John Panabaker is the former President of the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada. Panabaker attended McMaster University where he received his B.A. Hons in Political Economy (1950) and his M.A. in Political Economy (1954). After leaving McMaster he began working for the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada where he would eventually be named President (1973) and later CEO (1982-1985). He retired from Mutual Life in 1989.
Panabaker has also been involved with a number of organizations in Kitchener-Waterloo and nationally including serving as Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Life and Health Assurance Association, as a trustee of the Toronto School of Theology, as president of the Kitchener-Waterloo Community Foundation, and as a director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra Association. Panabaker was also the Chancellor of McMaster University from 1986-1992 and holds honorary degrees from McMaster, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo. In 1990, Panabaker was made a member of the Order of Canada.