Charles Kelly
Commissioner General, the World Urban Forum III

Charles Kelly was appointed by the Government of Canada to be the Commissioner General of the Secretariat for World Urban Forum III, a UN Human Settlements Programme (HABITAT) event to be hosted by Canada, June 19-23, 2006, in Vancouver. Mr. Kelly was involved in the first UN HABITAT in 1976, also in Vancouver, as the Executive Assistant to the President of the UN Conference on Human Settlements, and Executive Assistant to the Canadian Minister of Urban Affairs and Housing.

Charles Kelly is a businessman who has maintained a national and international consulting practice with a concentration on public policy issues for twenty-eight years. His business interests have included commercial real estate, entertainment, publishing and technology investments. For sixteen years, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vista Strategic Management Inc. with offices in Vancouver and Ottawa.

Mr. Kelly served as Chairman of the Cascadia Institute, a not-for-profit research organization which analyses cross-border issues between B.C., Washington, Oregon and Alaska. He has served as Secretary to the B.C.-Washington Corridor Task Force, established by the Governor of Washington and Premier of British Columbia.

Mr. Kelly also served as a Director of the Can/Am Border Trade Alliance and as a Director and member of the Executive Committee of the North American Institute (a tri-national non-profit organization that promotes teamwork and cooperation for development of the emerging North American agenda, headquartered in Sante Fe, New Mexico). He also served as a member of the Board of the Alliance for Higher Education and Enterprise in North America.