Jacques Frémont is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ottawa. In 2013, Quebec’s legislative assembly appointed him to chair the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission. Prior to this appointment, he worked at the Open Society Foundations, in New York, as Director of the International Higher Education Support Program.

Mr. Frémont was formerly at the University of Montreal, where he was Dean of the School of Law, as well as Provost and Vice-Rector (Academic Affairs) until 2010. He has also been a visiting professor at many Quebec, Canadian, European and Asian universities, and is the author of several books, articles and book chapters on constitutional law and public law. In 2012, he was named professor emeritus of the University of Montreal.

Throughout his career, Mr. Frémont has advised various international organizations on issues involving human rights, good governance and democracy, and has directed major international cooperation projects in the fields of human rights and judicial training. He has also been very active in higher education in Canada and abroad.

Mr. Frémont is a graduate of Laval University, in Quebec City, and pursued graduate studies at York University in Toronto. He has been awarded prizes and honours, including being named to the Order of the French Academic Palms in 2009 and receiving an honorary doctorate from Paul Cézanne University in Aix-en-Provence in 2010.

The President is the Chief Executive Officer of the University. In this capacity he or she supervises and directs the University’s academic mission and its general administration. The President recommends to the Board of Governors or its Executive Committee the appointment of the Vice-Presidents and other officers of the University, such as the Deans of faculties, and ensures that Board policies and directions are implemented by these officers. The President is simultaneously a member of the Board of Governors and Chair of the Senate, and is thus uniquely positioned to nurture a sound working relationship between the University’s two principal governing bodies. The President is also the University’s Vice-Chancellor, fulfilling the functions of the Chancellor in the case of absence or vacancy in the office of the latter.