Events

Marwa Abdou

Nojoud Al Mallees is an economics reporter for The Canadian Press based in Ottawa. Situated at the intersection of economics and politics on Parliament Hill, Nojoud covers both the top business stories of the day – from interest rate decisions to the latest inflation figures –and the government’s economic agenda. Over the last year, she’s been particularly focused on the Liberals’ push to get more homes built, as well as recent reforms to immigration. Prior to joining The Canadian Press, Nojoud worked for CBC News covering business stories in Toronto and local news in Fredericton.

Vass Bednar is the executive director of McMaster University’s Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program. Her work focuses on the intersections between policy and the innovation ecosystem. She is a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and writes the popular newsletter “regs to riches.” Vass is a contributing columnist at The Globe and Mail and the host of their podcast, Lately, all about what’s new in the new economy. Finally, she is the co-author of The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians.

Brendon Bernard is a Senior Economist at Indeed.com, based in Toronto. He has been the Canadian lead of the Indeed Hiring Lab since 2018, combining publicly available data with the wealth of information internal to the Indeed hiring platform to make sense of the Canadian labour market. Brendon was previously an economist with Finance Canada.

Kevin Carmichael is economics columnist and editor-at-large for The Logic. Kevin has spent more than two decades writing about economics, business and finance for outlets including Bloomberg News, The Globe and Mail and the Financial Post, where he also served as editor-in-chief. His journalism has been honoured by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, including “gold” awards for commentary in 2019 and 2023; the National Magazine Awards for a feature on the late Jim Flaherty; and the Portfolio Management Association of Canada for an investigation on the companies that claimed COVID-19 benefits while also paying dividends and buying back shares. Kevin has worked as a correspondent in Ottawa, Washington, D.C., and Mumbai. He now lives in Montreal.

Frances Donald is the Chief Economist at RBC and leads a team of economists who deliver economic analyses to help inspire and empower informed decision making in an evolving world. Frances is a leading voice on economic issues and is highly sought after in the U.S. and Canada for her deep insights on the macro-economic environment and financial markets in North America. Frances joined RBC from Manulife where she served as global chief economist and strategist. In this capacity, she was responsible for forecasting global macroeconomic and financial trends, analyzing the economy and capital markets for potential opportunities and risks. She regularly appears in international media, including Bloomberg and CNBC.

Jonathan Fried is Senior Advisor with the Albright Stonebridge Group and Senior Associate to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, and Advisor to Independent Economics Consulting in London, UK. Prior to his retirement from the Government of Canada in 2020, he was Deputy Minister and Coordinator for International Economic Relations, with a mandate encompassing Canada-Asia and related international trade and economic policies.  He was the Personal Representative of PM Trudeau for the G20 from 2017-2020.Mr. Fried was Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO from 2012-2017. He was formerly Canada’s Ambassador to Japan; Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean at the IMF; Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister; Senior Assistant Deputy Minister for the Department of Finance and Canada’s G7 and G20 Finance Deputy, and earlier Chief Negotiator on China’s WTO accession; and chief counsel for NAFTA.

Colette Kaminsky is the Senior Assistant Deputy Minister of Skills and Employment Branch at Employment and Social Development Canada, responsible for leading Canada`s major labour market policies and programs. Colette has an extensive background in public policy development, economic analysis, negotiations and program implementation, working both internationally and across Canada. Her key career accomplishments include creating one of the government’s largest investment funds for innovation and foreign direct investment, leading the negotiation of major FPT agreements and directing the economic analysis underpinning major international trade agreement negotiations. She has previously worked at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Privy Council Office and Finance Canada.

Angella MacEwen is the senior economist at CUPE National and fellow with the Broadbent Institute. She regularly speaks and writes about economic issues from the perspective of workers. Angella is a member of the Domestic Advisory Council for the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement and was involved in tri-national labour negotiations for the CUSMA in 2017. She is a member of the National Stakeholder Advisory Panel for the Labour Market Information Council and was a member of the Labour Force Survey Expert Panel during COVID. She is currently the EI Commissioner for Workers’ Expert Advisor and is a member of the Affordability Action Council.

Tyler Meredith is partner at Meredith Boessenkool & Phillips. First enticed into political life in late 2015, Tyler was recruited from a think tank to advise Canada’s Prime Minister on domestic economic policy. Tyler then spent the next seven years in government because he knew there was no other job where he could impact so many people in so many positive ways in such a short period of time. Tyler helped deliver six federal budgets, held responsibility for tax and financial sector policy, including all financial sector transaction reviews from 2019-2022, and architected two winning federal campaign platforms. Tyler is also Fellow at University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and Fellow at the Maytree Foundation.

