Carol Loughrey

Carol Loughrey (BBA’70), OC, will be awarded an honorary doctorate of letters at the 196th Encaenia ceremony on the Fredericton campus on Wednesday, May 28, 2025.

Loughrey was the first woman to earn tenure in the faculty of business administration at UNB, achieving the positions of assistant dean and associate professor in 1986. She was the first woman to hold an academic administrative position in the faculty.

She was also the first woman in New Brunswick to qualify as a chartered accountant by examination. Loughrey later made history as the first female chair and CEO of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA), where she championed diversity in the profession.

In 1987, Premier Frank McKenna recruited Loughrey to the provincial civil service, where she became the first female comptroller in any Canadian province. She later served as New Brunswick’s first female deputy minister of education and continued as a deputy minister from 1996 to 2006. Throughout her time in government, she mentored women, helping many advance into senior leadership roles.

Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, she co-founded New Brunswick’s first breast cancer support group and later the New Brunswick Breast Cancer Network Inc.

As president of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Foundation, she helped establish the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Research Centre at UNB. She has served in leadership roles in many local, provincial and national non-profit organizations.

Since 2007, Loughrey has served as an outside director of the Margaret and Wallace McCain Family Foundation.

In 2005 she was named a Paul Harris Fellow and an Officer of the Order of Canada in the category of Industry/Commerce/Business. She was recognized with the Order of New Brunswick in 2015, and is the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden, Diamond and Platinum Jubilee Medals.