Mark Perlman

Retired Chief Financial Officer, Employment and Social Development Canada

November 22, 2023 | 10:45 am - 11:45 am

Session
So your CFO is appearing before Parliamentary Committee

Over his career, Mark Perlman has spent close to 34 years (over 12 of which were at the Assistant Deputy Minister level, with close to 20 years as an executive) in progressively responsible positions in small, medium and large federal departments, working at the district, regional and headquarters levels.  These departments included Employment and Social Development Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency, Public Safety, Public Works and Government Services Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and the Immigration and Refugee Board in the areas of Finance, Administration, Human Resources, Security, Real Property, Internal Audit, Communications, Shared Services, Policy, Information Technology and Information Management.

Up until his retirement from the public service in September 2021, Mark held the position of Chief Financial Officer and Senior Assistant Deputy Minister at Employment and Social Development Canada for 5 years. In this capacity, he was responsible for all aspects of financial management and stewardship with an annual expenditure base that grew to over $258B in fiscal year 2020-21 due to the pandemic response for the ESDC portfolio. He was also responsible for real property and accommodations, procurement and asset management, enterprise project management governance, and financial systems.

Since his retirement from the public service, on top of thoroughly enjoying retirement, Mark has continued coaching and mentoring others, helped facilitate the Action Learning sets as part of the Next Generation CFO and DCFO programs, and is currently serving as a Departmental Audit Committee (DAC) member for two departments, namely Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Department of Finance.

Mark has a bachelor’s degree from McMaster University and is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CMA).

He is married and has one son and one daughter.