Allan Cahoon

Allan Cahoon, PhD, University Professor and Past President, Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC. He became President and Vice-Chancellor of Royal Roads University in 2007 and served in that capacity until December 31, 2018. While on leave in 2019 he was a Visiting International Professor at ITSEM (Monterrey TEC), Mexico, and AVANS University of Applied Sciences, Breda Netherlands. He is currently a University Professor and President at Sofia University, California.

He is currently Past President, the Inter-American Organization of Higher Education (IOHE a Canadian-based organization of over 350 Universities in the Americas). He has established a series of strategic partnerships with leading Chinese state agencies (SAFEA, CYCIE, CEAIE), Maple Leaf Educational System (MLES), Concord College Sino Canadian, and appointed an Adjunct faculty or Visiting Professor at a variety of internationally recognized universities. In 2020 he was appointed Honorary President, Shanghai Lida University.

At Royal Roads University, Dr. Cahoon has served on the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way Victoria, the Advisory Council of the Order of BC, as President of the University Public Sector Employers’ Association (UPSEA), and as a member of the judge’s panel for the Premier’s Innovation and Excellence Awards for BC Public Services – 2015. He is a former member of the Research Universities Council of BC (RUCBC) and of Universities Canada and served as a member of its international Relations Committee. He is a founder of the LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Ed. He has been an advocate for establishing and supporting the Vancouver Island Presidents Post-Secondary Alliance and in establishing and supporting the South Island Prosperity Project (SIPP) and served on the District of Saanich’s Transportation and Environment Advisory Committee.

Dr. Cahoon has served on the editorial boards of four journals, authored or co-authored more than 40 articles, and edited or contributed chapters to numerous books on organizational development. He has presented more than 85 adjudicated conference papers throughout his academic career. He was named an outstanding academic by the Inter-American Organization of Higher Education in and is a successful federal research grant recipient. In May 2015, Maple Leaf Educational Systems awarded him its highest recognition, the Medal of Excellence and Honour.

Dr. Cahoon is an expert on international and cross-cultural negations, leadership, and post-secondary education. He recently provided the keynote presentation to the China Education Association for International Education (CEAIE) on international education and student mobility and Chaired the Institute on the Future of Leadership in the Post-Secondary Sector. In 2020 he was a keynote speaker at an International conference on the future of Higher Education, Post Covid-19, as well as an invited international presenter at a conference for SME service providers on the Changing Nature of Higher Education.