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 practised 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, of which he was appointed Chair in June 2022.