Mark R. McQueen
Mark McQueen is a Canadian director of a venture fund, who has been appointed to high-profile positions of public trust related to transport.[1] In 2009, he was appointed chair of the Toronto Port Authority, and in 2014 he was appointed the chair of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority.
Mark McQueen | |
---|---|
Born | 1965 (age 54–55) |
Nationality | Canadian |
Other names | Mark R. McQueen |
Occupation | venture fund manager CIBC Innovation Banking Boss |
Known for | appointed to influential offices |
Family
He has 2 children, a boy born in 2006 and a girl born in 2004. Mark is married.
Early years
In 1982, when McQueen was just 16, Time published a photo he took of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, when they were on an official visit to Ottawa.[1]
In a 2009 profile in the Toronto Star, Linda Diebel noted that comments 21-year-old McQueen made from the floor during the 1986 convention that chose Brian Mulroney as the leader of Progressive Conservative Party had triggered an admiring reply from Mulroney, and had triggered coverage of McQueen in a column by Dalton Camp.[1]
Career
When Mulroney became Prime Minister, McQueen worked in the Prime Minister's Office, as Chief of Staff Hugh Segal's executive assistant.[1]
After leaving the PMO in 1993, Matthew Barrett, then the chair of the Bank of Montreal encouraged him to go into banking.[1] McQueen worked briefly as a teller, before joining the bank's fund management department. In 2000 he founded his own investment fund, Wellington Financial.[2]
In 2008 McQueen was appointed to the Toronto Port Authority.[3][4] On July 30, 2014, Lisa Raitt, Minister of Transport, appointed McQueen the chair of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, together with two other directors, and the authority's President and CEO.[5][6][7] While noting that McQueen and the other three appointees did have significant financial expertise, they noted that none of the appointees had ties to the Windsor region. Tom Mulcair, leader of the opposition in the Canadian Parliament, noted that three of the first four appointees were donors to the Conservative Party of Canada.[5]
Ed Arditti, of the online news site Windsor Square suggested McQueen's appointment was linked to the Mulroney administration's struggles with Matty Moroun, who owned the Ambassador Bridge, the original bridge over the Detroit River.[8] McQueen was replaced as chair of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority by former Liberal MPP Dwight Duncan on January 1, 2016.[9][10]
References
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Linda Diebel (2009-10-18). "Mark McQueen, czar of the Toronto waterfront". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
Things are going smoothly for Mark McQueen, venture capitalist, investment guru and Toronto Port Authority chair, as they always seem to do. At 44, his life is the perfect definition of luck as "preparation meets opportunity," and over a lunch of mussels and frites, he glows with good health, confidence and an air of satisfaction.
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"Mark R. McQueen". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
He has led Wellington’s growth from its inception as a $7 million fund in 2000 to its current $400 million investment program.
- "Toronto Port Authority". Government of Canada. Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
- Deloitte & Touche LLP (2009-03-06). "Financial Reports for 2008" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-02-15. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
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"HYPOCRISY ALERT: Mulroney-style patronage from Stephen Harper's Conservatives". New Democratic Party of Canada. 2014-07-31. Archived from the original on 2015-10-04. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
Mark McQueen as Chairperson of the Board of Directors, and Mr. William Graham and Mrs. Caroline Mulroney Lapham as Directors. All three are donors to the Conservative Party.
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Dave Battagello (2014-07-30). "DRIC bridge executive teams loaded with financial expertise, but nobody local". Windsor Star. Archived from the original on 2015-07-02.
The bridge authority will oversee the construction, operation and maintenance of the bridge. That includes preparing the sites and managing the procurement process to select a private-sector partner that will carry out the work. The authority will also set and collect tolls.
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Claire Brownell (2014-07-30). "Canada, U.S. form new agency to push forward on Detroit-Windsor crossing". Financial Post. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
The appointees to the Bridge Authority’s board are Michael Cautillo, Bridge Authority president and CEO; Mark McQueen, chairman of the board; William Graham, director; and Caroline Mulroney Lapham, director and daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney.
- Ed Arditti. "The Real Reason Behind The DRIC Boards Announcement". Windsor Square (Windsor). Archived from the original on 2015-09-11. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
Someone has quite a sense of humour within the Canadian Bureaucracy to make him Chair and a possible competitor with the Ambassador Bridge Company.
- "Duncan to lead Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority". Renew Canada. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
Mr. Duncan has served as interim chairperson of the WDBA since January 1, 2016, and the new appointment is for a five-year term.
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"Dwight Duncan named head of Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority". CBC News. 2016-12-14. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
Duncan was made interim leader on Jan. 1, replacing former chairman Mark McQueen.