Christopher Ragan has been teaching economics at McGill University since 1989. He is also a Research Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute where from 2010 through 2013 he held the Institute’s David Dodge Chair in Monetary Policy, and for many years was a member of the Institute’s Monetary Policy Council. From January 2009 through June 2010, he was the Clifford Clark Visiting Economist at the Department of Finance in Ottawa, where he served as a senior advisor to the Minister and other senior Finance officials. During 2004-05, he served as the Special Advisor to the Governor of the Bank of Canada. Ragan is the author of Economics (formerly co-authored with Richard Lipsey), which after fourteen editions is still the most widely used introductory economics textbook in Canada. Ragan also has a regular column in The Globe and Mail. During the mid-1990s he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of World Economic Affairs. Chris Ragan received his B. A. (Honours) in economics in 1984 from the University of Victoria and his Master’s degree in economics from Queen’s University in 1985. He then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where he completed his Ph.D. in economics at M.I.T. in 1989.

Elizabeth Beale is an economist. She recently retired as President and CEO of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (APEC), a position she held from 1996 to 2015. She currently serves as a director of Wawanesa Insurance, Invest Nova Scotia, DHX Media, and Compute Canada. She remains active in Canadian public policy as a commissioner of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, advisory board member for Smart Prosperity, member of the National Statistics Council and member of the Board of Economic Advisors for the government of Prince Edward Island. In 2015, she was appointed as a lifetime member of the Atlantic Canada Economics Association and Fellow of the World Academy of Productivity Science.

Ms. Beale has served as an advisor to government and industry on economic strategies for Atlantic Canada throughout her career, authoring numerous studies on regional development, labour market, and trade topics. She has combined her commitment to progressive policy research with civil society engagement, serving as governor of Dalhousie University from 2000 to 2010, director of the University of Prince Edward Island’s research commercialization initiative (Three Oaks Innovation) from 2006 to 2010 and advisory board member of the Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development at Memorial University from 2005 to 2014.

Ms. Beale is a graduate of the universities of Toronto (B.A.) and Dalhousie (M.A. Economics). She resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Laurel Broten is President and CEO of Nova Scotia Business Inc., the business development agency for the province of Nova Scotia and is a former Bay street lawyer, Ontario Cabinet Minister, public policy expert, advocate and mother of twin boys, Zachary and Ryan.

Laurel earned both a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science degree from McMaster University, followed by a juris doctorate from the University of Western Ontario. Upon graduation, Laurel was selected as a law clerk to Madam Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Laurel has extensive experience in cluster economic development and job creation with positive impact on creative industries, food processing as well as the green energy and clean tech sectors.

Peter J. M. Nicholson is semi-retired after a career in the public and private sectors during which he was: the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Canadian Academies (2006-09), the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy in the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada (2003-06); Special Advisor to the Secretary-general of the OECD (2002-03); Chief Strategy Officer of BCE Inc., Canada’s largest telecommunications company (1995-2002); Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Minnesota (1969-73). His career has also included senior executive positions in banking and the fisheries industry, as well as in Canada’s federal public service. He holds a BSc and MSc in physics from Dalhousie University and a PhD in operations research from Stanford University. Dr. Nicholson is a Member of the Order of Canada, and has been awarded honorary degrees by five universities in Canada. He currently splits his time between Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia and Austin, Texas.

Finn Poschmann joined APEC as President and CEO in September 2015 after 17 years with the C.D Howe Institute, serving most recently as Vice President, Policy Analysis. He has worked in numerous areas within economics, including public finance and taxation, financial services and housing finance, federal-provincial relations, and competition law and regulatory policy. An award winning author, Mr. Poschmann has written or co-authored more than 50 peer reviewed studies, and penned countless columns for the National Post and The Globe and Mail. He has served on the Federal Advisory Panel on Canada’s System of International Taxation.