Executive Staff

Alex Johnston leads the Catalyst Canada office and is responsible for shaping a strategy for Catalyst’s continued growth and member engagement in Canada.  

Ms. Johnston comes to Catalyst with more than a decade of leadership experience in the public and private sectors.  She practiced law, with a general corporate and commercial law practice in mergers and acquisitions, private placements and corporate re-organizations, at Goodmans LLP before joining the office of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty in 2003, where she served as Executive Director of Policy.  In this role, she worked closely with policy, community and business leaders and with senior members of government to develop, implement and communicate the Government’s agenda. She played a key role in advancing a progressive women’s agenda, including initiatives to support women’s economic independence and health.  A long-time advocate for women, Ms. Johnston was a founding member of the first student-run sexual assault center in Canada, served as a legal advisor in a shelter for women and children, and after living in China for two years, began graduate studies on Chinese women’s legal rights and experience with the justice system.   

Ms. Johnston is fluently bilingual and holds a BA, LLB, and BCL from McGill University.  She grew up in Montreal and now lives in Toronto where she and her husband are raising their three young children.