The University of Western Ontario lured Dr. Bridger away in 1995 to serve as Vice-President, Research. Alberta won him back in 2001 to become founding President and CEO of the new Alberta Heritage Foundation for Science and Engineering Research, known as the Alberta Ingenuity Fund. The foundation was established to expand Alberta’s capacity for science and engineering research by recruiting and retaining top researchers. Dr. Bridger set up a number of programs to achieve this goal, in keeping with Alberta Ingenuity’s motto, Relentlessly First Class, before he retired in 2004 for health reasons.