Thomas Gunton is professor and founding director of the Resource and Environmental Planning Program at Simon Fraser University. Gunton has over 30 years of professional experience, including deputy minister of Environment, Lands and Parks, deputy minister of Cabinet Policy Secretariat, and deputy minister of finance (Treasury Board) for the government of British Columbia. He has also held senior positions with the government of Manitoba, including assistant deputy minister of energy and mines where he was in charge of major natural resource project development and evaluation, and senior economic analyst in the Ministry of Economic Development.

Gunton has extensive professional experience, providing advice to private and public sector clients and Indigenous communities. He has been an expert witness providing evidence on economic and environmental issues to various regulatory agencies such as the former National Energy Board, the Ontario Energy Board, Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, and the Manitoba Public Utilities Commission.

He has published more than 90 refereed articles in peer-reviewed journals and more than 100 technical reports for private and public sector clients on resource and environmental issues and project development.