Thomas Paul d’Aquino
C.M., O.O., B.A., J.D., LL.M., LL.D.

Historical Background

Thomas d’Aquino is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, corporate director, educator, and #1 national bestselling author. He is Chairman of Thomas d’Aquino Capital and Chairman and Chief Executive of Intercounsel ^Ltd., a private venture development and strategic consulting company.

Mr. d’Aquino has extensive experience as a corporate director. He has served as a Director of Calgary-based Coril Holdings Ltd. and as the Lead Director of Canada’s largest technology provider company, Montreal-based CGI Group Inc. He also has served as a Director of Manulife Financial Corporation and his involvement in the financial services sector has included experience on the advisory boards of investment banks Schroders and Lazard.

Mr. d’Aquino’s business career spans over four decades. From 1972 to 1975, he worked with an international management consulting firm in London and Paris. He started his own business in 1975 winning strategic consulting mandates from a number of leading companies in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. From 1981 to 2009, he served as Chief Executive, President and member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), an organization composed of the chief executives of 150 of the country’s leading enterprises and pre-eminent entrepreneurs. Mr. d’Aquino assumed leadership of the Council in its formative stages when it was known as the Business Council on National Issues. Upon his retirement from the CCCE as of January 1, 2010, member companies accounted for $850 billion in annual revenues, $4.5 trillion in assets, and were responsible for the majority of Canada’s private sector exports, investment and training. In recognition of “his exemplary leadership”, he was named by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives Board of Directors, a Distinguished Lifetime Member. (Originally known as the Business Council on National Issues and subsequently the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, in 2016, the Council was renamed the Business Council of Canada.)

Acknowledged as one of Canada’s most influential thinkers and strategists, Mr. d’Aquino has chaulked up four decades of achievement in shaping fiscal, taxation, international trade, energy and environmental policies. Canadian historian, Jack Granatstein, lists Mr. d’Aquino as one of the one hundred most influential Canadians of the twentieth century. Canadian author Peter Newman in his 1998 book “Titans” describes Mr. d’Aquino as “the most powerful influence on public policy formation in Canadian history”.

Mr. d’Aquino serves as Canada Chair Emeritus of the North American Forum, the continent’s pre-eminent trilateral institution dedicated to advancing Canada, United States and Mexico cooperation in economic, trade, energy, environmental and security matters. From 2011 to 2015, Mr. d’Aquino served as Co-Chair of the Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum. The Forum convenes leaders from business, government, academe and the not-for-profit sectors to foster Australia-Canada cooperation in political, economic and security affairs.

Mr. d’Aquino serves as a member of an international advisory group assisting The Vatican with the Sports in the Service of Humanity Initiative being led by Pope Francis. The Initiative was marked by a highly acclaimed Summit at the Vatican in October 2016.

Mr. d’Aquino is one of the founders of the recently created Business Council of Alberta (BCA) and serves the Council as a Special Advisor.

In 2012, Mr. d’Aquino co-chaired a Canada Strategy for Emerging Markets project sponsored by the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, which produced an influential report titled “Winning in a Changing World: Canada and Emerging Markets”. He has served as Distinguished Visiting Professor, Global Business and Public Policy Strategies at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, and currently as Honorary Professor at Western University’s Richard Ivey School of Business. He also is a Distinguished Policy Fellow of The School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary.

Earlier in his career, Mr. d’Aquino served as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Canada, The Right Honourable Pierre Trudeau, and as Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa lecturing on the law of international trade and global business transactions. He also worked with two of Canada’s leading law firms, as Special Counsel and Senior Counsel. He is acknowledged as one of the private sector leaders in advancing the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mr. d’Aquino organized the first-ever APEC CEO Summit held in Vancouver in 1997 and served as Co-Chairman. As head of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, he led the first Canadian CEO Missions to China and India and remains active in Asia Pacific affairs.

An active supporter of the arts, Mr. d’Aquino served as Chair of the National Gallery of Canada Foundation from 2002 to 2019. He is now the Foundation’s Chair Emeritus and Chair of its Emeritus Board. He is the Founder and Chair of the Gallery Foundation’s Distinguished Patrons and in 2017 he led in the creation of the Gallery Foundation’s first and highly successful Art for the Nation Summit. Currently, he serves as Co-Chair of the Jean-Paul Riopelle Centenary initiative aimed at celebrating the artist’s national and international legacy.

Born in Trail, British Columbia and raised and educated in nearby Nelson, Mr. d’Aquino attended the Universities of British Columbia, Queen’s and London (University College and the London School of Economics). He holds B.A., J.D. (LL.B.), and LL.M. degrees, and an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from Queen’s, Wilfrid Laurier and Western Universities.

He is the author of numerous publications including the influential book Northern Edge: How Canadians Can Triumph in the Global Economy. Mr. d’Aquino has addressed audiences in forty countries and in over one hundred cities worldwide. In February 2023, his new book, Private Power ~ Public Purpose: Adventures in Business, Politics and the Arts was published by Penguin Random House and it immediately vaulted to #1 national besteller.

Mr. d’Aquino is the recipient of numerous honours including the Order of Canada, the Order of Ottawa and the Queen Elizabeth II Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals for service to Canada. He also was named a Knight Commander (Commendatore) by the President of Italy and was awarded Mexico’s highest foreign honour, the Aguila Azteca by the President of Mexico. He and his wife Susan Peterson d’Aquino live in the Heritage Village of Rockcliffe Park in Ottawa where he was the Founding President of the Village Foundation. In 2018, their residence designed and built by architect Hart Massey was designated a National Historic Site by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.