Tom Hewitt

President, Bruyère Health Foundation

Tom’s appointment to lead the Bruyère Health Foundation team is a homecoming of sorts as he launched his fundraising career as the first Foundation head hired at Saint-Vincent Hospital in 1988. A sense of gratitude for the original opportunity and deep respect for the culture of Bruyère Health, as well as the organization’s transformative revitalization plan, inspired Tom to return in 2021.

Tom is an accomplished executive level fundraising professional with a demonstrated record of success and more than 30 years’ experience and expertise fostering revenue and organizational growth. He has a strong record of accomplishment in a complex university setting as well as hospitals with academic affiliations. Over the years Tom has played lead roles in progressively larger fundraising campaigns of $20, $100 and $500 million with the (as it was known at the time) Ottawa Civic Hospital and University of Ottawa Heart Institute foundations, and most recently on behalf of his alma mater, Queen’s University.

Born and raised in Ottawa in a home that encouraged community service, volunteerism and philanthropy, Tom has contributed his time to several important initiatives recently. He’s a founding member of the Canadian Career Apprenticeship Initiative (CCAI) and Queen’s Career Apprenticeship: Kingston program. New graduates, particularly those from arts programs, struggle at the critical juncture between school and starting a career and remain unemployed or underemployed for months or years post-graduation. They sometimes have to leave smaller communities to look for opportunities in large centers.  The CCAI addresses this fundamental gap in today’s employment ecosystem.

Tom also serves as a volunteer committee member for the Black Opportunity Fund – a unique partnership between the Black community, businesses, philanthropists, government and foundations, with a mission of raising and mobilizing $1.5 billion over 10 years to empower the Black community and help address systemic injustices.

Tom recognizes how important the Bruyère Health organization is to the overall health of our region, and is committed to strengthening this key community asset through philanthropy.