Michael Sabia

Michael John Sabia OC (born September 11, 1953) is a Canadian businessman. From 2009 to 2020, he was president and CEO of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. On November 12, 2019, the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy named Sabia as its director.

Sabia formerly served as CEO of BCE Inc. from 2002 through 2008.

Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Sabia is the son of Michael Joseph Sabia and Laura Sabia (née Villela); both parents are of Italian descent. He attended Ridley College also in St. Catharines.He is married to Hilary Pearson.Sabia has his undergraduate education from the University of Toronto and earned his graduate degrees from Yale University. His wife, Hilary Pearson, is the granddaughter of former Prime Minister Lester Pearson. In 2016, he was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Sabia held a number of senior positions in Canada's federal public service during the 1980s and early 1990s, including Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet of the Privy Council Office.

Sabia's supervisor, Clerk of the Privy Council Paul Tellier, left the public service to assume the presidency of Crown corporation Canadian National Railway in the early 1990s and subsequently persuaded Sabia to follow him to help in privatizing the company. Sabia held a number of executive positions at Canadian National Railway during the 1990, including the position of chief financial officer.

Sabia left Canadian National to join Bell Canada Enterprises in 1999, and became chief executive in 2002 succeeding Jean Monty. In 2007, his board accepted an offer from the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan to privatize the telecommunications company.Later that year, Sabia said he would leave Bell after the privatization deal was finalized.Sabia left Bell in July 2008 and was succeeded by George Cope.By December 2008, following the collapse of the debt market, the privatization deal fell apart.

Sabia was named chief executive of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec on March 13, 2009 to succeed Fernand Perrault. A La Caisee, he was both president and CEO. On February 15, 2017, the Caisse announced that Michael Sabia’s mandate as president and CEO has been renewed until March 31, 2021.

Sabia was a member of the Advisory Council on Economic Growth, which advised the Canadian Finance Minister on economic policies to achieve long-term sustainable growth. The Council called for a gradual increase in permanent immigration to Canada to 450,000 people a year.

Bloomberg said in 2019 "under Sabia's tenure, the Caisse dove into international markets. About 64% of the fund, which manages the pension savings for the province of Quebec, is now in global markets versus 36% in 2009." On November 12, 2019, it was announced that Sabia would be leaving the Caisse to become head of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, leaving his job at the Caisse a year early. He was appointed to the new role in February 2020.

In April 2020, Sabia was appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canada Infrastructure Bank. He is still the chair of Canada Infrastructure Bank in October 2020.

He was replaced by Charles Edmond as head of the Caisse de depot et placement in January 2020.

In June 2020, he was appointed Director of the Mastercard Foundation.

On December 6, 2020, it was announced that Sabia would replace Paul Rochon as Deputy Minister of Finance Canada.