Step 3 of the New Executive Pathway

More information to come.

Deputy Minister Career Journeys

Our two guest Deputies will share reflections on their career paths, including key challenges, accomplishments, and lessons learned.

Graham Flack

Former Deputy Minister

Graham Flack is a recently retired federal public servant who held Deputy Minister roles in five different departments. He is currently a Commissioner on the Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission.

He began his career in the Privy Council Office and worked on the Quebec referendum campaign, the Quebec Secession Reference and Clarity Act.
Following 9/11 he became Director of Operations and led work on the Canada-US Smart Borders Declaration as well as Canada’s first National Security Policy.

He held senior executive roles at Natural Resources Canada and the Department of Finance where he was Assistant Deputy Minister, International Trade and Finance and worked on the G7 and G20 response to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. From 2010 to 2013 he was Associate Deputy Minister then Acting Deputy Minister at Public Safety Canada.

From 2013 to 2014 he was Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet at the Privy Council Office and also served as Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs. From 2014 to 2018 he had the most fun in his career as Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage.

From 2018 to 2022 he was Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada where he managed the largest policy and service delivery department in government and delivered a suite of new income supports for Canadians during
COVID-19 including the CERB. He concluded his career as Secretary of the Treasury Board where he managed the largest spending review in a decade and the most significant public service strike in two decades.

Graham was the founding chair of the Deputy Minister Committee on Innovation and helped establish the Recruitment of Policy Leaders program over 20 years ago – which he continues to support.

He serves on the Board of the Public Policy Forum, Grand Challenges Canada and the University of Kings College and is a Senior Fellow of the C.D. Howe Institute. He received degrees in political science and economics from Dalhousie and Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He is a former law clerk of the Supreme Court of Canada and graduated with an LL.B. from Dalhousie University and an LL.M from Harvard University.

Caroline Xavier

Chief
Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE)

Caroline Xavier was appointed to the position of Chief of the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE) on August 31, 2022. She is also the Deputy Minister Champion for Racialized Employees since March 2024 and was a member of the Clerk’s Task Team on Values and Ethics in September 2023.

Prior to her most recent appointment, Caroline held the position of Associate Deputy Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada between February 2020 and August 2022, and Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Security and Intelligence at the Privy Council Office from 2017 to 2020.

Over the course of her more than 30 years of service in the Federal public service, Caroline occupied numerous key senior-level positions within the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), CSE, Industry Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) with responsibilities in the areas of IT infrastructure and operations, foreign, domestic intelligence and security policies, public safety, security, and national security.

Caroline holds a Bachelor’s degree in Administration with a concentration in Marketing and Informatics from the University of Ottawa and an Executive Master’s degree in Electronic Commerce from Dalhousie University.