2009 CanaData Conference Speakers

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: LINDA NAZARETH

Linda’s dynamic presentations guide her audiences through the maze of changing economic, financial, labor market and demographic shifts now hitting North America. Her presentations are always-tailor made for her audience, designed to educate each group about the key trends that will affect their specific outlook.

Linda’s book The Leisure Economy is to be published by John Wiley & Sons in the U.S. and Canada in September 2007 and details what will be a sea change for the North American economy. For the past three decades, we have been steadily creating an extreme ‘time-crunch economy’ that has affected jobs, portfolios, businesses and lives. But the ‘time-crunch economy’ is turning into ‘the leisure economy’ and it will mean wrenching adjustments for our lives and institutions. Everyone from consumers, investors, businesses, and policy-makers will need to understand the changes afoot.

As well as being an economist and author, Linda is also an experienced television journalist who since 1999 has been the in-house economist for Business News Network (BNN), Canada’s only all-business television network. Before to that, she was a senior economist with CIBC and a demographic and labor market economist with the federal government. She is a frequent speaker to business groups, translating economic forecasts into information that can be used for their planning purposes.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: LOU SCHIZAS

Lou Schizas, Report on Business Television's original on-air equities analyst, has been with the company since the service went on air in September, 1999.

Before joining Report on Business Television, Schizas, a life-long investor and entrepreneur, was a Calgary-based financial advisor responsible for $30 million in client assets.

Lou also worked as a personal finance columnist for the Calgary Sun and hosted a popular radio program called The Money Manager on AM 1060 CKMX.

Schizas is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and undertook graduate studies in Economics at the State University of New York. He holds the Canadian Investment Manager (CIM) designation and is a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute.

Schizas is a regular contributor to Canada AM and can also be heard on MOJO Radio AM640 in Toronto.

Lou is a dynamic public speaker and has presented at investor meetings and industry conferences. He also has extensive experience as a Master of Ceremonies and Panel Moderator.

ALEX CARRICK, Chief Economist, CanaData

Alex Carrick carried out his undergraduate work at the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario, Canada), then completed an M. A. in Economics and the first year towards a Doctorate at the University of Toronto. The pull of the job market was too great and Alex went to work for the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction (CISC) in 1972. The CISC is a trade association representing structural steel fabricators in Canada. Mr. Carrick eventually became the Secretary-treasurer as well as the Economist for the CISC.

Since 1985, Mr. Carrick has held the position of Chief Economist with CanaData, a product line of Reed Construction Data, where he has acquired an in-depth knowledge of the Canadian construction industry.

Each fall, Mr. Carrick oversees CanaData’s Annual Construction Forecast publication and updates the information throughout the year in the CanaData Forecaster newsletter (monthly). He is often quoted in the media, especially in the two construction newspapers, The Daily Commercial News and the Journal of Commerce. In the last several years, his work has become more international in scope and he has delivered presentations throughout North America on the Canadian, United States and world construction outlooks.

CanaData is the leading supplier of statistics and forecasting information for the Canadian construction industry. CanaData’s extensive line of products includes CanaData Construction Starts Statistics; Architect and Engineer Activity Reports; Custom Reports; Annual Forecast; CanaData Forecaster Newsletter; Construction Cost Index; and Annual Construction Forecasts Conference. Reed Construction Data is a division of the global publishing firm, Reed Elsevier.

BILL FERREIRA, Director of Government Relations and Public Affair, CCA

Bill Ferreira is the Director of Government Relations and Public Affairs for the Canadian Construction Association, and Executive Director of TRIP Canada (The Road Infrastructure Program of Canada).

Born in Toronto, Bill moved to Ottawa to attend Carleton University where he earned a degree in Political Science. In 1994, he joined the office of the Honourable Sergio Marchi as a Senior Advisor responsible for policy. During his time in government, Bill served in three different portfolios, including Citizenship and Immigration, Environment Canada and International Trade.

Following his departure from government, Bill joined Tactix Government Consulting, a boutique government relations firm in Ottawa with clients in the agricultural, energy, telecommunications and transportation sectors. In 2005, Bill joined the Forest Products Association of Canada as the association’s Director of Government Affairs. Accountable for broadening the reach of the Association in Parliament and throughout the government, Bill cemented key relationships, which were instrumental in the Association achieving many of its government relations objectives in the 39th Parliament.

With more than 15 years experience in public policy development and government affairs, Bill joined the Canadian Construction Association in August, 2008. In this new role, he oversees the management of association activities requiring extensive interaction with senior government officials, Parliamentarians, and management of the association’s public affairs.

WARREN JESTIN, Chief Economist, Scotiabank

Dr. Jestin is Scotiabank’s Chief Economist and has been with the Bank since 1979. Before joining Scotiabank, Warren worked in the Bank of Canada’s Research Department and taught economics at several Canadian universities. He is on the Board of The University of Guelph Heritage Fund and is chair of that University’s College of Management and Economics Advisory Committee. He is also on the Board of Advisors of the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. Warren earned an MA in Economics at the University of Guelph in 1971 and was awarded his doctorate from the University of Toronto in 1977.

