Gary Cohn is a Canadian lawyer with extensive transactional experience, acquired both as an executive and in-house legal counsel in a large public company and as a professional in a law firm.
Over his career, Gary spent 23 years working for various companies within the Magna International group. His work at Magna was primarily focused on M&A projects, corporate development, and commercial matters in the automotive parts manufacturing industry, culminating in his role as Vice-President, M&A with responsibility for overseeing Magna’s global acquisition initiatives. In his various roles with Magna, he facilitated a variety of joint ventures, acquisitions, and divestitures.
Gary has practiced corporate and securities law, with a focus on transactions and financings, as a partner at one national law firm in Canada (Heenan Blaikie) and as an associate lawyer at another (Blake, Cassels & Graydon). He also served a secondment with the Ontario Labour Relations Board early in his career.
He has a keen interest in corporate governance and has served on the boards of public, private, and not-for-profit organizations. Since retiring from full-time employment in 2015, Gary has served as an independent director of a TSX and NYSE listed company and has engaged in consulting work on various corporate development projects.
Gary holds a Bachelor of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo, a Master of Business Administration degree from York University, and a Juris Doctor degree from Osgoode Hall Law School.
Gary joined the Yee Hong Centre Board of Directors in June 2021 and serves on the Governance Committee and the Innovation & Development Committee.