Gordon Nixon

Born in Montreal, Quebec, he was educated at Lower Canada College. Nixon received an honours Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen's University in 1979, and holds honorary Doctor of Laws from both Queen's University and Dalhousie University.

Nixon began his career in 1979 at Dominion Securities in Toronto and worked in global markets, investment banking and in 1986 transferred to Tokyo to assume responsibility for the firm's operations in Japan. Dominion Securities was acquired by Royal Bank of Canada in 1987 and Nixon returned to Toronto in 1989 as a managing director of the Investment Banking Division and in 1995 was appointed head of Global Investment Banking. In 1999, Nixon became chief executive officer of RBC Capital Markets and a member of Royal Bank's executive committee.

Nixon was appointed president of Royal Bank of Canada on April 1, 2001, and chief executive officer on August 1, 2001, succeeding John Cleghorn in both capacities. At the age of 44 when he was appointed chief executive, Nixon became the youngest person to ever head a major Canadian bank. In September 2004, Nixon initiated a major restructuring of RBC.

Nixon relinquished his title of president at the Annual Meeting on February 26, 2014, and after 13 years as chief executive officer he retired on August 1, 2014, being succeeded in both roles by David McKay who was previously Group Head of Personal & Commercial Banking.

He is married to Janet Nixon and has three children.