Education: Unlike many of his predecessors at the National Research Council, Mr. McDougall is not a scientist. He doesn’t have a PhD or Master’s degree. He earned a BSc in civil engineering from the University of Alberta and completed several postgraduate courses in environmental engineering. He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineers.
Family: Mr. McDougall has been married to his second wife, Irene, for 15 years. The couple live in a newly built house near the University of Alberta in downtown Edmonton. They have four adult sons from their previous marriages. One owns a yoga studio, another runs a ski school, one is doing post-doctoral research in the United States and the fourth is in marketing for Cold-FX.
Career: Mr. McDougall began his career in the oil industry, worked for a while in the family’s real estate business and eventually founded his own consulting engineering firm. He later spent 12 years as president and CEO of the Alberta Research Council. From 1991 to 1997, he taught at the University of Alberta as chair in management for engineers. He’s also the founding chairman of Innoventures Canada.
Why he took the NRC job: “In Canadian terms, in innovation, this is as good as it gets. You have the biggest levers to pull, great infrastructure, lots of brilliant people and a mandate that says ‘Make a difference to the economy.’”
