The first time Timothy Hodgson was asked by Mark Carney to come to Ottawa, he left behind an investment banking career at Goldman Sachs Group  that had seen him climb the ranks to lead its Canadian business.

That assignment — an 18-month stint as a special adviser to Carney at the Bank of Canada — ended in 2012, shortly before Carney was recruited to lead the Bank of England. Hodgson went back to corporate life, though not back to Goldman.

Now the two men are partners again. Carney named Hodgson as Canada’s Natural Resources Minister — a signal of the new Prime Minister’s intention to chart a different path on energy and mining after his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, was accused of stifling investment in those sectors.

During the election campaign, Carney said his government would make Canada the world’s “leading energy superpower” partly through a plan that includes establishing a single office to make faster decisions on major projects.

Hodgson entered politics only recently, winning a seat in suburban Toronto. His successful campaign led to his departure from several high-profile corporate boards — including Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Hydro One, one of Canada’s biggest electricity utilities.

None of this was in his plans a few months ago.

“I had envisioned a different next chapter. More time with my wife, more time with my family, and giving back in quieter ways,” Hodgson said in a LinkedIn post when he announced his candidacy. “But something kept pulling at me.”

He never saw himself as a politician, he said, but with the country “at a crossroads,” he felt compelled to step up.

“I think Tim has a vision in his mind that this is a moment of crisis for Canada,” said Reza Satchu, a Canadian entrepreneur and managing partner of private investment firm Alignvest Management. He has known Hodgson for decades and the two were partners at Alignvest for several years before Hodgson retired from the firm.

The new minister will want to help enact “material change” on issues like productivity and attracting top talent to Canada, Satchu said in an interview done before Hodgson’s appointment.

The country has dodged an official recession, but output declined on a per-capita basis through most of the past two years — and now the economy faces a serious threat from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Carney, 60, won the election arguing that the trade war and aggression from the Trump administration represents “the biggest crisis of our lifetimes". To deal with that, he said, the government needs to invest more, spend more efficiently and get things done faster. Senior executives in energy, mining and other resource sectors have long complained that it’s too difficult and slow to get projects such as new pipelines approved — and that Canada remains far too reliant on the US market as a result.

“My hope is that he doesn’t get frustrated,” Satchu said of Hodgson and his transition from the private sector to the federal government. “But he is a bit of a bulldog. So I do think he will push through more than most people would.”

Hodgson is far from a household name in politics, but his resume reads like a checklist for economic leadership. For those who know him as an intense, hyper-prepared and intellectual banker with an ability to get things done, his decision to step into the political arena is a welcome departure.

Walied Soliman, the Canadian chair of law firm Norton Rose Fulbright and longtime supporter of Conservative politicians in Canada, lauded Hodgson for taking time “at the height of his career for public service.”

“Canadians are going to quickly learn how non-partisan, professional and high integrity a person Tim really is,” Soliman said.

‘BUSINESSMAN FIRST’

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Hodgson served as a reserve officer in the Canadian Armed Forces from 1979 to 1985, during which time he also studied at the University of Manitoba. His military service left a lasting impact and he’s been an active backer of True Patriot Love, a support organization for military members and veterans.

He was a chartered accountant in Winnipeg for a few years in the 1980s before returning to school for an MBA in finance, and then heading to Wall Street for his first banking job at Salomon Brothers. He joined Goldman in 1990, working in corporate and structured finance in New York before heading to London and later Silicon Valley.

After his time as an adviser to Carney at the Bank of Canada, Hodgson spent much of his time on Alignvest, which launched fixed-income trading firm KGS-Alpha Capital Markets (later sold to Bank of Montreal) and special-purpose acquisition companies that bought mobile phone operator Trilogy International Partners and insurer Sagicor Financial. “I credit him for a fair amount of the success we had,” Satchu said.

Hodgson, who has two adult daughters with his wife, Linda, has been known to answer business calls from remote locations like the Himalayas, where he helped lead the first True Patriot Love fundraising “expedition” of reserve and retired military members and business leaders in 2012.

Beyond his work in the private sector, Hodgson also took on other public-interest posts. He was chair of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization, the body responsible for regulating investment dealers and overseeing trading — a role that drew little public attention but added a regulatory dimension to a career largely focused on making deals.

Former colleagues say Hodgson routinely handled sensitive negotiations with a mix of analytical precision and calm resolve, traits that were useful in periods of market turbulence. “Tim’s not a volatile guy, but he can certainly turn on the intensity and I think he is not afraid to stay up all night working,” Satchu said.

Over years of high-stakes dealmaking, Hodgson forged the ability to earn respect from both sides, but the transition from business to political life may be one of his biggest tests, according to some who know him.

He’ll likely want to “disassemble some of the red tape that’s been put forward by the previous administration,” said Andre Mousseau, chief executive officer of Sagicor. “Tim is a businessman first, so I think he’ll approach it that way.”