David Rutherford has had a lengthy career in both communications and sustainability. He currently oversees Sustainability Research at Mackenzie Investments, with a mandate to provide sustainable insights to Mackenzie’s investment managers and stewardship team, as well as shape the organization’s thought leadership by facilitating the delivery of differentiated perspectives on broad, overarching themes impacting advisors and investors.
Before joining Mackenzie in 2025, he spent almost 10 years in a variety of capacities at NEI Investments and its parent company Aviso. Among the work David led included rebranding NEI explicitly around the organization’s responsible investing legacy, and leading NEI’s responsible investing team, with a mandate to advance the understanding of the team’s activities and value among advisors and investors. David also spearheaded the development of a broad sustainability strategy for Aviso overall.
Prior to that, David led marketing, communications, creative services and executive support teams at several Canadian- and U.S.-based financial services firms – including a previous stint at Mackenzie Investments – covering both asset managers and broker dealers. Before entering the financial services field in 2000, David was a writer, painter and journalist.
David holds an undergraduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Toronto Metropolitan (formerly Ryerson) University, earned a Master’s degree in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics, where he studied the impact of digital technology on human relations, and has a Graduate Diploma in Social Responsibility and Sustainability from the University of Toronto, where he won the President’s Capstone Award for Innovation in ESG Practices.
