Giles Gherson serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Toronto Region Board of Trade, among North America's largest and most influential business organizations. In this role, Giles leads the Board's initiatives to strengthen and sustain business growth and competitiveness across the Toronto region, one of the fastest-growing metropolitan centres in North America.
Giles is dedicated to addressing the region’s most pressing challenges, including the widening productivity gap, the ongoing congestion crisis, and barriers to greater regional investment. At the same time, he champions Toronto’s vibrant growth and its role as a global leader in AI, data hubs and the diversity of its business sector. Under his leadership, the Board established the CEO-led Business Council of Toronto to tackle critical issues, with a strategic focus on Advanced Manufacturing, Climate and Energy Transition, the GTA West Economic Gateway, and the Financial Services sector.
Prior to joining the Board in 2022, Giles spent over 25 years in the private and public sector in progressively senior roles. He spent 15 years with the Province of Ontario, where he held multiple influential Deputy Minister roles – most extensively and recently as Deputy Minister, Economic Development. Previously, Giles has led the government’s economic growth and competitiveness policy, overseen the recent creation of two new agencies, Invest Ontario and IP Ontario, and worked to attract a wave of technology and manufacturing investments, including the retooling of the province’s auto sector for next generation battery electric vehicles. He previously sat on Ontario’s Advanced Manufacturing Council, working to boost the long-term competitiveness and resilience of this sector by attracting key investments and creating opportunities for businesses across the province.
Prior to his role in government, Giles worked as editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star, political editor of the National Post and editor of the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business. Giles is the immediate past President of the Board of Directors at the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, the country’s leading professional organization supporting excellence in the public sector.
