Thomas d'Aquino

Thomas d'Aquino is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, corporate director, author and educator. He is Chairman of Thomas d’Aquino Capital and Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive of Intercounsel Ltd., a private venture and strategic consulting company.

He currently serves as Chair of the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, as Canada Co-Chair of the North American Forum and as Honorary Professor at the Ivey School of Business, Western University, London, Ontario.

Mr. d’Aquino was born in Trail, British Columbia and was raised and educated in nearby Nelson at Hume, Trafalgar and L.V. Rogers Schools. He later 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 University, Wilfrid Laurier University and from Western University. For more than three decades he was an active member of the British Columbia Law Society. Mr. d’Aquino’s student work experience included employment in his native province’s forestry, mining, fisheries and railroad sectors.

Mr. d’Aquino’s career combines experience in government, business, and law. From 1968-1969, he was Executive Assistant to federal Cabinet minister, The Honourable James Richardson. From 1969-1972, he was Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Canada, The Right Honourable Pierre Trudeau. From 1972-1975, he was associated with an international management consulting firm in London and Paris where he worked on strategic business problems. In 1976, Mr. d’Aquino founded Intercounsel Ltd., a private venture development and strategic consulting company focusing on the banking, energy, communications and technology sectors. In his capacity as Intercounsel’s Chief Executive, he acted as a strategic advisor to companies based in Canada, the United States, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan and Hong Kong.

From 1976 to 1982, he was a Professor Adjunct of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa where he lectured on the law of international business transactions, trade and the regulation of multinational enterprise. From 1987 to 1990, Mr. d’Aquino also served as Special Counsel to McCarthy & McCarthy, a leading Canadian law firm with offices in Canada and internationally. A specialist on international trade, he is acknowledged as one of the private sector architects of the Canada-United States free trade initiative and of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

From 1981 to 2009, Mr. d’Aquino was Chief Executive and President 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 (BCNI). Upon his retirement from the CCCE as of December 31, 2009, member companies accounted for $850 billion in annual revenues, $4.5 trillion in assets, and 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. (As of January 2016, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives has been renamed the Business Council of Canada.)

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