Alan Shepard

Alan Shepard (born c. 1962) is a Canadian academic and the current and 11th president and vice-chancellor of Western University in London, Ontario, effective July 2019. He previously served as the president and vice-chancellor of Concordia University in Montreal.

Biography

Shepard was born in Iowa, and is a dual citizen of both Canada and the United States. He has a background in Early Modern English literature, and attended St. Olaf College and received a PhD in English from the University of Virginia.

Shepard served as the chair of the English department at Texas Christian University from 1998 to 2002. He moved to Canada in 2002, where he began working as a visiting research fellow at the University of Toronto.

Shepard was hired as an associate vice-president academic at University of Guelph in 2005. In 2007, Shepard became the provost and vice-president academic at Ryerson University, where he worked until 2012. At Ryerson, Shepard led the development of a business incubator called the Digital Media Zone.

In 2012, Shepard became the president and vice-chancellor of Concordia University in Montreal. His two predecessors, Judith Woodsworth and Claude Lajeunesse, were both removed midway through their terms due to scandals.

In November 2018, Shepard announced he would be leaving Concordia on 30 June 2019 to become the president and vice-chancellor of Western University in London, Ontario. In July 2019, Shepard replaced Amit Chakma to become the 11th president of Western.

Shepard has served on the board of directors at Universities Canada, Stratford Festival, and the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal. He is currently chair of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network.

Personal life

Shepard has two children with his partner Stephen Powell, an associate professor at Concordia University.