Mary Simon

Mary Simon is the President of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, an office to which she was elected in July 2006. A lifelong social justice advocate for Aboriginal rights, Simon was appointed by former Canadian Prime Minister Chrétien as the first Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1994, a post she held until 2003. From 1999 to 2001 she also served as the Canadian Ambassador to Denmark and as a member of NAFTA’s Commission on Environmental Cooperation Joint Public Advisory Committee, and as its chairperson from 1997 to 1998. Simon was also the Chancellor of Trent University between 1995 and 1999, and has been awarded a long list of honors, including the Order of Canada, National Order of Quebec, the Gold Order of Greenland, the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, and the Gold Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, among many others. She is a Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America and of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, and has received honorary law degrees from four distinguished universities. Simon is also the author of the book Inuit: One Arctic—One Future.