Biography

Image via @KimCampbell on Twitter

Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell was elected in 1993 as the first female Prime Minister of Canada, and only the second woman to sit at the table of G7 leaders.

Kim Campbell was born in 1947 in British Columbia, Canada. She studied at the University of British Columbia (BA, 1969, LLB, 1983) and the London School of Economics (Doctoral studies in Soviet Government, ABD, 1970-73) where she's an Honorary Fellow. Ms. Campbell taught political science for six years and practiced law for two years before turning her attention to a political career. 

She was appointed minister for Indian Affairs and Northern Development in 1989. A year later she became justice minister and attorney general. In 1993 she was appointed defense minister before selected for the prime minister office.  

From 1996-2000 she became a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Additionally, she served as the Canadian consul-general in Los Angeles from 1996-2000. From 2004 through 2006 Ms. Campbell served as Secretary General of the Club of Madrid. Ms. Campbell is a founding member and is still an active member. She additionally has served as its Acting President in 2002 and Vice President 2003-2004 and sat on the Board of Directors from 2007-2011.

In 2016, Ms. Campbell served as the chairperson of the Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments, a role that she reprised in the fall of 2017. She chaired the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy from 2008 to 2015 and was chair of the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL) from 1999-2003. 

From 2003 to 2005, Ms. Campbell served as President of the International Women's Forum, which advances leadership across careers, cultures, and continents by connecting the world's most preeminent women of significant and diverse achievement.

Today, Ms. Campbell devotes much of her time to serving as the Founding Principal of the new Peter Lougheed Leadership College at the University of Alberta, and she is a trustee of the Int'l Ctr for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King's College London. She is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, (the West Coast affiliate of the Council on Foreign Relations) as well as the Global Council of the Asia Society New York. She is on the advisory board of Equal Voice and Apathy is Boring, as well as an honorary patron of Informed Opinions. She is also a senior advisor to the International Crisis Group and an honorary board member of the Climate Action Reserve. Ms. Campbell is a member of the board for Athenex, a pharmaceutical company that had its IPO June 14, 2017 and trades under the ticker symbol "ATNX." Her corporate director experience also includes the high tech, biotech, and medical devices industries.

The 4th Edition of her best-selling political memoir Time and Chance was released in March of 2017.