ATHABASCA — When the Order in Council removing Nancy Laird as chair of the Athabasca University (AU) Board of Governors and replacing her with Byron Nelson was published May 25, it was a shock, and only slightly less so for Nelson.
In a June 1 interview with the Athabasca Advocate, Nelson, 50, said he only had three- or four-days' notice before Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides made the switch, but he is looking forward to taking on the role.
“I can't remember the exact date but definitely at least a few days,” he said, adding there had never been a discussion about Nelson taking on the role when Laird would have completed her term in August.
“No. Not on the radar.”
Nelson is a Calgary-based lawyer, practicing for 25 years, and the first of a five generation Alberta family to go to post-secondary school.
“I have a younger sister who also got a university degree, I’m just older so I got it first,” said Nelson. “And my father was the first ever in our family to have come off the farm and moved into Calgary.”
His practice is in corporate and commercial law and part of that includes being on various boards of companies and advising companies on board governance. Currently he is on the board of Food Banks Alberta, the southern Alberta board of Shriner’s Hospitals and sits on an international Shriners Hospitals committee as well as several sports related boards for his children and is looking forward to his latest role.
“I've been meeting with the board,” he said. “I haven't met everybody yet, but I've been sort of slowly working my way through.”
And he says he has not received any marching orders from Nicolaides.
“I don't have a direction from the minister,” Nelson said. “Clearly there has been some discussion about adding rural economic development into the scope of the university and its mission, I am assuming now; I don't know that that will be the direction I receive from the minister.”
He was in contact June 2 with Athabasca County Reeve Brian Hall and Town of Athabasca Mayor Rob Balay who both felt Nelson would be a good fit for the university.
“I did speak to chair Nelson this morning and our conversation, a lot of it emphasized the willingness of the community, the region, the lobby group, to support AU in achieving the mandate of the government,” Hall said in an interview. “It was a good conversation.”
Hall said the conversation also covered the success AU has achieved in the Athabasca region as well as all the talented people who have been brought to the area to work for the university.
“They've been able to recruit here in the past and so, my own view is that there's no reason that the physical location should be an impediment to the continued success of Athabasca University,” said Hall, who added he was “encouraged” by the conversation.
Balay felt the same after his own conversation with Nelson.
"I think he understands our community’s stance and the government’s stance on why AU needs to consider that part of their mandate and needs to be an economic driver for the community that they are home to," he said.
The Keep Athabasca in Athabasca University (KAAU) group however hasn't reached out just yet, not wanting to "overwhelm" Nelson said the group's president John Ollerenshaw.
"I think they made a really good choice," Ollerenshaw said. "I think he's going to be able to dig his way through this bureaucracy, really, this control."
Nelson does plan to visit the Athabasca campus at some point, but has not yet set a date.
“It's my intention to be up there pretty soon,” he said. “It's obviously a good time of the year to travel from Calgary to Athabasca.”
