Summary
Throughout his impressive 40-year career at BMO Financial Group, Gilles has led the significant expansion of BMO’s wealth business and built its reputation for excellence, customer centricity and innovation. As Chairman of BMO Global Asset Management since August 2019, he leads the 10 boards in place across BMO’s asset management business, which offers investment products and solutions to institutional, retail and high net worth investors from more than 20 offices around the world.
Gilles entered the investment industry in 1979 after teaching investment management at the University of Western Ontario and owning a small business. He built a successful career as an Investment Executive at Burns Fry Limited and then assumed progressively senior roles leading to his appointment as Executive Vice-President in 1993. Following the 1994 merger of Nesbitt Thomson and Burns Fry, Gilles assumed increasing responsibilities within BMO’s wealth management business. In 2001, he was appointed Group Head, Wealth Management.
In 2015, Gilles was appointed Group Head, BMO Asset Management, and Vice-Chair, International, where he defined strategic goals to maximize customer and shareholder value for the bank and ensured the appropriate governance and risk management frameworks were well embedded to mitigate risk.
Gilles has also served on several influential boards in the financial industry and in his community, including the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the C.D. Howe Institute. He currently serves on the advisory board of the Richard Ivey School of Business and is a Director Emeritus of the Art Gallery of Ontario Board of Trustees.
Gilles holds an undergraduate degree and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario.