Congratulations alumnus and Mayor-elect, Naheed Nenshi

On the heels of Calgary’s highest municipal election voter turnout, Naheed Nenshi, BComm’93, was elected as Calgary’s new mayor.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi is Calgary’s first mayor to enter office as an alumnus of the U of C. Past mayor Alfred Duerr, who held office from 1989 to 2001, received his MBA from U of C near the end of his term in 2001.

During his time at U of C, Mayor Nenshi was president of the Students’ Union and he earned his BComm with distinction. Shauna Coffyne, BA’98, attended U of C at the same time as Mayor Nenshi and she’s now acting associate vice-president, University Relations at U of C. “Even as an undergraduate student, you knew he was ambitious and passionate,” she says. “You knew he was destined for big things.”

Mayor Nenshi also received a master’s degree in public policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and has stayed connected to U of C and the Haskayne School of Business as a speaker at campus events.

Before his election to office, Mayor-elect Nenshi was a tenured professor in nonprofit studies at the Bissett School of Business at Mount Royal University. He’s also worked as a non-profit entrepreneur, author and consultant and has been chair of the Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts and loaned his expertise to many community nonprofits around the city.

We congratulate and wish Mayor-elect Nenshi well as he takes office. We hope to sit down for an interview with him in the coming months and to feature the interview in the university’s flagship publication, U Magazine.

Three alumni were also elected as Aldermen in the election. Alderman Shane Keating, MEd'05, represents ward 12; Alderman Richard Pootmans, MBA'98, represents ward 6; and Alderman Gian-Carlo Carra, MEDes'05, represents ward 9.   

For more profiles on outstanding alumni, please visit www.ucalgary.ca/alumni