Paul Tellier

Named North American Railroader of the Year by the prestigious magazine Railway Age in 1997 and selected Transportation Person of the Year during National Transportation Week that same year, Paul Tellier set the objective of making CN one of the best and largest railway companies on the North American continent.

On October 1, 1992, Paul Tellier was appointed president, chief executive and director of the Canadian National Railway Company.

An experienced strategist and administrator, for close to eight years Paul Tellier served in the position of clerk of the Privy Council and secretary to the Cabinet of the Government of Canada – the top Canadian public service position – before joining CN.

Born in Joliette, Quebec, Paul Tellier studied law at the University of Ottawa and is a public administration graduate of Oxford University, England. He was admitted to the Quebec bar in 1963, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.

Paul Tellier was also a professor at the Université de Montréal in 1966–67. Subsequently, he lectured part-time for 10 years in political science and constitutional law at the universities of Montréal, Québec and Ottawa.

Paul Tellier joined the Public Service in 1967, as assistant to the minister of Energy, Mines and Resources. He later served in many executive positions, including deputy minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in 1979 and deputy minister of Energy, Mines and Resources in 1982.

CN’s man of steel also served as a member of the board of directors of Petro-Canada for five years and he served on the board of the International Energy Agency for three years.

Paul Tellier was appointed a member of the Privy Council by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in July 1992. He was named a Companion of the Order of Canada the following year and was appointed Chairman of the Conference Board of Canada in 1996.

Paul Tellier is a highly disciplined and principled individual, capable of finding solutions to the most complex problems. A great humanitarian, he has contributed and continues to contribute to the furthering of a number of charitable causes, notably the Ottawa General Hospital from 1984 to 1992. In 1995, he served as co-chair of the Centraide Campaign of Greater Montreal.

The man known as CN’s “locomotive” has also served as a director of Bombardier, Bell Canada, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., McCain Foods, the Grand Trunk Corporation, the Railway Association of Canada, the Association of American Railroads and the Conference Board of Canada.

Paul Tellier was inducted into the Academy of Great Montrealers in the Economic category in 1998 and was named a Commander of the Ordre de Montréal in 2016.