What is your current position?
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Hearsay and Vice President, Policy, Ontario Chamber of Commerce
What attracted you to your program of study at the BSIA?
The program was in its nascency when I attended but I was very much attracted to the broad range of topics and courses that I would be exposed to in a concentrated and rigorous curriculum. The wide range of skills that I acquired in that period would prove to be invaluable to me in my career.
What was the most impactful experience you had while completing your graduate degree?
The quality and attentiveness of the teaching made this program a unique and memorable experience from start to finish. I would be remiss not to give special thanks to a few folks in particular who inspired me:
• Professor Derek Hall who brought the topic of political economy to life through thought provoking discussions, assignments and movie nights.
• Professor Azim Essaji who blended humor with international economics in a way that made his class something I would look forward to every week and continue to reflect on longingly.
• Professor Tracy Snoddon who took the topic of public economics and made it relatable to the class by translating dense and complex issues into meaningful examples that personally resonated with me until this day.
• Professor Tammy Schirle who had the difficult job of engaging students with a broad range of technical backgrounds in statistics and did so in a way that brought everyone along with her.
Lastly, I owe a debt of gratitude and sincere thanks to the late Professor Barry Kay who initially inspired my interest in policy and politics through his inspired lectures, personal anecdotes, and the interest he took in his students. Professor Kay was a transformational professor for me and so many of his students and I miss him dearly.
Tell us about your job, what do you do?
My job at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) involves managing the department that sets the OCC’s policy and advocacy direction, managing the strategic relationships with the our diverse stakeholders and ensuring continued credibility through principled research, analysis, partnerships, and advocacy.
Perhaps what I am most proud of is evolving the Chamber from an organization that previously would take more traditional and narrow positions on policy issues (i.e. no rise in the minimum wage) towards an organization that has produced thoughtful research on the role of the business community in Economic Reconciliation, affordable housing, and being the first chamber of commerce in Canada to tackle climate change.
How does your work help make a difference?
The height of COVID was a period in which it was particularly important to bring people together along a shared mission and ensure the organization was taking the right positions amidst a rapidly changing backdrop.
First this involved ensuring that, despite the difficulties that public health restrictions were causing our members, we would not be taking aim at public health but rather talking about the importance of public health and the economy, dispelling the idea that it had to be a trade-off.
Second, this involved making sure the chamber was playing a thoughtful, evidence-based leadership role throughout the crisis. I’ll focus on the vaccination passport campaign as a tangible example.
At a time when no other business association or group across Canada was talking about this as an economic issue, I led the charge pointing out that Ontario was the only jurisdiction in Canada that already has rules of the road when it comes to vaccine mandates and led an effort internally and externally to build out our position. This was a challenge as some needed convincing, and some wanted us to advocate openly for anti-vax positions altogether.
There were difficult conversations to be had but I had the help of health experts who came to our town halls to help educate members and field questions. In a first ever for the OCC, the Policy team led our partnership with the legal experts at McCarthy to release the vax pass tenets – adding gravitas to what we were saying.
Most importantly, we needed to actually make an impact and influence government to move in a direction that they were otherwise resistant to and public health restrictions eased as a result.
What are the next steps in your career progression… where do you see yourself going?
My role at the OCC has exposed me to the impacts of the pandemic on downtown Toronto, which remains a shadow of its pre-pandemic self.
Nearly every organization has tried to persuade their employees back to the workplace, albeit without much success. That spells trouble for Canada’s economic engine and the many service businesses that rely on foot traffic.
This inspired me and a former colleague (Claudia Dessanti) to try to fix this problem and get people excited about being downtown by connecting professionals with business and policy networking events in the city through the founding of Hearsay.
Hearsay’s mission is to:
• Connect professionals in Toronto with a curated list of the best events for networking and industry insights.
• Make the return to in-office days more purposeful, so we can revitalize the downtown core together in a meaningful way.
• Help fill the right rooms with the right people.
Toronto is a hub for high-profile events, but there’s no easy way to see what’s happening on any given week. It’s mostly a word-of-mouth game. Hearsay provides subscribers with a one-stop, curated guide to the best lunches, conferences, debates, roundtables, and other events relevant to their industries and careers.
Regardless of where you are in your career, if you are in the GTA I encourage you to subscribe here: https://hearsayto.substack.com/
What advice do you have for a potential student looking to complete their degree at the BSIA? Or for someone looking to work in Global Governance and International Policy?
Do it.