Biography
David Harquail is widely recognized for his clear strategic thinking, steady leadership, and commitment to principled business practices. Throughout his distinguished career in mining finance, he has earned a reputation for combining technical expertise with a vision grounded in ethics, transparency and value creation. His approach to leadership has elevated the organizations he has led and shaped the culture and direction of global mining itself.
As CEO from 2007 to 2020, and presently the Chair of the Board of Franco-Nevada, Harquail has overseen substantive value creation for shareholders. In 2007, he led Franco-Nevada in its initial public offering, raising $1.2 billion in what was the largest mining IPO in Canadian history. With a business model focused on royalties and streams on properties with strong exploration optionality, the company’s value appreciated to a market capitalization of more than $50 billion with 18 consecutive years of dividend increases paying out almost $4 billion to shareholders.
David was born in Toronto into the mining exploration business. His father, James, worked directly for one of the world’s greatest explorationists, Thayer Lindsley, founding multiple exploration companies on the Toronto and Vancouver stock exchanges. Harquail’s early summers were spent on exploration sites across Canada, and he would go on to earn a degree in geological engineering specialized in exploration from the University of Toronto, followed by an MBA from McGill University.
Harquail began his career with stints in mining consulting, banking and corporate development. In 1987, he joined Seymour Schulich and Pierre Lassonde at Beutel, Goodman and Company where he managed the precious metals funds. In parallel, from 1988 to 1996 Harquail was CEO of Redstone Resources Inc., a public subsidiary of Franco-Nevada. In 2002, Franco-Nevada merged with Newmont Mining and Normandy to form the world’s largest gold company. Harquail relocated to Denver as head of Newmont Capital, later serving as Executive Vice President. In 2007, Newmont sold its royalty assets and Harquail returned to Toronto to relaunch the new Franco-Nevada.
Throughout his career, Harquail has given back to the industry. He was an active volunteer for CIM, serving as Chair of the 1994 CIM Convention and the Management and Economics Society, and has been a director at PDAC. Post Bre-X, he was a member of the 1998-2000 OSC-TSX Mining Standards Task Force that called for the creation of the 43-101 standards. He served as Chair of the World Gold Council from 2017 to 2020 when the new GLDM ETF was launched and the Responsible Gold Mining Principles were adopted.
Equally significant is Harquail’s philanthropic legacy. He has served on many non-profit boards and his family foundation has committed more than $30 million to charitable causes. Major gifts include the Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation at Sunnybrook Health Sciences in Toronto, advancing cutting-edge treatments for brain-related conditions, along with a landmark gift to the Harquail School of Earth Sciences and its Mineral Exploration Research Centre (MERC) at Laurentian University in Sudbury.
David Harquail has redefined what it means to lead in mining—proving that innovation, integrity and generosity can shape a lasting and responsible legacy.
foundation builders
