Frank D'Onofrio

Frank D’Onofrio became Distinguished Public Servant in Residence in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University in September 2015. Frank is a passionate and committed public servant, having worked in the Ontario Public Service (OPS) for 34 years. His accountabilities have spanned a variety of fields and senior leadership roles including policy development and front line operations. He brings with him a strong understanding of how government works, strategic business development, change management and service delivery transformation in public sector environments. 

Frank joined the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) in 1980, and held increasingly senior roles during his tenure there. Key legacy accomplishments were made in the area of road safety policy and service delivery (including drinking & driving counter measures and truck safety programs).  He became Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) of MTO’s Road User Safety Division in 2001, one of the largest and most complex departments in the Ontario government.

In 2006, Frank joined ServiceOntario – the gateway to transactional government services and information for the people and businesses of Ontario, mandated to modernize and provide an array of direct services; online, over the phone, and at retail offices across the province. He served in various ADM roles there, with responsibility for operations, customer care and business development. He was accountable for strategic partnerships, developing a customer centric culture and enterprise policy.

Frank has supported ministers of every political stripe in delivering on their mandates as elected officials. He has worked closely with public service leaders from across the OPS, municipal and federal government jurisdictions and the private sector, building a broad and strong network along the way. He has led several significant service transformations including the migration and integration of services and staff from various OPS ministries.

In 2012 Frank was appointed as Deputy Minister and Chief Executive Officer of ServiceOntario, a position he held until his retirement from the OPS at the end of 2014. While at the helm of ServiceOntario, Frank was proud to lead a service organization committed to the pursuit of world class customer service excellence for Ontarians. He focused the organization on “making it easier” for customers to interact with government by understanding the needs of the customer, promoting cost efficiency and program integrity.

Frank is the second Distinguished Public Servant in Residence in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, following Joan Andrew, who served in that role from 2010 to 2015.

In 2020, Frank was a recipient of the Faculty of Arts Dean's Teaching Award.  The award citation noted:

Frank D’Onofrio, the Distinguished Public Servant in Residence in the Department of Politics and Public, teaches the Policy Enrichment Seminar (PA8219) as part of the Master of Arts in Public Policy and Administration (MPPA) program. This course is designed to enrich students’ knowledge of the policy process and enhance career readiness for policy work in the public, non-profit and private sectors. Frank is instrumental to the creation and the delivery of PES, which is consistently rated as one of the best courses in the MPPA program in terms of quality and career applicability.