[6][7] He previously served as an informal advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2020, advising him on the government's COVID-19 economic response.

[13][17] Carney attended St. Francis Xavier High School,[20] before studying at Harvard University on a partial scholarship and financial aid.

[24] Carney spent 13 years at Goldman Sachs[25] and worked in their Boston, London, New York City, Tokyo, and Toronto offices.

[27] One year later, he was recruited to join the Department of Finance Canada as senior associate deputy minister, beginning that role on November 15, 2004.

[35][36] The epoch-making feature of his tenure as Governor remains the decision to cut the overnight rate by 50 basis points in March 2008, only one month after his appointment.

While the European Central Bank delivered a rate increase in July 2008, Carney anticipated the leveraged-loan crisis would trigger global contagion.

[37] The Canadian economy outperformed those of its G7 peers during the crisis, and Canada was the first G7 nation to have both its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment recover to pre-crisis levels.

[45] Carney is a member of the Group of Thirty, an international body of leading financiers and academics, and of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum.

While there had been no indication of his priorities as chairman, on the day of his appointment the Board published a list of 29 banks that were considered sufficiently large as to pose a risk to the global economy should they fail.

Carney's changes to the Bank's operating procedures helped modernize the institution such as making much more media appearances than predecessors, including controversial announcements during two referendums.

[50] Carney implemented a policy called "forward guidance" in which the Bank would not raise interest rates if unemployment was above 7% to try and encourage business lending.

[50] In 2014, Carney warned that if the Scottish independence referendum was successful, the new country would likely not be able to continue using the pound sterling without ceding some powers to the UK.

[50] Carney was appointed as United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance as he prepared to step down as governor of the Bank of England in March 2020.

[61] As of October 2020, Carney was vice chairman at Brookfield Asset Management, where he led the firm's environmental, social and governance (ESG) and impact fund investment strategy.

[62][63][64][65] In February 2021, Carney retracted an earlier claim that the $600 billion Brookfield Asset Management portfolio was carbon neutral.

[71] Taskforce members include more than "40 leaders from six continents with backgrounds across the carbon market value chain", including representatives from the Bank of America, BlackRock, Bloomberg's New Energy Finance, BNP Paribas, BP, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, Tata Steel, Total, IHS Markit, and LSE.

[71] In a December 3, 2020 Financial Times article, Carney said that the voluntary global carbon offset market was an "imperative" to help reduce emissions.

The Times article cited Carney saying London would likely be the host of the "new pilot market for voluntary carbon offsets" which could be "set up" by December 2021.

[80] On September 9, 2024, Carney was named by Justin Trudeau to chair the Liberal Party of Canada's leader's Task Force on Economic Growth.

[85] Carney also announced that he stepped down from all executive, board and advisory positions that he was part of in order to focus on his leadership campaign.

[88] In 2011, Carney referred to the Occupy Wall Street protests as "entirely constructive", citing frustrations being felt "particularly in the United States" over inequality and increasing CEO-worker pay gaps.

Consequently, Brexit activists accused him of making statements favouring the UK's continued membership of the European Union (EU) before the British EU-membership referendum.

[93] In September 2018, Philip Hammond, the chancellor of the Exchequer, confirmed speculation that Carney would remain as Governor until January 2020, in order to ensure a "smooth" transition after the UK was set to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, a departure deadline that was missed.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today program, Carney explained that fewer than half of businesses have initiated contingency plans.

Carney cited an article[98] by Markus K. Brunnermeier, Harold James, and Jean-Pierre Landau on the potential role of digital currency area (DCA) in redefining the international monetary system.

[97] Speaking just hours after US President Donald Trump posted a tweet blaming Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's policies for creating fears of an economic recession and threatening China with more retaliatory tariffs, Carney urged central banks to collaborate in replacing the US dollar as reserve currency.

[101] He also proposed scrapping the capital gains tax increase if elected Liberal leader and appointed prime minister, run a fiscal deficit, and balance the federal government's operational spending.

[101] In March 2021, Carney stated that in Canada there is a "huge economic opportunity" in the transition to a sustainable economy with reduced carbon emissions.

[102] In a January 2025 interview with Jon Stewart, Carney attributed much of Canada's emissions to the oil industry, which he argued must become cleaner rather than ordinary Canadians changing their lifestyles.

[108] Carney met his wife, Diana Fox,[109] a British economist specializing in developing nations, while at the University of Oxford.