John Knubley — 2026 Testimonial Dinner Award Honouree

Register now to join us at the 2026 Testimonial Dinner in Toronto, where we will be celebrating John Knubley, Arlene Dickinson and other exceptional Canadian honourees. 

Think of him as a policy whisperer who prefers to remain in the background, promoting collaboration between government and business.  

“My personality is one where I want to get things done, and I want to do it quietly behind the scenes,” explains John Knubley when asked why he never ran for elected office, despite being asked, and focused most of his career on his role as a senior public executive. 

 “Implementation is very important to me … I always saw [it] almost from a democratic principle, and I’ve prided myself in being able to adapt to the different agendas of various ministers and various governments.” 

Among his positions in the federal government, he was Deputy Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED Canada); Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food; Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs at the Privy Council Office; Associate Deputy Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities; as well as Associate Deputy Minister of Natural Resources. He also served as Vice-President (Nova Scotia) of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA).  

After stepping down from government in 2019, Knubley founded InnovAction, a consulting firm providing strategic counsel to organizations across a variety of activities related to innovation, R&D, sustainability, foreign investment, merger review and regulatory matters.  

“I’ve been in both places now,” he says of being inside and outside government. “And I have an opportunity to really help business and government. One thing I’ve learned is that while governments think they understand business, and business thinks they understand government, there’s a huge gap there, and there’s almost an issue about explaining to each side what it is the other is trying to accomplish. So I feel like it’s a very good place to help.” 

Born in Montreal, he grew up as one of three children with dual influences from his businessman father and his mother, a professional artist. With degrees from Yale, Oxford and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government as well as a post-graduate diploma from the Institut Européen des Hautes Études Internationales in France, he was considering a business career. But in the early 1980s, by “somewhat happenstance,” an opportunity to work alongside well-known economist David W. Slater, then president of the Economic Council of Canada in Ottawa, took him on a different path.  

“I think that the way I approach leadership is somewhat the way a jazz person thinks — you play the theme, you set out the way things are in a framework, and then you improvise.” 

Knubley went on to manage and lead some of the country’s most complex and strategic policy files. He implemented key innovative programs, including the Building Canada Plan, then the largest federal infrastructure investment program in Canadian history in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis; the development of Bill C-18, the Marketing Freedom Act, which restructured the Canadian Wheat Board; and the Innovation and Skills Plan.  

A signature policy “experiment” he led while at ISED Canada was the creation of eight Superclusters across the country.  “We were experimenting on how to bring business to be the lead on projects, and to be investing equally if not more than government,” he explains.  

Trained as a pianist in classical and jazz music, Knubley draws a parallel between musical improvisation and his leadership style. “I love Bach, and I love jazz. Bach, when he played, he improvised. I actually think that the way I approach leadership is somewhat the way a jazz person thinks about a piece [of music]. Which is that you play the theme, you set out the way things are in a framework, and then you improvise and you use some instinct to do that.” 

This interest in creativity “doesn’t mean you don’t understand the traditional economics or traditional governance issues related to political science. It’s just that it does encourage you to look beyond those options.”  

Unflappability is also part of his leadership style, especially now as a consultant helping companies faced with the geopolitics of Donald Trump. “In the midst of uncertainty, I bring a calmness.” 

That said, he admits to having moments of worry — and even some sleepless nights — over the economic turmoil in the country.  

“Canada needs partnerships with Europe, Southeast Asia, India and needs to stabilize its relationship to China,” he says. “We need to be way more ambitious and action-oriented than in the past. And I’d have to say that what I worry about most is that we’re not being ambitious enough and we aren’t thinking of new ways of doing things. I worry that a lot of the ideas that are being put out there are the same old ideas that we’ve talked about for many years.” 

Knubley, who is a corporate director for many organizations as well as a senior advisor to Fratton Park and FGSLongview Communications, was involved in the NAFTA and CUSMA negotiations and understands the challenges the Carney government encounters with President Trump. “It is a masterclass in negotiations. You can’t get stuck in one commitment or to one process. One of the great opportunities and challenges for Canadians, whether you’re a politician or a public servant or even a businessperson, is your ability to be agile and be ready to move where you can actually make things work.”  

 At times, he acknowledges feeling “a little itch” to be back in government but he is enjoying his consulting work and is optimistic about the country’s future.   

“Canada was founded when the relationship with the U.S. fell apart and John A. MacDonald had to create a country in the face of this. After WWII was also another period where there was a lot of agility and new directions taken,” he says.

“A crisis creates new opportunities. And we’ve done it before. So let’s get going.”