Sir Herbert Samuel Holt (February 12, 1855 – September 28, 1941) was an Irish-born Canadian civil engineer who became a businessman, banker, and corporate director.

He was President of the Royal Bank of Canada, Montreal Light, Heat & Power, and a director of some 250 companies worldwide, with assets valued at around $200 million.

In the early 1880s, he was employed to survey and construct portions of the Canadian Pacific Railway across the prairies and through the Rocky Mountains, under James Ross.

[4] Herbert Holt became a pioneer developer of the energy business in the Province of Quebec and owned the Montreal Gas Company.

In 1915, he was knighted by King George V.[5] Herbert Samuel Holt died in 1941 and was interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal.

In his own words, "If I am rich and powerful, while you are suffering the stranglehold of poverty and the humiliation of social assistance; if I was able, at the peak of the Depression, to make 150 per cent profits each year, it is foolishness on your part, and as for me, it is the fruit of a wise administration."