As Senior Advisor, Clients and Industries, Claire Kennedy provides strategic advice, drawing on two decades of experience as one of Canada’s leading lawyers in tax and transfer pricing and as a seasoned corporate director.
Claire's director experience spans public company, Crown corporation and charity service, including as lead director of the Bank of Canada, the nation’s central bank. Claire's public company board experience includes service on companies listed on the TSX and NYSE. Currently, Claire is Chair of Neo Performance Materials Inc., a producer of rare earth products and metals essential for future facing technologies, and a director of Alamos Gold Inc., a North Americas focused gold producer and of Constellation Software Inc., a Canadian headquartered company that acquires and holds vertical market software (VMS) businesses.
Claire is a frequent speaker and moderator and moderates the presentation of the firm's flagship Economic Outlook report, authored by our Government Affairs and Public Policy group.
Claire received her ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors and has completed the Making Corporate Boards More Effective program and the Advanced Corporate Director Seminar at Harvard Business School and the Advanced Management Program at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. She is also a professional engineer and she was law clerk to the late Honourable Mr. Justice Charles D. Gonthier of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Claire was appointed to the University of Toronto's Governing Council in 2012 and served as Chair from 2017 until the conclusion of her term in 2021. She is a member of the Dean's Advisory Committee at Rotman and is past president of the Engineering Alumni Association and founder of the Disrupters & Dilemmas Series (formerly Biz Skule™). Claire received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Toronto in 2023. Claire is proud to co-chair the University of Toronto's Defy Gravity campaign.
In 2015, Claire received the Citizenship Award from the Professional Engineers of Ontario. In 2016, she participated in the True Patriot Love expedition to climb Vinson Massif, the highest peak in Antarctica, with a combined soldier and civilian team and raised record funds.
Bennett Jones