Neil Puddicombe
Associate General Counsel and Director of Bank Board Governance, Legal, Corporate & Compliance Group, BMO Financial Group

Neil Puddicombe is the Associate General Counsel, Bank Board Governance at the BMO Financial Group. He provides governance support to the Bank’s Board of Directors, and manages the Bank’s Annual General Meeting, Management Proxy Circular and shareholder support services. He also acts as the Assistant Corporate Secretary to the Bank’s Board of Directors.

Mr. Puddicombe previously spent 7 years as BMOFG’s Director of Subsidiary Governance (Canada and International), where he designed the subsidiary governance framework for the Bank’s Canadian, European and Asian subsidiaries. He provided transactional support for the Bank’s corporate reorganizations and proprietary mergers and acquisitions transactions. Bank of Montreal was awarded the Governance Professionals of Canada’s Excellence in Governance Award for Best Practices in Subsidiary Governance in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and Best Use of Technology in 2016. In 2018 Mr. Puddicombe was named Governance Professional of the Year by the Governance Professionals of Canada.

Previously, Mr. Puddicombe was Senior Counsel in the Bank’s Capital Markets legal team supporting the Investment and Corporate Banking Group, the Structured Products Group and the trading floor.

Mr. Puddicombe joined the Bank after having spent five years in the Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions and Corporate Finance Groups in the Paris and New York offices of French law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel LLP. Mr. Puddicombe joined Gide after having spent four years in the Business Law Group in the Toronto office of a major Canadian Law firm.

Mr. Puddicombe serves as an Adjunct Professor of Business Associations at Osgoode Hall Law School, is a faculty member of the Governance Professionals of Canada’s Education Program and is a member of the Stakeholder Consultation and Practice Group of the International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group. He was named In-House Counsel of the Year by the South Asian Bar Association in 2013 and served as the Board Chair of the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario from 2008 to 2014.

Mr. Puddicombe holds a Master of Laws (Securities) from Osgoode Hall Law School and a Bachelor of Laws from Windsor Law School. Mr. Puddicombe was called to the Ontario Bar in 1997.