Clint Davis ('92)

Clint Davis’ (’92) personal odyssey has taken him from his home in Goose Bay, Labrador to Acadia, St. John’s, Halifax, Vancouver, Ottawa, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, back to Ottawa, and finally Toronto. Acadia served as his compass in many ways, enabling him to set a new course for law school and a career that combines economic development and the burgeoning aboriginal marketplace.

Among a long list of honours, he is a Canada-U.S. Fulbright Scholar, a former blogger for The Financial Post and a 2013 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award. After graduating from Dalhousie Law School, he attended Harvard, where he earned an MPA from the Kennedy School of Business.

He has practiced law and worked as a government advisor on the three territories where he had a chance to observe the interface between business and government and learn the complexities of aboriginal relations. Davis is currently theVice-President for Aboriginal Banking at Toronto Dominion Bank. His job is to develop business opportunities and build relationships with aboriginal governments and their economic development arms. His goal is “to ensure that TD is considered the bank of choice for the aboriginal market.

“When I first arrived at Acadia, I was struck by two things: first was the size of the trees. In the North we have plentiful trees, but you get a lot of small black spruce, not like Acadia. The campus was just so picturesque and the huge common area was almost like a garden. And then all the little pathways and walkways was something right out of a movie. The University itself was just old – ‘old’ meaning so established. It had a remarkable amount of history and pride attached to it and it was a really wonderful moment to be part of something that was such an institution on the east coast.

“Professor Shelley MacDougall taught me finance in my core business year and was very, very influential in my decision to pursue finance instead of accounting. I liked her style of teaching, and the fact she had accomplished so much and come back to small-town Nova Scotia when she could have been on Bay Street spoke volumes about her character. It just made finance seem very attractive.

“At Acadia, I was just struck by the number of people who had a perceived path. They were going to medical school or to do their MBA or go to law school. For me, just to get through high school and then to university and succeed was a massive accomplishment for my family. Law school was something that I viewed as untouchable and a million miles from my grasp. But one of my professors, who was a practicing lawyer and business law instructor, said, ‘You know, you’re really pretty good in this course, you really seem to get it. You should think about law school.’ I said, ‘Yeah, right,’ he said, ‘No, you really should.’

“He went on to coach me and opened a world of opportunity that I never would have considered. It’s neat that for so many of us life is somewhat serendipitous and there’s that chance moment where someone says something and you start to think about possibilities. That’s the effect that he had on me because no one in my family would have ever said you should think about law school. They were extremely proud and supportive of what I was achieving, but if I had never gone to Acadia I don’t think I’d ever have gone to law school. That’s the impact Acadia has had on my life.

“Acadia provided me with that foundation to look at business and see it as a source of optimism and hope, in particular for the market I deal with, which is in the indigenous community. I had a goal to work at a bank as a branch manager, but once I got into my third and fourth years and moved on to law school, I really started to open my eyes to the indigenous experience. I think it was Acadia that spurred my interest in this.

“In the North and in Quebec and Ontario, there is now a significant aboriginal involvement in business.  The fact that I had the Acadia experience inspired me to see what opportunities existed from a financial literacy perspective. I honestly think Acadia – even more than law school – provided the fundamental component that drove me to where I am today.

“I would recommend Acadia, hands down. I definitely talk about it and try to push it as a place to get one of the best educations in the country. I actually want my kids to go there. You get to meet some really cool and dynamic people and connect with wonderful professors, and when it’s time to move on to a larger city, it has given you that undergrad experience.

“I was recognized a few years ago by Acadia as a distinguished alumnus, and in my speech I talked about the competitive advantages that Acadia has in terms of attracting top talents from our community. In the mid-80s, Acadia was trying to attract students from Goose Bay. What other university was trying to do that? I think it spoke volumes about what Acadia was trying to do, which was to broaden its reach to different pockets of the country that are often ignored. They realized that there’s talent there.

“For many aboriginal students who live in small, family-oriented, fly-in-only communities, to go to the University of Toronto is a massive culture shock. Compare that to Acadia, where you’ve got a town of 4,000 where people really care for and support each other, located in a part of the country that is one of the most polite and supportive anywhere. It’s a great advantage for Acadia to attract more and more aboriginal people to their campus.”