Archived events
The Election and the Economy
October 7, 2024 @ Vancouver, BC
Presenting sponsors
Meet the panelists
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Ian MacGregor has been Chairman of the Board of North West Refining since its inception in 2004 and was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer in January 2014. Ian serves as a member of both the North West Redwater Partnership Executive Leadership Committee and Management Committee. Ian has been involved in most aspects of the Sturgeon Refinery’s design, corporate structure, financing and construction.
Ian is a Partner and Co-founder of North West Capital where he founded the Sturgeon Refinery and Enhance Energy. He has spent his career starting and running technical businesses in every area of the energy industry. Ian’s specialty is starting from scratch, usually with a novel idea or at the least, with a different approach and having the tenacity to operationalize it and make it a success.
Ian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary.
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Recently recognized by Vancouver Magazine as one of British Columbia's 50 most influential citizens, Mr.Sihota was the first Indo-Canadian elected to a Legislature and first Indo-Canadian appointed as a Cabinet Minister. With a background in law, politics, public administration, broadcasting, real estate and business development, Mr. Sihota provides strategic advice to a select number of business, labour, and First Nations organizations. Awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for contributions to community and a regular commentator on CBC Radio, Mr.Sihota operates a boutique Consulting Firm specializing and assisting clients with Provincial and Municipal requirements.
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Serving community is businessman Yuri Fulmer’s life’s work. An entrepreneur from age 19, Yuri successfully built up a $60 million business portfolio before he turned 30. Along the way, his company was listed twice on the Profit 100 as one of the country’s largest and fastest growing private companies.
He rebranded in 2010 to continue his successful track record in enabling small and mid-cap businesses to reach their next level of growth. His vision is to create a company that strives to be an ethical support network for entrepreneurs and their companies.
Fulmer & Company is presently invested in 28 businesses globally. These businesses span a vast array of industries from sustainable construction firms, consumer packaged goods, industrial water filtration systems, and many more. He has a particular focus on technologies and products that are environmentally focused and maintains a strong connection with each founder, mentoring them to success. Fulmer portfolio companies have five times been named among Canada’s Fastest Growing Private Companies.
Currently, Yuri serves as the only Canadian on the Board of United Way Worldwide, the world’s largest social service charity with annual revenues over $5 billion. He is Co-Chair of the Vancouver Fireworks Festival Society and a Director of the BC Achievement Foundation. Yuri is also Capilano University’s Fourth Chancellor, making him the youngest University Chancellor in Canada.
Yuri has donated his time to several other volunteer Boards throughout his career, including The Vancouver Foundation, The Boys and Girls Club, Vancouver Opera, Minerva Foundation, Vancouver Opera and Surrey Foodbank.
In 2019, Yuri established The Fulmer Foundation to take Fulmer & Company’s community investment to the next level, continuing his long-standing commitment to helping improve social issues with more than just financial support. One of the Foundation’s biggest undertakings is the management and support of Goodly Foods Society — a social enterprise working to repurpose surplus produce from local suppliers, while creating employment opportunities for people in need.
Yuri works hard to personally support Truth & Reconciliation and encourage others to do the same. To that end, he has been the title sponsor of the largest dedicated art prize in Canada for First Nations through the BC Achievement Foundation for the past three years; he has plans to expand this prize nationally.
As much as recognition is not what drives him, Yuri feels truly honoured to have received a considerable amount of awards for his contributions to others, including: Canada’s Top Forty Under 40 (2008), The BC Community Achievement Award (2010), The Spirit of Vancouver Award (2011), The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012), The Joseph and Rosalie Segal Community Vision Award 2014), Business in Vancouver’s Living Legend (2021 & 2022), and The Order of British Columbia (2010), our Province’s highest honour, for Yuri’s “dynamic entrepreneurship and committed volunteerism”.
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David Williams is Vice President of Policy at the Business Council of British Columbia. He leads the development of research and advice to government on economic policy, productivity, investment, innovation, taxation and human capital.
David joined the Council in 2018 after six years as Senior Economist at the Bank of Canada. Prior to immigrating to Canada, he spent nine years in increasingly senior roles in the Australian public service. He was Senior Adviser for Economic Policy at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet before taking leave to pursue postgraduate studies at Oxford University. While at Oxford, David was a lecturer in economics and a PhD research intern at the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C.
He is Immediate Past President of the Association of Professional Economists of B.C., an organization representing around one hundred of the province’s top economists, and a member of the adjudication committee for the Canadian Economic Association’s Mike McCracken Award for Economic Statistics.
David holds a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Philosophy in economics from Oxford University.
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As CFIB’s Director for British Columbia and Western Economic Policy, Jairo leads the organization’s advocacy, research, and policy analysis efforts in the province, representing nearly 10,000 small and medium-sized businesses. He also plays a key role in regional and national economic policy advocacy, focusing on critical issues like carbon taxes, capital investment, and minimum wage reforms. Jairo’s op-eds have been featured in leading outlets such as the Financial Post and the Globe and Mail.
With a background in energy policy, he has extensive experience in carbon pricing and energy markets, previously working as an energy policy analyst at the Fraser Institute. His expertise spans local government in Colombia, where he focused on investment and competitiveness policy. Jairo holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science and International Relations from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Calgary.