[1] Teitelbaum holds a BA in Canadian history from Carleton University and an MPhil in modern European painting and sculpture from the Courtauld Institute of Art.

He later joined the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1993 as chief curator and was later appointed as the Michael and Sonja Koerner Director and CEO in 1998.

As a curator, he has published numerous publications and exhibition catalogues on modern and contemporary Canadian artists as Greg Curnoe, Paterson Ewen, Joe Fafard, Betty Goodwin, Edward Poitras, and Robert Wiens.

[3] As the museum's director and CEO, he oversaw the institution’s $306 million expansion and renovation of its Beaux-Arts building by the architect Frank Gehry.

[5][6] Teitelbaum is married to Susan M. Cohen, who served as the executive director of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation.