John Knubley

John Knubley is a member of the board of ITIF's Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness.

Knubley is a consultant, corporate director, and former deputy minister in the Government of Canada. He is also a senior advisor to FGS Longview Communications and Boston Consulting Group.

From 2012 to 2019, John served as the deputy minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED Canada). During this time, he led and implemented the Innovation and Skills Plan.

Prior to ISED Canada, John was 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. John’s career in public service included time at the Economic Council of Canada and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

In 2020, John founded InnovAction Advisory Services. InnovAction provides strategic counsel to organizations across a variety of activities relating to innovation, R&D, sustainability, foreign investment, merger review and regulatory matters. He has experience in working with a wide range of sectors and CEOs.

John holds a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, a Master’s of Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He also received a post-graduate diploma in Nice, France, from the Institut Européen des Hautes Études Internationales.

He serves as a director of the Ontario Energy Board, the Asia-Pacific Foundation, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, Genome Atlantic, COVE (Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship) and the Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness. He is a senior fellow of the Brookfield and C.D. Howe Institutes.