The Honourable Paul Tellier PC CC |
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President and Chief Executive Officer of Bombardier Inc. | |
In office 2003–2004 |
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Succeeded by | Laurent Beaudoin |
10th President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian National Railway | |
In office 1992–2002 |
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Preceded by | Ronald E. Lawless |
Succeeded by | E. Hunter Harrison |
Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet | |
In office August 12, 1985 – June 30, 1992 |
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Prime Minister | Brian Mulroney |
Preceded by | Gordon Osbaldeston |
Succeeded by | Glen Shortliffe |
Deputy Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources | |
In office 1982–1985 |
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Minister |
Jean Chrétien Gerald Regan Pat Carney |
Preceded by | Marshall A. Cohen |
Succeeded by | de Montigny Marchand |
Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development | |
In office 1979–1982 |
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Minister |
Jake Epp John Munro |
Preceded by | Arthur Kroeger |
Succeeded by | Maurice Lafontaine |
Personal details | |
Born | 1939 (age 77–78) Joliette, Quebec |
Relations |
Sir Joseph-Mathias Tellier (grandfather) Louis Tellier (great-uncle) |
Parents | Maurice Tellier |
Alma mater |
Laval University Linacre College, Oxford |
Occupation | Businessman, civil servant, lawyer |
Paul Mathias Tellier, PC CC (born 1939) is a Canadian businessman and former public servant and lawyer.
Born in Joliette, Quebec, Tellier earned his undergraduate degree from Laval University and his law degree from the University of Oxford. He entered Canada's civil service in the 1970s and rose through the ranks of the federal bureaucracy through several high-profile deputy minister portfolios, culminating as the nation's top civil servant from August 12, 1985 to June 30, 1992, when he was appointed Clerk of the Privy Council, in the Privy Council Office of Canada, during Brian Mulroney's ministry. Mulroney reduced Tellier's role as Clerk between 1986 and 1989, when he appointed Dalton Camp as his personal Deputy Minister.
In 1992, he left the civil service and was appointed by Mulroney as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Crown corporation Canadian National Railway (CN). Tellier was a driving force behind the successful privatization of the company in 1995 and was widely seen as being the principal instigator behind CN's purchase of Illinois Central, which saw the company expand its focus from an exclusively east-west orientation into a north-south one. As such it was one of the first companies to reap the benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Following a failed bid to merge CN with BNSF Railway in 2000, Tellier oversaw the purchase and integration of Wisconsin Central. He also was responsible for hiring a management team that focused on making CN a "scheduled" freight railway, largely by promoting former Illinois Central president Hunter Harrison to a vice-president position at CN.