Paul Deegan

Paul Deegan is CEO of Deegan Public Strategies, a Toronto-based boutique agency specializing in public and government relations counsel.

From 2015 to 2018, he was Vice-President, Public and Government Affairs at Canadian National Railway Company. He had North American responsibility for CN’s relationships with governments at all levels as well as media relations, social media, corporate advertising, sponsorships and donations, community relations, and internal communications.

Mr. Deegan joined BMO Financial Group in 1996 as a policy adviser in the CEO’s office. From 2009 to 2015 – a period which included the global financial crisis and a transformative acquisition by BMO – he was Vice-President, Government and Public Relations.

Prior to joining BMO, Mr. Deegan served as Deputy Executive Director of the National Economic Council in the Clinton White House.  He worked for the Government of Ontario’s Cabinet Office. He also interned in the office of the late United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy and at the Democratic National Committee in Washington, DC.

He studied at McGill, and graduated from University of Toronto in History and Political Science. While at BMO, he completed two advanced executive programs with the Ivey/Kellogg and Rotman business schools.

Mr. Deegan is a director of the Michener Awards Foundation and Journalists for Human Rights, and he is a member of the Canadian Investment Committee of the Society of the Sacred Heart. He is a past director of the Canadian Journalism Foundation, Toronto Terminals Railway Co. Ltd., Toronto Financial Services Alliance, Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Tarragon Theatre, and Aptus Treatment Centre for Complex Disabilities. He is a former member of the Acquisition Committee – International Art after 1900 – at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. From 2017 to 2022, Mr. Deegan was an Honorary Captain in the Royal Canadian Navy. He is a contributing writer to Policy Magazine. 

In 2023 and 2024, he was named to the Hill Times' Top 100 Lobbyists list.

He is married with two children.