John Parisella joined NATIONAL’s Montreal office on January 23, 2017, and is currently Senior Advisor, Business Outreach. More recently, he was executive director of the major fundraising campaign for HEC Montréal, Polytechnique Montréal and Université de Montréal (Campus Montréal) and was associated with this campaign during the transition period. The campaign was highly successful-it attained $601 M (objective was $500 M). He currently serves as invited professor in the political science department at the University of Montreal. He is also associated with the Chaire Raoul-Dandurand, a center for U.S. studies, at Université du Québec à Montréal and is a Fellow at the Center for International Studies and Research (CERIUM). He has also taught at Concordia University in the Political Science department and the John Molson School of Business.
He currently is on the board of the Port of Montreal, the General Insurance Ombudservice (GIO), the Old Brewery Mission ,and is co-President of La Fondation de la Langue française. In the past, he served on the Board of Governors of Concordia University (1996-2005), the Board of Governors of the Greater Montreal Chamber of Commerce( 2000-09), Le Théâtre du Rideau Vert, Montreal International ,le Théatre du Rideau Vert ,Fusion Jeunesse ( dedicated to school dropouts ), and Regional Health Board of Greater Montreal.
John has also been involved as an author. In November 2015, he published a book entitled La politique dans la peau about diversity, integration and his years in Québec politics. Author of several publications and speaker at several forums, he is also co-author of the book Elections: Made in USA (published in 2004 and 2008) and was a regular blogger for America’s Quarterly (2010-2015). From 2008 to 2013, he was also a blogger on U.S. politics for Macleans magazine. He acts as a political analyst with several media across the country. Currently, he is a political analyst on U.S. politics at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (French sector), TVA and is a regular contributor to La Presse, a French language daily newspaper. Recently, he acted as a consultant on the documentary television series – Fièvre politique - aired on Télé Québec about former political leaders and their reflections on political life. The said documentary won a Gémeaux award.
Just recently, in October 2019, he was a collaborator of an autobiography entitled Lino Saputo, Entrepreneur – Living our Dreams.
A graduate of McGill University in political science, education, and management, and Concordia University in political science, John Parisella holds a certificate in senior government management from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Throughout his career, he has worked in education, politics, community development, marketing and advertising, diplomacy, philanthropy, business and government relations consultancy. He started his career as a secondary school teacher with the Montreal School Board (1969-1980).
In politics, he served as Regional Director of the Liberal Party of Quebec (1980-1981), Director General of the Liberal Party of Quebec (1985-1988), Chief of Staff of the premiers Robert Bourassa (1989-1994) and Daniel Johnson (1994), as well as adviser to the Premier Jean Charest (2007-2008).
In business, he served as president (initially as VP from 1994 to 1999) of BCP (part of Publicis Worldwide) from 1999 to 2009, a Montreal-based marketing and advertising company. In addition, he chaired BCP Consultants, specializing in reputation management and crisis management. In addition to his work with BCP, he acted on a mandate as strategic advisor to the President and executive Director of marketing and communications at Concordia University from 2006 to 2009. In 2008-2009, he was the chief negotiator of the Government of Quebec in the dispute with the Mohawks of Kahnawake regarding lands along Highway 30.
From 2009 to 2012, he served as Québec's Delegate General in New York – Washington. In addition, to his professional activities, he has served as a volunteer administrator on numerous boards of directors in the areas of culture, education, health, community development and the business sector.
Mr. Parisella was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2017, and an Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 2016. He has received the medal of the Foreign Policy Association in New York in 2011. In 2014 he was named Personality of the TOP 20 Diversity Award at the Grand Prix Mosaïque – Lys de la Diversité du Québec. The Université of Montreal gave him the Rector’s medal for leading their major philanthropic campaign from 2012 to 2017. In April 2021, Mr. Parisella was asked to become a Fellow at the CGAI (Canadian Global Affairs Institute).
RECENT PUBLICATIONS BY JOHN PARISELLA
The Aftermath of the 2022 Midterms
Canada-US Relations, A State of the Union
Managing Uncle Sam in 2019
