François-Xavier Marcotte, OMI
• 1927–1930 Uldéric Robert, OMI
• 1930–1936 Gilles Marchand, OMI
• 1936–1942 Joseph Hébert, OMI
• 1942–1946 Philippe Cornellier, OMI
• 1946–1952 Jean-Charles LaFramboise, OMI
• 1952–1958 Rodrigue Normandin, OMI
• 1958–1964 Henri-F. Légaré, OMI
• 1964–1965 Roger Guindon, OMI

(1965–present) Université d'Ottawa (nouvelle structure) / University of Ottawa (reorganised)

• 1965–1984 Roger Guindon, OMI
• 1984–1990 Antoine D'Iorio
• 1990–2001 Marcel Hamelin
• 2001–2008 Gilles G. Patry
• 2008–2017 Allan Rock
• 2017–2025 Jacques Frémont
• 2025–present Marie-Eve Sylvestre

References