Education and Career Pathways in Economics

Frank Clayton, a Ph.D. graduate in economics from Queen’s University, has devoted his career to the analysis of urban and real estate market issues and policies, initially with CMHC and then as head of his own economic consulting firm. Frank founded Clayton Research in 1972 which was then acquired by Altus Group in 2007.  Dr. Clayton is a co-founder and Senior Research Fellow at Ryerson University’s Centre for Urban Research and Land Development. The Centre’s mandate is to advance the contribution of economic analysis and real estate market understanding to more effective and cost-efficient urban policies with a focus on the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

Maria Solovieva is an Economist at TD Economics where she provides analysis on the U.S. macroeconomy with a primary focus on consumer spending, and forecasts U.S. Commercial Banks’ lending and deposit volumes. Maria first joined TD Economics in 2014 when she became responsible for developing macroeconomic stress scenarios and researching a wide variety of risks to the bank’s financial stability. Maria holds a Master of Finance degree from Queen’s University and she is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder. She is currently a Director at the Toronto Association for Business Economics (TABE).

Ted Tsiakopoulos is a professional economist and sought after speaker with over 25 years of experience analyzing real estate and financial markets. As CMHC’s Ontario Regional Economist, Ted provided strategic direction on regional analytics to a team of economists while being accountable for the quality of analytical reports/research, analysis, and metro area forecast publications that were produced in the region. In 2019, he joined CMHCs Policy Division leading a modelling effort, in partnership with an external consultant, to determine the impacts land use, transportation, macro-prudential, economic/demographic policies have on very localized housing markets. Ted obtained a masters degree in economics from York and also studied at the London School of Economics in the UK.

David is a portfolio manager in the Global Asset Allocation (GAA) group at Fidelity Investments. He is also a principal liaison for portfolio management to a broad range of current and prospective clients and internal partners, providing detailed portfolio reviews and serving as a key conduit of client objectives, requirements, and marketplace insight back to the investment team.

Prior to joining Fidelity in November 2016, David was Head of Global Macro Strategy at TD Securities, where he was responsible for a team of strategists providing research and analysis of the global economy and financial markets for the trading floor and a wide range of institutional, corporate, and commercial clients. Previously, David worked in the Investment Strategy and Economics division of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and he started his career as an Economist focused on the US economy in the International Department of the Bank of Canada.

David holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Queen’s University and a Hon.B.Sc in Economics (Quantitative Methods) from the University of Toronto. David is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.