Martha Piper

Dr Martha Cook Piper served as the 11th President of the University of British Columbia from 1997 to 2006 and was the Interim President and Vice Chancellor of The University of British Columbia from 2015-16.

Dr Piper has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Montreal, Shoppers Drug Mart, TransAlta Corporation and Grosvenor Americas Ltd.  She has also served as a board member of CARE Canada, the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, and the Canadian Stem Cell Foundation.   She was Chair of the Board of the National Institute of Nanotechnology and served as a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Dr Piper, received her BSc in Physical Therapy from the University of Michigan, her MA from the University of Connecticut, and her PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University.  The recipient of 17 honorary degrees, Dr Piper is an officer in the Order of Canada and a member of the Order of British Columbia and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2008.

Dr Piper is the co-author of Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first (2021).