Wendelin Fraser

Wendelin Ann Fraser (born May 13, 1954) is a Canadian educator, community builder, and academic administrator. She is currently the Progressive Conservative candidate for Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Calgary-Fish Creek in the 2012 Alberta provincial election. Most recently, she held the position of Dean of the Bissett School of Business at Mount Royal University in Calgary, building upon a career in university administration and leadership across Canada. She resides in the community of Parkland in Calgary, Alberta.
Biography
Wendelin Fraser was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan. Her parents, Murray and Ruth, still live in Regina, where her father worked as a pediatric surgeon. The eldest of three children, Fraser discovered music at an early age and began teaching music at age 15 at Sharon Jensen’s Academy of Music. Fraser received her BA from the University of Saskatchewan and her MBA from Simon Fraser University.
Fraser held leadership roles in five western universities over the past 30 years, beginning with the Canadian Plains Research Center at the University of Regina. She then joined the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Winnipeg. During her 11 years at Simon Fraser University, Ms. Fraser held several positions, including Director, Business Programs, Harbour Centre Campus as well as joint positions as Director for the Council for North American Business Studies and Executive Director for the Scotiabank Resource Centre for Women Entrepreneurs. Fraser served as Dean, Business and Administrative Studies at the BC Open University prior to her appointment in August 2000 as Dean of the School for Business at Mount Royal College (which became Mount Royal University on September 3, 2009).
Fraser’s leadership at Mount Royal has helped to generate significant growth and development including several new business programs, doubling the student body and faculty complement, and the construction of a new building for the School of Business. During her 11-year tenure as dean of Mount Royal’s business school, David Bissett, and his wife Leslie, contributed three separate donations to the business school for a total of $17 million, the most recent gift offered in April 2011. In 2002, the first Bissett donation of $5 million was at the time the largest single donation to a Canadian college or technical institute. This generous first contribution was recognized through the renaming of the business school to the Bissett School of Business. Fraser was also instrumental in the Bissett School of Business assuming responsibility for a national Institute of Non-Profit Studies and the creation of the new Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. In September 2008, the Bachelor of Business Administration degree was launched. On March 11, 2011, Fraser and Mount Royal University President David Marshall accepted $1.1 million from RBC for a student focused Learning Lab for the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Awards
Over the course of her career, Fraser has been recognized for her professional achievements and community contributions. In 2004, Fraser was named Mount Royal's Distinguished Manager of the Year, as well as Most Supportive Dean of the Year at the National Conference of Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE). The Mount Royal Student Association presented her with an Excellence Award in 2005, and the Calgary Chamber of Commerce presented her with its Volunteer of the Year award in 2006. In 2009, Fraser received the Canadian Forces Liaison Council’s National Employer Support Award, presented to her by Lieutenant-Governor Norman Kwong during a ceremony at Government House in Edmonton.
Boards and committees
Fraser’s community service has been prodigious with leadership involvement in areas as diverse as business and economic development, poverty reduction, arts, and child and youth care. She is a member of Calgary United Way’s Poverty to Possibility Committee, and she previously served as Chair of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce’s Education and Training Committee and Career Show. Fraser was a Founding Member and Chair of Winnipeg’s Artspace and served as Chair of Prairie Publisher’s Group. She has been a member of the Association of Canadian College Schools of Business, Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta, Junior Achievement National Board, Government House Foundation (Alberta Chapter), Leadership Vancouver, Design Vancouver, Social Science Federation of Canada, Association of Canadian Publishers, Western Canadian Pictorial Index, Woodsworth House Historical Society, and the Canadian Periodical Publishers' Association.

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