Doug Porter is Chief Economist at BMO Financial Group. With over 30 years experience, he guides macroeconomic and financial market forecasts and co-writes the firm’s weekly flagship publication, Focus. His team has won numerous forecasting awards, recently attaining a #1 ranking for Top U.S. Forecaster among 60 global firms in the 2023 Focus Economics Survey, and #1 for Top Canadian Inflation Forecaster among 28 firms. Douglas’ career began at the Bank of Canada; then, before joining BMO, he held the positions of Economist and Country Risk Analyst with other Canadian financial institutions. He has been a member of C.D. Howe’s Monetary Policy Council since 2008 and serves on the Investment Management Committees of the Bank of Montreal’s Canada Pension Plan and Western’s Endowment Fund.

Shannon Proudfoot is a feature writer covering federal politics for The Globe and Mail. She loves writing about the human side of politics and the difference between what people say and what they mean, and as a former working-class kid from Northern Ontario, she is fascinated and often enraged by how we talk about social class. She has profiled Doug Ford, Pierre Poilievre and Katie Telford, sketched out the mad circus of the 2024 Republican and Democratic National Conventions and also covered a 1,000-mile dog sled race, a royal wedding and a competitive tug-of-war team. Previously, she was the Ottawa bureau chief at Maclean’s and a staff writer at Sportsnet, Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen.

Heather Scoffield is senior vice-president of strategy at the Business Council of Canada, focused on collaborating with business leaders and policymakers to find practical solutions to the economic challenges of our time. From 2019 to 2023, Heather was Ottawa bureau chief and economics columnist at the Toronto Star. She was Ottawa bureau chief for The Canadian Press from 2009 to 2019, leading an award-winning team of 15 journalists focused on politics, public policy and the nation’s capital, prior to which she spent 12 years at the Globe and Mail where she and her team won several National Newspaper Awards for their work, among other recognitions.

Stephen Tapp is the Chief Economist at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and a key member of the Chamber’s executive leadership team. He is responsible for the operations of the Business Data Lab as well as economic analysis and research. Stephen is also the current President of the Canadian Association for Business Economics and a member of the Canadian Statistics Advisory Council. He has over 20 years of experience at many of Canada’s top economic organizations including at: Export Development Canada as the Deputy Chief Economist, the Bank of Canada, Parliamentary Budget Office, Finance Canada, and the Institute of Research on Public Policy. Stephen’s research on trade was awarded the 2018 Purvis Prize for Canadian economic policy.

Trevor Tombe is a Professor at the University of Calgary’s Department of Economics and the Director of Fiscal and Economic Policy at The School of Public Policy. His research explores a broad set of topics, from international trade to public finances to fiscal federalism. He has published in top economics journals, is co-author of the textbook Public Finance in Canada, co-author of a new forthcoming textbook Macroeconomics, co-editor of the recent volume Fiscal Federalism in Canada, and is Co-Director of Finances of the Nation. In addition to his academic work, he actively advises various governments on a wide range of issues and contributes to policy development and discussions through op-eds, articles, and media engagement.

John Weigelt leads Microsoft Canada’s strategic policy and technology efforts. He helps individuals and organizations across Canada innovate with technology while avoiding the unintended consequences that might arise. John has contributed to many technological efforts that established the foundation for the electronic services we take for granted today and he continues to lead efforts to evolve technology standards and policy. His extensive experience in technology, business and policy provides him with a unique perspective of our technology enabled economy.
When he’s not thinking about what’s next in technology, you’ll either find John tending his bees, boiling maple syrup or brewing cider at his home or travelling the globe in search of his next culinary adventure.

Armine Yalnizyan is the Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers and writes a bi-weekly business column for the Toronto Star. She was senior economic policy advisor to the federal Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada in 2018 and 2019 and raised awareness of the she-cession and the care economy during the pandemic, serving on a high-level federal task group. Armine advanced the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Inequality Project from 2006 to 2016, provided weekly business commentary for CBC from 2011 to 2018, and served as Vice-President and President of the Canadian Association for Business Economics from 2013-2019.

Bryan Yu is AVP and Chief Economist at Central 1 Credit Union. He leads the organization’s Economics services and its IFRS9 National Analytics Platform business lines. As leader of the IFRS9 business, Bryan oversees revenue growth, client retention, platform investment and provides technical expertise. Bryan speaks regularly at credit union and industry events and frequently provides national and provincial economic commentary in the media. He sits on several Central 1 Treasury and Risk committees and is an appointed member of the BC Economic Forecast Council and Invest Vancouver. Bryan joined Central 1 in 2010, and previously worked as a housing economist for the BC Real Estate Association and CMHC. He currently volunteers on the boards of S.U.C.C.E.S.S., and the Canadian Association for Business Economics.

Jordan Zed is currently serving as the Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet in Artificial Intelligence at the Privy Council Office (PCO) of the Government of Canada. He previously served as Assistant Secretary in the Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat where he supported two Cabinet Committees. Prior to joining PCO, he was Director General of the External and Trade Policy Branch at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada where he focused on international AI collaboration. A lawyer by training, Jordan has held various positions at the Treasury Board Secretariat, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (now GAC).