Patrick Johnston
Senior Fellow at the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation.
Contributor Biography
Mr. Johnston has spent most of his professional life in leadership positions in Canada’s voluntary and philanthropic sectors.He joined the Walter & Duncan Gordon foundation as President and CEO in 2002. He is now a Senior Fellow there.
From 1995-2002, he was President and CEO of the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy, a national, membership organization serving the interests of Canadian charities and foundations. He also worked as Executive Director of the National Anti- Poverty Organization from 1982–1986 and the Canadian Council on Social Development from 1991-1994. Both are social policy research and advocacy organizations based in Ottawa. He began his professional career working at the community level in Richmond, B.C. as Executive Director of the Richmond Youth Service Agency.
In addition, he has had extensive Board governance experience at the community, national and international level. In Canada, he has served as a Board member of organizations as diverse as the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Big Sisters of Greater Vancouver, Canada World Youth, the United Way of Canada and the Weiler Award Trust. Internationally, he served on the Board of the Council on Foundations based in Washington and the Johannesburg based organization, CIVICUS, which he chaired for almost 3 years.
His current governance commitments include membership on the Board of Philanthropic Foundations Canada, the Board of Vartana, the International Committee of the Council on Foundations and the Appeals Committee of the United Way of Greater Toronto. He has also had a variety of experiences in the public sector.
From 1986-1988, he worked as senior policy advisor to the Social Assistance Review Committee appointed by the government of Ontario to review the province’s income security system. He also worked as senior policy advisor in the office of former Ontario Premier, David Peterson, in 1989-1990. And, from 1994-1995, he was a special advisor to the Deputy Minister of Human Resources Development Canada and Executive Coordinator of the Task Force on Social Security Reform chaired by the Minister, Lloyd Axworthy.
He has undergraduate degrees in political science and education from York University and Queen’s University respectively. He also holds an MSW in social policy, planning and administration from the University of Toronto.
