Private Power, Public Purpose

THOMAS D’AQUINO is an entrepreneur, corporate director, author, educator, and philanthropist. His business career spans over four decades. After starting his own business in 1975, he led the Business Council of Canada, the country’s most influential business organization, formerly the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. An adjunct professor of law, he taught international business at the University of Ottawa law school and during his career worked with two of Canada’s leading law firms. As a corporate director, he served on the boards of two of Canada’s most successful global enterprises -Manulife Financial and CGI and as a director of a leading private family enterprise with world-wide operations. A governor of various national arts organizations across Canada, Thomas d’Aquino is the chair emeritus of the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, an organization of which he is a founding director and which he chaired for 18 years. Educated at the universities of British Columbia, Queen’s and London, he is a member of the Order of Canada, the Order of Ottawa and recipient of honorary doctor of laws degrees from Queen’s, Wilfred Laurier and Western universities. He and his wife Susan live in a house designated as a National Historic Site in Rockcliffe Park, Ottawa.