Events

Pedro Antunes is the Chief Economist at The Conference Board of Canada where he provides insights and general direction for economic products, which include reports and economic indicators about Canada, its regions, and sectors. He provides professional testimony before parliamentary and senate committees along with media appearances in both English and French. Pedro is widely sought to speak to industry leaders and decision-makers on a wide range of issues and topics impacting Canadians.

Pedro started his professional career in 1987 with the Canadian forecast team at the Bank of Canada, joining the Board in 1992 as part of the provincial forecast team. Over time, he had responsibility for the economic analysis of different provinces and sectors. He also worked on several international projects to help decision-makers in Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, and Ukraine develop appropriate forecasting and policy analysis tools. Among other topics, Pedro has researched the impact of Canada’s demographic change on labour markets, the fiscal sustainability of health care, productivity, and long-term economic growth.

Alan Arcand is a member of the National Policy team where he is responsible for developing and executing CME’s major national research projects, conducting CME’s macroeconomic analysis to support the organization across the country, managing our tax policy efforts, and be a leading voice representing the interests of the association and members with government and with the public.

Before joining CME, Alan spent 19 years at The Conference Board of Canada where he held multiple roles, including the Associate Director of the Centre for Municipal Studies. Alan’s background includes expertise in municipal, regional, and national economic matters including economic forecasting and analysis.

Alan has an M.A. in Economics from Queen’s University.

Glen Hodgson has 40 years of experience in global and Canadian macroeconomics, international finance, fiscal policy, and other “big picture” topics.

Glen’s career spanned the Conference Board of Canada, where he was Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist for over a decade; Export Development Canada (EDC); the Canadian Department of Finance; and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C.

His current affiliations include: Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute; Chief Economist with International Financial Consulting Ltd (IFCL); expert panelist at the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices; and Fellow with the Public Policy Forum. He is a board member of the Veristell Institute, a past president of the Ottawa Economics Association, and was a member of the Ecofiscal Commission.

Recent analysis includes: a UNDP project to develop the first integrated national financial framework for Nigeria; CD Howe Institute research on the governance of Crown corporations, and on the Canadian green bond market; the legislative review of EDC; and aspects of sustainable finance and the economics of climate change.

Glen has co-authored two books and written approx. 450 reports, briefings and articles. He has delivered many presentations to audiences of all types and sizes, and done numerous media interviews via print, TV, radio and social media.

He is a graduate of McGill University, where he was a PhD candidate in economics, and the University of Manitoba.

Brett House is Professor of Professional Practice in the Economics Division at Columbia Business School. His research and writing are focused on macroeconomics and international finance, with interests in fiscal issues, monetary policy, international trade, financial crises, and debt markets. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and international media.

Professor House is also a Fellow with Canada’s Public Policy Forum and a Senior Fellow with the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and Massey College. Earlier in his career he held teaching and research positions with McGill University, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Keble College Oxford, and the University of Cape Town.

Previously, Professor House was Deputy Chief Economist at Scotiabank, Canada’s third-largest and most international universal bank. Earlier, he was Chief Economist at a Toronto-based asset-management start-up and Global Strategist at a New York-based global macro hedge fund. He cut his teeth in financial markets at Goldman Sachs and the World Bank.

In policy-making roles, Professor House was an Economist at the International Monetary Fund for nearly a decade, where he worked on emerging-markets financing. He was also Principal Advisor on Economic Issues in the Office of United Nations Secretary-General during the global financial crisis.

Professor House holds degrees in economics from Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, and the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Brian is of 17 Canadians selected by Action Canada in 2013 for a Fellowship in a premiere national leadership development and public policy program. He was name as a ‘Global Shaper’ (those with great potential for future leadership roles in society) in 2013 by the World Economic Forum.

Brian is also a graduate of the federal government’s Accelerated Economist Training Program geared for developing high potential, master’s-level graduates for policy roles in the Government of Canada through assignments at Industry Canada, the Treasury Board Secretariat, the Privy Council Office and the Department of Finance.

Marwa is the Senior Research Director at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Prior to her role at the Chamber, Marwa served as the Advisor to the Minister of International Cooperation of Egypt for Private Sector Engagement where she managed a portfolio of projects totaling USD 3.2 Billion. She also worked directly with and within some of the world’s most renowned multilateral organizations, private sector organizations, and country governments including the World Bank Group, Commonwealth Secretariat, APEC, OECD, Ernst and Young, Nathan Associates and the Asian Development Bank. In addition to leading dozens of capacity and technical assistance projects, consulting on regulatory, legal and policy reforms with these institutions, she has also co-authored a number of publications and working papers.

Karla Cisneros Rosado is a Defence Economist at Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), part of the Department of National Defence. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in International Affairs, specializing in International Economic Policy, at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA), Carleton University, in Ottawa, Ontario.

Her doctoral research measures the size of the Canada-United States ‘border effect’ in trade from 2000 to 2020. It also examines how the border effect influences international trade flows between Canada and the U.S., as well as the potential factors behind its fluctuations. Additionally, her research breaks down the national border effect by pairing
Canadian provinces and territories with U.S. states to identify regions with higher border effects. She hopes her findings will inform Canadian international trade policy and support Canada’s trade negotiations with the United States.

Karla holds a Master of Arts in Economics, specializing in Financial Economics, from Carleton University and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in Economics from Saint Mary’s University. She has co-authored articles, reports, and book chapters on international trade, the impact of state fragility on economic growth an inequality, and strategic foresight, among other topics. She also collaborated with Dr. Yiagadeesen Samy, Director of NPSIA, to develop the economics e-learning curriculum for the Canadian Foreign Service.

Karla is a strong advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and actively contributes as a member of the EDI Committees at DRDC and the Department of National Defence.

Dan Ciuriak is Director and Principal, Ciuriak Consulting Inc. He is also a Fellow in Residence with the C.D. Howe Institute and holds fellowships with the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada . Dan’s professional interests include quantitative trade economics (with a particular emphasis on modelling the impacts of trade agreements), the trade and economic implications of the digital transformation, Canada’s Asia Pacific relations, and the economics of development. He has published widely as author and editor. He concluded a 31-year career with the federal public service in 2008 as Deputy Chief Economist at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).