Marilyn Thompson

Dr. Marilyn Thompson oversees the administration and long-term planning of all human resources, organizational and human development, and total compensation activities and programs across the University. She provides vision for university-wide initiatives and human resources leadership in service to Waterloo’s mission. A senior executive officer of the University, Dr. Thompson plays a key role in strategic planning and decisions affecting the employees of the university.

Before joining UWaterloo, Dr. Thompson was Vice President of the Eastern Regional Health Authority (NL) and Policy Director within Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. She has extensive executive and senior leadership experience in healthcare, government, education, and various business sectors. She has worked with many voluntary sector, community, professional and business companies and associations providing education, human resources and evaluation expertise. Marilyn holds a BN (MUN), MEd (Toronto) and PhD (Toronto).

Dr. Thompson was President of the St. John’s Board of Trade (2005) and the Newfoundland/Labrador Chambers of Commerce (2001-2004); and Chair of the Ireland Business Partnerships (2002-2004), an organization fostering government, business, and cultural linkages between Newfoundland/Labrador and the Republic of Ireland. She was named to the Strategic Partnership Initiative as a business leader, a forum to build consensus among business, labour and government on the major issues impacting the economy of Newfoundland/Labrador. She was instrumental in establishing a private sector angel investment partnership with the Greater Washington Initiative (DC) to increase trade and export opportunities between the two regions and is a founding member of the ocean biotechnology park collaboration with the Dublin, Galway and Waterford (Ireland) Chambers of Commerce to create a public-private partnership that would commercialize marine biotechnology products. She has been honoured with the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for her contribution to Canada and the communities of Newfoundland and Labrador.