David Wilson spent most of his career in the financial services industry. From 1968 until 2005, he was involved in various banking activities while employed by the Toronto-Dominion Bank, Dominion Securities Corporation and the Bank of Nova Scotia. When he left Scotiabank in 2005, he was Vice Chair with responsibility for overseeing and leading the global wholesale activities of the bank. In 2005, he was appointed by the Government of Ontario as Chair and CEO of its crown agency, the Ontario Securities Commission, for a five year term.
During the past 40 years, he has been involved in a number of corporate boards and community organizations. He was a director of Rogers Communications Inc. for 26 years. He was on the board of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) for nine years and Board Chair at the GTAA for four years. He has been a director/trustee of the following not-for-profit entities: The United Way of Greater Toronto, the National Ballet of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario. He was a member of the Governing Council at the University of Toronto for nine years during which period he chaired the U of T’s Presidential Search Committee and the U of T’s Business Board. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) for nine years and Chair of that board for three years. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the CAMH Foundation since 2017.
David was raised in Toronto. He was educated at the University of Toronto (B.Comm. 1968) and York University (MBA 1970). He has been married to Shelagh Higgins Wilson since 1969. They have three daughters. He and his family have lived in Toronto except for five years spent in Vancouver from 1979 until 1984.