Rahim Somani

Rahim (he/him) is a son, husband, father, and a transformational leader fostering compassion, innovation, creativity, excellence, and societal impact. He self-identifies as an Ismaili Muslim from South Asia and immigrated to Canada in 2017 and moved with his family to Prince George in 2020. Rahim has a bachelor’s degree in Commerce, a master’s degree in Educational Planning, Economics, and International Development, is a CPA, CA, and currently pursuing Doctor of Education (EdD) in Leadership and Innovation at the Arizona State University.
The fundamental premise of Rahim’s approach to leadership is transforming challenges into opportunities, effective people engagement with compassion, fostering innovation, creativity, and excellence. His transformational journey which started with the Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan in 1998 took a leap of faith in 2008 joining the leadership team of the University of Central Asia to setup a multi-campus development university established through an international Treaty with operations across Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Afghanistan. Over the last two decades, Rahim played an integral role in setting up, leading, and managing people, programs, and institutions with an aim to develop ethical, responsible, and compassionate citizens through innovation in, and relevance of teaching and research, addressing gender disparity in education and enabling socio-economic development of the communities. The journey has evolved to Canada with his appointment as the Vice President, Finance and Administration at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC).
Rahim believes that libraries can play an important role in positively engaging all members of the community and improving their quality of life and is looking forward to making his humble contribution through the Prince George Public Library. In addition, Rahim serves as Director of the Prince George Community Foundation, United Way of Northern British Columbia, and the UNBC Land Development Corporation, and President and Director of the Northern Sport Centre Limited.
After serving communities in five countries across two continents, Rahim and his family are respectfully grateful for the opportunity to live, learn, and work on traditional unceded territory of the Lheidli T’enneh and opportunity to work with First Nations and Indigenous Communities as part of UNBC family.