Tom McLaren B.Sc. MPA

Tom McLaren B.Sc., M.P.A.,
President,
Stakeholder Strategies Inc.

Tom McLaren has had an extensive strategic communications and issues management career in Canada and internationally that spans more than 25 years in both government and in the private sector.

An expert in stakeholder communications strategy during transformational events and organizational change, Tom was Assistant Deputy Minister for Corporate Communications in the Ontario Government’s Cabinet Office during the challenging 2002/03 period. Here he was responsible for a wide range of Ministries including Health, Finance, Consumer and Business and the Ministry of Education to name a few.

Tom was the point person in the Cabinet Office for communications coordination, quality control and communications strategy for the SARS outbreak in Toronto, the Aylmer Meat Packing crisis and the August 2003 power black out. In this latter role Tom performed the lead communications function for the Cabinet Office in the Emergency Management Office (EMO). In all of these crises he worked closely with the Premier’s Office and ministry staff on day-to-day coordination and strategy.

Tom started his government career in the Government of Alberta, where he served for 15 years in the Alberta Cabinet Office and Alberta Treasury and was Executive Assistant to the Deputy Premier, and Ministers of Health, Advanced Education and Technology, Research and Telecommunications. In this latter role, Tom played the key coordination function for the government’s privatization of Alberta Government Telephones and the creation of TELUS – Canada’s second largest telecommunications company.

Outside of his time in government, Tom has had an extensive communications agency consulting career as President of GPC Government Policy Consultants in Canada (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria, Vancouver and Quebec) and later as President of GPC International’s European operations (London, Edinburgh, Berlin, Brussels and Paris). He has also served as General Manager of Cossette’s Optimum Public Relations group in Toronto and has consulted to a wide range of clients in natural resources, government, financial services, health care, not-for-profit organizations and professional associations.