Co-chair of the Coalition for a Better Future

Honourable A. Anne McLellan, P.C., O.C., A.O.E. served four terms as the Liberal MP for Edmonton Centre, during which she was Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Minister of Health, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, and Minister of Natural Resources. 

In May 2015, Ms. McLellan became Dalhousie University’s seventh chancellor, a position she held until May 2020.

Ms. McLellan serves on the board of Invest Alberta Corporation as vice-chair.  Among her many community commitments, she is chair of the board of the TELUS Edmonton Community Board. She also serves on the boards of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Ms. McLellan is Co-Chair of the Coalition for a Better Future, a diverse group of over 140 organizations working together to focus on sustainable, inclusive economic growth.

In 2022, Ms. McLellan was appointed Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel for the 41 Combat Engineer Regiment (41 CER), a Reserve unit of the 41 Canadian Brigade-Group (41 CBG).

Following her political tenure, Ms. McLellan served as a senior advisor at Bennett Jones in its Edmonton office from 2006 to 2024.

From 1980 – 1992 she was a professor in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Law and served as both Associate Dean (1985 – 1987) and Acting Dean (1991 – 1992) of the Faculty.  Ms. McLellan holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Law degree from Dalhousie University and a Master of Laws degree from King's College, University of London.

Co-chair, Coalition for a Better Future; Vice-Chair, Global Investment Banking, CIBC

The Honourable Lisa Raitt serves as the co-chair of the Coalition for a Better Future, a diverse group of Canadian leaders and organizations spanning business, labour and civil society – working together to achieve a long-term plan for economic growth that is inclusive and sustainable. 

Ms. Raitt brings a wealth of experience from the public and private sectors. She was elected into the House of Commons in 2008, holding three senior portfolios, serving as Minister of Natural Resources, Minister of Labour, and Minister of Transport. Most recently, Ms. Raitt was the Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition and the Conservative Party of Canada. 

Ms. Raitt joined CIBC Capital Markets in January 2020, having previously worked in both the public and private sectors. Ms. Raitt’s current focus is on senior client coverage and business development with clients in the energy, infrastructure and industrial sectors, which align closely with her deep expertise. Prior to her current role, Ms. Raitt was the President and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority.

Ms. Raitt holds a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Francis Xavier University, a Master's degree in Chemistry from the University of Guelph, and a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School. She was called to the Ontario bar in 1998. In 2020, Ms. Raitt was named a Woodrow Wilson Center Global Fellow of the Canada Institute.

In June 2024, Ms. Raitt was presented with an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa.

Anchor, PrimeTime Politics, CPAC

Michael is a renowned television anchor and reporter, whose broadcasting career has spanned more than two decades of covering some of the most challenging news stories in real time. In addition to being the face of CPAC's live programming, he hosts the channel's nightly political round-up, PrimeTime Politics, and is the first Filipino-Canadian male to anchor a national newscast in Canada. In 2023, Michael was recognized with a Canadian Screen Award for his work anchoring a breaking news special on the Ottawa occupation in February 2022.

Prior to joining CPAC in 2022, Michael spent 12 years as a host and anchor with CBC News Network. Before that, he was a reporter with CTV British Columbia and CityNews Toronto.

External Member of Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee, Senior Research Scholar at Princeton, Coalition for a Better Future Advisory Council Member

Carolyn A. Wilkins joined Princeton University’s Griswold Center for Economic Policy as a senior research scholar in January 2022. She also sits on the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee as an external member and on Intact Financial Corporation’s Board of Directors. She is a mentor for the blockchain stream at the Rotman School of Management’s Creative Destruction Lab.

Prior to these appointments, Ms. Wilkins had a distinguished twenty-year career at the Bank of Canada, serving as Senior Deputy Governor from 2014 to 2020, setting monetary and financial system policies with Governing Council, and overseeing strategic planning and economic research. Ms. Wilkins led the development of the Bank’s market liquidity facilities and large scale asset purchase program as part of its COVID-19 response. She has made important contributions to international financial policies over her career, including as the Bank of Canada’s G20 and G7 Deputy and member of the Financial Stability Board.

Ms. Wilkins holds an Honours BA in Economics from Wilfrid Laurier University and an MA in Economics from Western University. She was named one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award by the Women’s Executive Network in 2016 and 2018.

Senior Vice-President, Power Corporation of Canada

Mr. Genest has been Senior Vice-President of Power Corporation since 2016. He was Senior Vice-President of Power Financial from 2016 until 2020.

Mr. Genest has worked in government, academia, business and as a volunteer in the not-for-profit sector. He served in the federal government as director of policy and research for Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. He was also CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities and assistant vice-president of Bell Canada.

Mr. Genest is Chair of the Board of the National Gallery of Canada. He is also past Chair of the Board, Ontario Region of the Nature Conservancy of Canada and a Board Member of Business for the Arts. He serves on the Advisory Council of the Coalition for a Better Future and is board member of the Rideau Hall Foundation. He is a past Member of the Board of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

A champion of diversity, he has been honored for his advocacy for the rights of the LGBTQ community, including serving as the Deputy Minister Champion of OPS Pride. He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the King Charles the III Coronation Medal. In June 2022, Mr. Genest was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa.

He holds a B.A., Honors (cum laude) in English and Philosophy from the University of Guelph, an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Ottawa, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University. He is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School where he was the Valedictorian. He has also completed the Rotman School of Management, Institute of Corporate Directors - Directors Education Program, where he was also Valedictorian.

