Role of the Chair of the Board
The Chair of the Board of Governors is president of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, presiding officer of the Board of Governors, and a Board of Governors' representative on Senate and may call joint meetings of the Board of Governors and Senate. [Source: Statutes, section 2.2]​
Biography
Mr. Fred Headon
Member at-Large Term: July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2030
Chair of the Board Term: July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2030
Mr. Fred Headon was appointed as a member-at-large of ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ’s Board of Governors in July 2020. He has served as a member of the Executive Committee and the Nominating, Governance and Ethics Committee since 2022, and as Chair of the Nominating, Governance and Ethics Committee from July 2024 to June 2026. He previously served as Chair of the Human Resources Committee. In his role as Chair of the Board of Governors, he is an ex-officio member of all Board Committees.
Mr. Headon is Vice-President and General Counsel, Labour and Employment and Litigation, at Montreal-based Air Canada, and is a Course Lecturer in ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ’s Faculty of Law. At Air Canada, he leads a team responsible for labour and employment law, including administrative law, human rights, privacy, workplace health and safety matters, and litigation involving a broad range of issues.
Mr. Headon earned his LL.B. and B.C.L. degrees from ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ in 1996 and his B.A. from the University of Winnipeg in 1992. He has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 1997 and was awarded the distinction of Avocat émérite by the Barreau du Québec.
He has served the Canadian Bar Association in a number of capacities, including as its National President from 2013 to 2014. His work with the Canadian Bar Association, and in particular the Legal Futures Initiative, which he chaired, was cited by Canadian Lawyer magazine when it included him in its 2013 and 2015 lists of Canada’s 25 most influential lawyers.
Mr. Headon serves as a Director of Finchley Pharmaceuticals Inc. and volunteers with a number of community organizations. He is a past member of the Young Alumni Association of the Faculty of Law and has served on the Faculty of Law Advisory Board. Prior to joining Air Canada, he worked in private practice in Montreal in the areas of labour, employment, human rights, privacy and administrative law, as well as civil litigation. He has also taught at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Rwanda.