Angus Watt

CEO and Partner of Angus Watt Advisory Group and Managing Director, Individual Investor Services, National Bank Financial
His expertise is in assisting with long term Financial Planning, Group Benefits, and Estate Planning. Angus and his group manage over $600,000,000 in assets, have over 125 years of combined market experience, and are specialists in Investment Management as well as Financial Planning, Individual Insurance, Group Insurance and Benefits planning. As Central Alberta's Business Authority, Angus broadcasts over 50 times per week on Global TV and 630 CHED.

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Dr. Michael B. Percy

Professor of Strategic Management, University of Alberta School of Business
An economist, he was Dean of the University of Alberta School of Business from 1997 to 2011. He has published extensively in the area of public policy, trade and international and regional economic development. He is an active commentator on current public policy issues and teaches in a number of executive development programs. He has participated on a number of advisory panels for the federal and provincial governments including several provincial health care advisory panels. He was also a member of the Expert Panel on Equalization and Territorial Funding Formula.

Peter Tertzakian

Chief Energy Economist and Managing Director, ARC Financial Corporation
He began his career as a geophysicist in 1982. He spent 8 years immersed in field operations, seismic data processing and geophysical software development. He moved from oil & gas to the financial sector in 1990. For 20 years, he has been analyzing technology and energy-related businesses. Because of his experience in the energy industry, he is widely regarded as an energy historian, analyst and futurist. Peter's 2 books, A Thousand Barrels a Second and The End of Energy Obesity provide insight into the dynamic world of energy through an examination of economic, environmental and geopolitical pressures.

Michael Holden

Senior Economist, Canada West Foundation
Michael's work with the foundation focuses primarily on policy issues related to energy and natural resources in the western Canadian economy. His other research interests include fiscal federalism, international trade and public finance. Prior to assuming his present position, Michael worked for 9 years as an analyst at the Library of Parliament in Ottawa, providing objective, non-partisan research and analysis to Senators, Members of Parliament and parliamentary committees, most notably the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade.

Heather Smith

President of the United Nurses of Alberta
The United Nurses of Alberta represents more than 25,000 Registered Nurses, Registered Psychiatric Nurses and allied health care workers. She is a well-known advocate of universal public health care and has played a key role in many campaigns to protect and enhance public health care in Canada. Smith was first elected president of UNA in 1988 and has served in that role ever since.

George F. J. Gosbee

President and CEO, AltaCorp Capital
His career spans 20 years in corporate finance, investment banking and global capital markets. Prior to founding his current firm in 2010, Mr. Gosbee was Chairman, President & CEO of Tristone Capital Global Inc., a global energy investment firm which he founded in 2000. Prior to that, Mr. Gosbee spent over 8 years as a Managing Director in a regional and then a national investment firm.

Dr. Joseph Doucet

Interim Dean, Stanley A. Milner Chair in Leadership with the University of Alberta
Joseph joined the University of Alberta School of Business in 2000 and quickly helped grow and champion the now 11-year-old MBA specialization in Natural Resources, Energy and Environment, as well as the Centre for Applied Business Research in Energy and the Environment. He was also the first Director of the University of Alberta's School of Energy and the Environment from 2006 - 2010. His professional interests are in energy and regulatory economics and policy and he is a frequent commentator in the media and analyst to government departments, regulatory agencies and private sector entities in the energy sector. Recent examples are his appointments to three provincial panels including Environmental Monitoring and Reporting, Nuclear Power, and the recently established Critical Transmission Review Committee.

Liz O'Neill

Executive Director, Boys and Girls Big Brothers Big Sisters
Liz's career for the past 30 years has been devoted to service to children. She began her career at the Department of Secretary of State in youth policy and programming and then became the Field Director of Youth Services for the Ontario Youth Secretariat. In 1979, Liz became the Executive Director of Big Sisters of Edmonton. The agency at that time served 50 children and had a budget of $60,000. In 1991 Big Sisters and Big Brothers merged and created Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton and Area. Today the agency has merged with Boys and Girls Clubs of Edmonton and Area and is now known as Boys and Girls Big Brothers Big Sisters and serves over 4500 children with 95 staff and a budget of $6 million.

