Bruce Lawson is the Special Advisor to The Counselling Foundation of Canada, working part-time on a project-basis, as well as undertaking contracts for other organizations. He previously served as the Foundation’s President & CEO from 2008 to 2023, as well as the Executive Officer of CERIC and an ex-officio member of the CERIC Board of Directors.
Bruce is a co-founder of Foundation House, a collaborative workspace housing three foundations and several charitable & non-profit network organizations in Toronto. He was a part of the steering committee that co-authored the Philanthropic Community’s Declaration of Action presented at the Closing Event of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission. In 2019, he was appointed for a two-year term to the federal government’s Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector. In Spring 2020, he helped create the Indigenous Peoples Resilience Fund, which was designed to support Indigenous communities and Indigenous-led organizations with immediate needs in the face of the pandemic.
An active volunteer, Bruce is serving on the Board of Trustees of the Arctic Inspiration Prize. He is a past Board Chair of both Philanthropic Foundations Canada and Casey House.
Bruce has a BA (Economics) from McGill and an MBA from the University of Toronto.