Vice President, Public Affairs, Canadian Fuels Association

Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Lisa Stilborn joined the Canadian Fuels Association (CFA) in February 2015 as Vice President of the Ontario Division and was later named Vice President of Public Affairs. With over 30 years of government relations experience, she leads the CFA's government and stakeholder outreach activities.

Prior to joining the CFA, Lisa was Chief Operating Officer at Temple Scott Associates Inc., a leading government relations firm. She has held several directorships and is a current member of the Board of the Ottawa Airport Authority and the former Chair of Bruyère Continuing Care – a network of Ottawa hospitals.   

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto (Trinity College). 

Executive Vice-President, Marketing and Public Affairs, Farm Credit Canada

Todd has spent his entire career working in the agriculture and food sector, including the past 20 years with FCC where he’s held various leadership positions within the organization.

In his current role, Todd leads the team responsible for partnerships and government relations, social media, community investment, communications, and brand management. He holds a bachelor of administration degree in marketing from the University of Regina.

Growing up in rural Saskatchewan, Todd believes strongly in giving back to the community. He has served on the boards of Hope’s Home, the Farm Safe Foundation and the Canadian 4-H Foundation. He currently serves as a board director for the Global Institute for Food Security.

Chief Data Scientist and Founder of the Nanos Research Group of Companies

Nik Nanos is Chief Data Scientist and Founder of the Nanos Research Group of Companies. He leads Nanos Research, one of Canada’s most distinguished research companies, which he founded in 1987. The Nanos Research Group of Companies includes Signal Leadership Communications, a social public relations firm specializing in issues and image management in a digitally disrupted era. It also includes Nanos-dimap Analytika, an analytics and targeting research practice that is a joint venture with dimap, one of Germany’s top research organizations. Nik also leads the team behind the Nanos Bloomberg Canadian Confidence Index which monitors consumer confidence in the Canadian economy and streams data to Bloomberg terminals each week.
He is a community-at-large board member and, as a volunteer, serves as Chair of the Board of Governors of Carleton University. Prior to becoming the Chair, Nik was the Vice-Chair and served on the Community Relations and Advancement Committee, Finance Committee, Audit Committee, HR Compensation Committee, Building Committee, Governance Committee and Nominating Committee for the Board.

Nik has undergraduate degrees in history and political studies and a Master of Business Administration from Queen’s University in Canada. His training includes PhD level studies in quantitative methods at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. He is a Research Associate Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Nik has also been elected a Fellow of the MRIA (FMRIA), the highest professional designation in the marketing research industry in Canada and holds a Certified Management Consulting (CMC) designation.

Nik is a leading corporate business strategist, conducting market and public opinion research and providing counsel to diverse organizations, including Fortune 500 companies and non-profit groups. A data scientist, speaker, commentator and author on economic, social, consumer and business trends, he is a sought-after resource for insight on the latest forces reshaping the world.

Editor-at-Large, The Hub

Theo Argitis is The Hub’s Editor-at-Large for economics and business. Theo has been a journalist for the better part of three decades, spending much of his career leading Canadian government and economic news coverage for Bloomberg News in Ottawa. Most recently, he served as Managing Director at Compass Rose Group, a prominent public affairs firm in the nation’s capital.

Chief Economist, Deloitte Canada

Dawn Desjardins is an economist and executive with experience in researching economic and policy issues. Over her career she has communicated complex issues to clients, decision-makers and media audiences. She was RBC’s Deputy Chief Economist, a reporter for Bloomberg Financial News in Canada and a bond strategist at JP Morgan Canada. At RBC, Dawn managed a team of economists who were responsible for the economic and financial market forecasts for Canada and the US. A passionate advocate of women’s labour market engagement, in recent years, Dawn used her research to start conversations, drive policy discussions and effect change.

President and Chief Economist, Centre for the Study of Living Standards

Stephen Tapp is the CEO and Chief Economist at the Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS). Established in 1995, CSLS is a national, independent, non-profit research organization focused on productivity, living standards and economic well-being.

Stephen was previously the Chief Economist and SVP of Research, Data and Analytics at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. In that role, he was a key member of the executive leadership team, and was responsible for the development and operations of the Business Data Lab as well as economic analysis and research.

Stephen is currently the President of the Canadian Association for Business Economics and a member of the Canadian Statistics Advisory Council.

He has 25 years of diverse 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, academia as well as think tanks such as the Institute for Research on Public Policy and the C.D. Howe Institute.

Stephen’s research was awarded the Purvis prize for Canadian economic policy and has been published in academic journals, including the Canadian Journal of Economics and Canadian Public Policy. 

He has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Queen’s University and an Honours B.A. in Economics with Distinction from Western University. 

Head Economist, Canadian Bankers Association

Alex Ciappara, CFA is the Vice President, Head Economist at the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) where he has worked for more than 18 years. He researches and advocates on issues such as housing finance, business financing including small business and agricultural lending, international trade, deposit insurance, registered plans and the structure of the Canadian banking system, among others. Prior to this, he worked on Parliament Hill in various capacities advising Parliamentarians. 

Alex has earned his MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics (LSE) and was a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Chevening Scholar. He also earned a BA (Honours) in Political Studies and Economics from Queen’s University, and is a CFA Charterholder. He is also currently the President & Chair of the Board of Directors for the Toronto Association for Business and Economics (TABE) and the former Chair of the Board of Directors for Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (TOAF). He is also a mentor with the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) and TABE.