Gordon Nixon

Notable work and positions

BCE Inc. (Bell Canada) — Former Chairman of the Board (2016–2026)
Royal Bank of Canada — Former President and Chief Executive Officer (2001–2014)
Lead Director, George Weston Limited; Director, BlackRock Inc.

Biography

Gordon Melbourne Nixon, born January 25, 1957, served as president and CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada from 2001 to 2014, becoming, at age 44, the youngest person to head a major Canadian bank. He began his career in 1979 at Dominion Securities in Toronto, transferred to Tokyo in 1986 to lead the firm's Japan operations, and became CEO of RBC Capital Markets in 1999 before being named RBC's president in April 2001 and CEO that August, succeeding John Cleghorn. He joined the board of directors of BCE Inc. (Bell Canada) in 2014 and served as Chairman of the Board from 2016 until stepping down at the company's Annual General Meeting on May 7, 2026, after 12 years as a director; BCE director Louis Vachon was nominated to succeed him as chair. Nixon is lead director of George Weston Limited and a director of BlackRock Inc., where he chairs the Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee. He holds an honours Bachelor of Commerce from Queen's University (1979) and honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Queen's and Dalhousie University. He has received the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, and is an inductee of the Canadian Business Hall of Fame.