Warren is a member of the C.D. Howe Institute’s Monetary Policy Council and has been involved with economic policy committees of the Canadian and Ontario Chambers of Commerce and the Toronto Board of Trade. He is also on the Board of the Markham-Stouffville Hospital. In his role as Chair of Scotiabank’s Sponsorship and Donations Committee, Warren works closely with a wide variety of Canadian charitable institutions.

GREGORY KLUMP, CREA Chief Economist

Gregory Klump is Chief Economist of The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), a position he has held since 2005. He is also a member of the National Housing Research Committee, a group organized by Canada Mortgage and Housing (CMHC). He is also a contributor to the Economic Research Committee of the Canadian Homebuilders Association. He knows the economics of Canada’s housing market. His analysis and forecasts for the Canadian resale housing market are covered on a regular basis by news media across Canada.

Gregory joined CREA in 1992, and has also served as both senior and staff economist for the association. Prior to joining CREA, he was a Market Analyst in the national office of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. He started his career as an economist at the Institute for Research on Public Policy before joining the National Liberal Caucus Research Bureau as a Policy Analyst when Jean Chretien was the Leader of the Opposition. Gregory has a graduate degree in economics from Carleton University in Ottawa.

KORKY KOROLUK, Contributing Editor, Daily Commercial News

Will (Korky) Koroluk has a life-long interest in two subjects: technology and the history of the Canadian prairies where he was born and raised.

After five years as a pilot in what was then the Royal Canadian Air Force, he joined the Winnipeg Free Press in 1961, and has been a journalist ever since, except for two years of graduate study at York University.

His jobs in journalism took him to posts in Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto, as a writer, editor and administrator. He has written extensively about technology and its impact on communities and industries.

That interest led him to Daily Commercial News, where he was managing editor from 1974 to 1979. Since then he has worked as a freelance writer, working for DCN, the Institute for Research in Construction, and the Canadian Institute for Steel Construction, among others. His technical articles have appeared in the Continental Automated Buildings Association Quarterly (now iHomes & Building), Construction Canada, Solplan Review, Construction Innovation, Heavy Construction News, Canadian Consulting Engineer, Home Builder, Canadian Architect, Building, Glass Canada, Canadian Chemical News, Canadian Property Management, and in a range of internal publications of the Institute for Research in Construction.

Although he has slowed his pace somewhat in recent years, he continues to write a weekly column for Daily Commercial News, and provides regular commentary on sustainable construction for Advantage Steel. He also continues to write essays dealing with the history of the Prairie West for clients in western Canada.

PATRICIA MOHR, Vice-President, Economics, Scotiabank

Patricia Mohr is Vice-President, Economics, at Scotiabank’s Executive Offices in Toronto. She is responsible for industry and commodity market research in Scotia Economics and works closely with Scotia Capital’s Corporate and Investment Banking groups, with Global Risk Management and with Global Trading. Scotiabank is Canada’s most international bank.

Ms Mohr developed the Scotiabank Commodity Price Index, which measures price trends for Canadian commodities in export markets, and maintains a close interest in national and international economic and financial market developments.

Ms Mohr holds an Honours BA Degree and a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of British Columbia and originally comes from Vancouver.

Before joining Scotiabank, Ms Mohr spent a number of years with Alberta Energy Co Ltd (now EnCana) in Calgary and with CP Ships and Canadian Pacific Bermuda in London, England as Corporate Economist. Patricia began her career with Natural Resources Canada in Ottawa.

PAUL MORSE, Sr. VP & Gen. Mgr. & National Practice Director, Cushman & Wakefield LePage

Paul Morse is a valued and experienced member of Toronto’s Office Leasing Division. He is responsible for the strategic direction and performance of a group that includes 80 office-leasing professionals, negotiating 800 transactions and representing over seven million square feet of tenancies per year.

Mr Morse joined Royal LePage Commercial (now Cushman & Wakefield LePage) in 1981 and worked for nine years representing both landlords and tenants, becoming a top sales agent. In 1990 he moved to an affiliate of Royal LePage, Brookfield Development, as VP of Leasing for the Ontario Region, for five years. Responsible for the leasing of BCE Place, a 2.5 million square foot office development in Toronto’s financial core, he and his team leased 1.8 million square feet, managed over 225,000 square feet of lease-takeover space and executed over 200 leases. Mr Morse returned to Royal LePage in 1998.

He is past President for the Greater Toronto Area Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP). He was also Chair of the Real Estate Division and a Cabinet Member for the United Way, and is a Board member of the Aspbergers Society of Toronto. Mr Morse graduated from Loyola College at the University of Montreal with an Honours degree in Economics.