Peter Levitt

Peter Levitt led CIBC’s (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) Treasury division from August 2012 to October 2022; oversight of the Tax Division was added to his accountabilities in March 2020.  In this role, Mr. Levitt was responsible for all aspects of CIBC’s treasury functions, including asset liability management, structural balance sheet risk hedging, liquidity risk management, capital management and optimization, funding, cash management, treasury analytics, funds transfer pricing, and pension and treasury investment management.   He was also responsible for external Treasury-related stakeholder management, including investor relations, regulatory relations, central bank relationship management and worked actively to promote financial stability through sound legislation, regulation and public policy. 

Mr. Levitt managed global teams for the last 20 years of his career, with staff in Canada, USA, Caribbean, UK, Europe, Asia and Australia and in this capacity dealt with a broad range of regulatory, legal and cultural differences.

Mr. Levitt was Executive Vice-President and Treasurer at Manulife Financial (John Hancock in the U.S.) from 2007 to 2012. Prior to this, he led capital finance in TD Bank Treasury, was head of treasury and Global Controller for TD Securities, and Chief Financial Officer of the wealth management group at Canada Trust up to and including integration with TD in 2000.  Mr. Levitt held a number of roles in technology, treasury and finance at Canada Trust from 1982 to 2000. He began his career as a programmer at Anglo American Life (Johannesburg) in 1980.

Mr. Levitt was on the Board of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 2001 to 2016, was appointed to the Board of Frontier College (now United for Literacy) in 2016 and became Chair of the United for Literacy Foundation in 2023 (and continues on the UFL Board ex-officio), was appointed to the Sinai Hospital Foundation Investment Committee in 2016, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Music Advisory Council in 2018. Mr. Levitt was appointed to the Advisory Committee of Novacap Financial Services private equity fund in 2019, and to the board of E-L Financial Corporation (TSX:ELF) in May 2022.  He became Chair of the ELF Audit Committee in May, 2023 and joined the Board of Home Capital in August, 2023.

Mr. Levitt has led a number of inclusion and diversity initiatives, commits time to several organizations including C.D. Howe (leading Canadian thinktank, where he is Co-Chair, FSRI Council and a member of the DSB Council), GRI (Global Risk Institute), the Rotman School of Business (University of Toronto), supports numerous arts organizations (principally classical music), and holds an Executive MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.