For over forty seasons, Canadian Club Toronto and the National Post have gathered
expert panelists each New Year for a forecast luncheon on the economy, the markets and political issues that
will affect Canadians in the year ahead.
This year’s expert panel will be moderated by Bruce Sellery, Personal Finance
Journalist and President of Canadian Club Toronto, and will feature:
Kevin Carmichael
National Business Columnist, Financial
Post
Kevin Carmichael is the National Business Columnist at the Financial Post and a senior fellow at the Centre for
International Governance Innovation.
For more than a decade, he shifted between Ottawa and Washington, DC, writing about economics and politics for
Bloomberg News and the Globe. For two years starting in the autumn of 2014, he was based in Mumbai, taking advantage
of a chance to for a new vantage point on global affairs.
More recently, Kevin has written for Canadian Business, Maclean’s and FiveThirtyEight. He has been described as one
of Canada’s leading business journalists, contributing to several award-winning projects at the Globe and Mail and
earning a nomination for a Canadian National Magazine in Canada in 2010.
Amanda Lang
Anchor, Bloomberg Television Canada
Amanda Lang rejoined BNN Bloomberg in January 2018, returning to the channel she helped create almost 19 years
earlier. As New York correspondent, she was a key part of the team that launched BNN Bloomberg’s predecessor,
ROBTV, in 1999.
Lang has been covering business news in North America for 20 years. She started her journalism career at The Globe
and Mail and then the National Post, before moving into television with ROBTV and then CNN.
Lang returned to BNN Bloomberg/ROBTV in 2002 as anchor of the network’s flagship morning show before creating
and hosting SQUEEZEPLAY, a nightly issues-driven debate show with Kevin O’Leary. In 2009, Lang left BNN
Bloomberg to join the CBC as its senior business correspondent. Most recently she worked as an anchor for Bloomberg
Television Canada.
Lang studied architecture at the University of Manitoba before becoming a journalist. Her best-selling book, The
Power of Why, (HarperCollins, October 2012) explores the connection between curiosity and success. Her second book,
The Beauty of Discomfort, was published in 2017.
Jean-François Perrault
Senior Vice-President and Chief
Economist, Scotiabank
Jean-François Perrault joined Scotiabank on December 31, 2015 as Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist.
He leads a team of Economists to support Scotiabank’s domestic and international business lines and clients
from retail to capital markets, providing Scotiabank’s senior executives, business lines and customers with
perspectives, insights and forecasts on economic, financial market and policy developments.
Prior to joining Scotiabank, Jean-François held prominent roles with the federal government, the Bank of
Canada, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. His educational background includes Master’s and
Bachelor’s Degrees in Economics from the University of Ottawa.
Shauna Sexsmith
Senior Managing Director, Equities. Manulife Asset Mangement
An investment industry veteran for over 30 years, Shauna Sexsmith manages the
Canadian and North American Growth Equity mandates for institutional and retail clients for Manulife Asset
Management.
Shauna started in the investment industry as a financial advisor (in October 1987!) and quickly realized that
her passion for investing was better suited for portfolio management. By 1993 Shauna had made the transition to
portfolio management and since then has managed the gamut of investment strategies from Dividend and Balanced
funds to North American and Global growth portfolios -for every type of client from high net worth individuals
to mutual funds, pension plans and crown corporations.
Navigating through three decades of economic cycles, market bubbles and crashes, she has delivered her
consistent investment process to a boutique investment firm, a crown corporation and a bank owned investment
manager. Prior to joining Manulife, Shauna was a Vice President & Portfolio Manager with Altamira Management
Limited.
Shauna is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has a Bachelor of Arts in Finance and Economics from the University
of Toronto. In addition to investing, her other passions are the performing arts, travel and wine.
Bruce
Sellery
Personal
Finance Journalist & President, Canadian Club Toronto
Bruce Sellery a personal finance expert and the author of the Globe & Mail bestseller, “Moolala: Why smart
people do dumb things with money (and what you can do about it)”.
He is a columnist for MoneySense and appears regularly on CBC Radio, Cityline and Breakfast Television. He was the
host of Million Dollar Neighbourhood on the Oprah Winfrey Network and an anchor and New York Bureau Chief for
CTV’s Business News Network.
Bruce leads the Financial Literacy Program at Carrot Rewards, an app that rewards users with points for improving
their physical and financial health. He is a graduate of the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University
and sits on its Advisory Board. He is also an alumnus of the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership
Conference.
