David Leighton

Dr. David Struan Robertson Leighton was a Canadian businessman. Leighton was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and attended Queens University. After marrying his wife in 1951, they both moved to Boston, and attended Harvard Business School. After graduating, they returned to Canada in 1956. Leighton taught marketing at the University of Western Ontario. With his expertise in marketing, Leighton spent two years at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. Leighton also taught at Harvard and Cambridge.

In the 1970s Leighton became the President of the American Marketing Association and the President of the International Marketing Association, becoming the first Canadian to hold either role. In the same decade Leighton combined his love for management and music by becoming the President of the Banff Centre for the Arts and Continuing Education. Leighton spent the next 13 years helping to make the Banff Centre become internationally renowned, with Leighton awarded with the Alberta Order of Excellence for his work.

In 1982 Leighton became the President of the Organizing Committee for the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Leighton’s busy career continued with him becoming the chair of Nabisco Brands and the director of the National Centre for Management Research.

Leighton also loved the arts, was an amateur violinist, and served on the boards of multiple organisations including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Conference of the Arts. In 1999 Leighton became the chair of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2007.