"Royal Roads is a 21st century university for working professionals."
Allan Cahoon, PhD, became President and Vice-Chancellor of Royal Roads University on April 2, 2007. He is the university’s third President and the former Vice-President, Research and International, at the University of Regina.
A respected professor of business and management for over three decades, Dr. Cahoon earned his BA and M.Sc. at Brigham Young University and his PhD at Syracuse University.
Dr. Cahoon joined the University of Calgary as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Management and, in 1979, became assistant dean where he was responsible for consolidating and expanding MBA programs. He was later appointed Chair, Management of Organizations and Human Resources, and held that position until 1989 when he was elected President of the University of Calgary faculty association. Dr. Cahoon served in that capacity for three years, implementing interest-based bargaining; negotiating the removal of censure; and resolving a major sexual harassment case.
In 1994, Dr. Cahoon was asked to head the newly-developed PhD program and became Director of Research in the Faculty of Management. While in that position, he played a leadership role in directing both the North American and the European Summer School for Advanced Management and the Canadian /Mexican and Canadian/Chilean Consortium of Schools of Administration and Business.
From 1996 to 1998, as Director, International Business Division at the University of Calgary, Dr. Cahoon was successful in developing a number of international business initiatives on behalf of the university and led – until 2001 – an $8 million cross-disciplinary M.Sc. program in energy and the environment offered at the Latin American Energy Organization’s headquarters in Quito, Ecuador.
In 2002, Dr. Cahoon moved to the University of Regina where he held the position of Vice-President, Research and International. He was also a professor of administration – specializing in executive development, organizational theory and building best-practise, high-performance teams. In 2006, Dr. Cahoon was appointed Acting President and served in that role until 2007 when he moved to Royal Roads University.
Internationally, Dr. Cahoon – whose second language is Spanish – has been a visiting professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He has also served as a visiting professor at the Monash Mount Eliza Management School in Australia; Yamaguchi University in Japan; and the International Management Center in Budapest, Hungary. As well, Dr. Cahoon has held teaching appointments at Simon Fraser University and Syracuse University. He is currently Adjunct Professor at the Hunan and Nankai Universities in China and Emeritus Professor at the University of Calgary.
Dr. Cahoon has served on the editorial boards of four journals; authored or co-authored over 40 articles; and has edited or contributed chapters to numerous books on organizational development. He has also presented more than 75 adjudicated conference papers throughout his academic career.
Named an outstanding academic by the Inter-American Organization of Higher Education in 1998 and a four-time winner of the Alberta Energy Award, Dr. Cahoon has a long history of professional and community service.
Currently, Dr. Cahoon is a member of the Order of BC Advisory Council, the United Way of Greater Victoria Cabinet Committee, the Greater Victoria Economic Development Commission (Business Victoria), the National Leadership Steering Committee, the Standing Advisory Committee on Educational Issues and Funding (Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada) and the Canadian Forces Liaison Council.
As President, Dr. Cahoon completed the Harvard University Seminar for New Presidents in 2007 and, in 2008, participated in the Oxford Round Table.
President's Annual AddressFive-Year Strategic Direction (2009)