Jack Mintz

Director and Palmer Chair, School of Public Policy for the University of Calgary
Jack is the former president and CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute and world-renowned fiscal and tax policy specialist. He commenced his Chair position in the School of Public Policy on January 1, 2008. The School is a collaborative partnership with several faculties, departments and institutes at the University, among them the Faculty of Law. The pan-university School of Public Policy is an international centre of expertise in policy studies, including government, defence, health, economics, and energy and the environment. The School is building on the wealth of policy studies expertise already in place at the University of Calgary, notably in political science, law, business, economics, and energy and environmental studies.

Derek Fildebrandt

Alberta Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Serving as the CTF's National Research Director from 2009 to 2012, Derek built a reputation for finding hard facts, writing provocative reports and going toe-to-toe with some of Ottawa's most entrenched interests. He authored major reports on MP pensions, federal debt, gas taxes and payroll taxes. After completing his studies at Carleton University, Derek served as a policy analyst for the Forum of Labour Market Ministers in Victoria, BC, where he pushed to liberalize internal trade and labour mobility.

Dr. Leo de Bever

Chief Executive Officer, Alberta Investment Management Corporation
Leo leads the AIMCo team in its efforts to deliver superior long-term results for clients. Leo is a representative on the Board of Directors of the River Valley Alliance in Edmonton and Dutch pension fund ABP. He is Co-Chair of the Alberta Financial Services Steering Committee and also sits on the President¹s Think Tank for the University of Alberta.

Mary Webb

Senior Economist and Manager, Provincial Economics, Scotiabank
Beyond Mary's broad involvement in the Canadian and U.S. forecasts, she is responsible for urban and fiscal policy analysis and is the author of Fiscal Pulse, which covers federal and provincial/state budgetary policy. Mary also looks after a range of special research projects, including trends in the financial services sector and environmental policy. She is actively involved in servicing both clients and the senior management of the Scotiabank Group and is a frequent economic commentator in the media.

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Adam Legge

President and CEO, Calgary Chamber of Commerce
Adam has a strong base of knowledge in the Calgary economy and business community having created numerous economic forecasts, studies and analyses of the local and regional economy. He is an advocate for active contribution towards building our community and believes in vibrant and healthy businesses and its community contributes to the overall prosperity of the city.

» Adam Legge interview (YouTube)

Dr. Tom Flanagan

Professor of Political Science, University of Calgary
He writes a monthly column for the Globe and Mail and appears frequently on the CBC. He managed the Wildrose provincial campaign in Alberta's 2012 election.

Gil McGowan

President, Alberta Federation of Labour
Gil was recently re-elected to his 4th term as president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), Alberta's largest union organization, representing more than 145,000 workers in both the public and private sectors. He worked for the Alberta labour movement as a researcher, communications officer and community organizer for a decade before being first elected as AFL president in 2005. As a union staff member and communications coordinator for the group Friends of Medicare, McGowan helped lead the broad public opposition to privatization in Alberta's health care system. As President of the AFL, McGowan has presided over the substantial growth of his organization and has been instrumental in putting many important issues on the agenda for public discussion in Alberta, including workplace safety, the use (and abuse) of temporary foreign workers and the loss of jobs due to the increasing export of raw bitumen (as opposed to creating value-added jobs in the province by doing the upgrading and refining here). Sil is the author of several award-winning studies on the Alberta economy including Crumbs From the Table, Missing Out on the Boom and Lost Down the Pipeline. He appears regularly in the Alberta media as a spokesperson for labour issues and is a frequent author of guest columns in Alberta's major newspapers.

Hal Kvisle

Chief Executive Officer with Talisman Energy, Inc.
Hal was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer in September 2012. He has worked in the oil and gas industry since 1975 and in the utilities and power industry since 1999. Prior to joining Talisman, Hal was President and CEO of TransCanada for 10 years, President of Fletcher Challenge Energy Canada Inc., and played a leadership role with Dome Petroleum.

» Hal Kvisle interview (YouTube)