Giles Gherson

Deputy Minister of Consumer Services

On November 30, 2011 Giles Gherson was appointed Deputy Minister for the Minister of Consumer Services. This appointment is his third deputy minister role since joining the Government of Ontario in 2007.

Following a distinguished career in journalism spanning more than twenty years, Deputy Gherson’s first appointment was Deputy Minister of Communications and Associate Secretary of Cabinet. In this capacity he led the modernization of government communications that resulted in an overhaul of how government communicates with the media and in the establishment of the corporate Cabinet Office Newsroom. Giles was also a leading force in getting approval for the use of social media in government communications.

In July 2008, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Policy and Delivery, Associate Secretary of the Cabinet. In this role he oversaw major policy initiatives ranging from early childhood education, a reform of the health care system to energy conservation.

Prior to joining the Ontario government, he was editor-in –chief of the Toronto Star, editor of the Globe and Mail’s’ Report on Business, editor -in chief of the Edmonton Journal and editor- chief of the Southam News Service. His journalism career also included being a political editor of the National Post and a national political columnist for Southam’s newspaper chain, the Globe and Mail, the Financial Times of Canada and being the Washington Bureau chief for the Financial Post.

During the mid-1990s, Gherson took a two-year sabbatical from journalism to serve as principal secretary for social security reform in the federal Department of Human Resources Development.