Heather Munroe-Blum

Dr. Heather Munroe-Blum (CASBS Class of 2013-14) is Chairperson of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and Principal (President) Emerita McGill University. She has served as a distinguished university leader and a senior contributor in the fields of psychiatric epidemiology, public policy and governance - an accomplished researcher, policy maker and businesswoman. She served as Vice-President, Research and International Relations, at the University of Toronto, and subsequently became the first woman to be appointed Principal and Vice-Chancellor (President) of McGill University, a position she held for over a decade. She has served on the boards of numerous publicly traded companies including Four Seasons Hotels, the Royal Bank of Canada, Alcan, and CGI Group, and, she serves and has served in leadership roles on a multitude of national and international commissions and task forces, special committees, and, boards in the science, innovation and broader public policy realms. She is currently Chairperson of the Gairdner Foundation, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation, Co-Founder of the McGill Neuro’s Tanenbaum Open Science Institute (TOSI) and Co-Chair of its Leaders’ Council, Advisor to the McGill University Health Centre Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (Mi4), and, Member of The Committee on the Future of Corporate Governance in Canada, the Advisory Board of Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), and, the Trilateral Commission.
Munroe-Blum is a graduate of McMaster University, Wilfrid Laurier University, and, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has been an influential advocate for educational, scientific and broader policy vehicles to advance population health, economic and social well-being. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada, Officer of the Order of Quebec, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and recipient of numerous national and international honorary degrees and awards. She is married to screenwriter and yogi, Len Blum, and is a proud mother and grandmother.