The Competition and Growth Summit

June 1 to 3, 2021

As governments transition from crisis management to economic recovery, a central question is how to foster economic growth when entire sectors of the economy as well as public finances have been upended. The Competition and Growth Summit will examine this issue and the role that competitive markets can play in driving economic growth in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Competition and Growth Summit will feature a series of three virtual panels from June 1 to June 3, 2021. International and domestic experts will discuss topics including how competition can foster inclusive growth, government strategies to apply a competition lens in achieving policy goals, and lessons learned by competition authorities through the pandemic.

On this page

• Registration – closed
• Panels
• Speaker bios

Panels

Speaker bios

• Panel 1 – Competition, productivity and economic growth

  Keynote speaker:

  The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, M.P., Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

  Minister Champagne is a businessman, lawyer, and international trade specialist with over 20 years' experience at large international companies in Europe, particularly in the fields of energy, engineering, and innovation.

  Before entering politics, Minister Champagne was Vice-President and Senior Counsel of ABB Group, a leader in cutting-edge technology that operates in more than 100 countries. He also served as Strategic Development Director, acting General Counsel, and Chief Ethics Officer and Member of the Group Management Committee of AMEC Foster Wheeler, a world leader in the energy sector.

  In 2009, Minister Champagne was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He has served on several boards over the years, and was notably President of the Canadian-Swiss Chamber of Commerce and the Banff Forum.

  After his election in 2015, Minister Champagne served as a parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Finance until 2017, when he was appointed Minister of International Trade. During his time as Minister of International Trade, the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement entered into force, and Canada signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. In 2018, he was named Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, and oversaw the federal government's ambitious $187 billion infrastructure investment plan. He was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2019.

  Minister Champagne holds a Bachelor of Laws from the Université de Montréal and a Master of Laws in American law from Case Western Reserve University. Minister Champagne also studied public and private international law at The Hague Academy of International Law, in the Netherlands.

  Moderator:

  Jeanne Pratt, Senior Deputy Commissioner, Mergers and Monopolistic Practices Branch, Competition Bureau

  Jeanne Pratt is Senior Deputy Commissioner of Mergers and Monopolistic Practices branch at the Canadian Competition Bureau. She oversees the review of merger transactions and investigations related to abuse of dominance and other unilateral and joint anti-competitive conduct. From July 2017-July 2018, she held the position of Executive General Manager of the Merger and Authorization Review Division at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as part of an international interchange. Ms. Pratt has previously held management positions in the Cartels Directorate and as Special Legal Advisor to the Commissioner of Competition. Prior to joining the Competition Bureau, Ms. Pratt was a lawyer who practiced exclusively in the area of competition law, advising clients on all aspects of Canadian competition law and related litigation.

  Panelists:

  Alain de Serres, Deputy Director, Policy Studies Branch, Economics Department, OECD

  Alain de Serres is currently Deputy Director in the Policy Studies Branch of the OECD Economics Department. The main focus of his work is to examine how different institutional and policy settings – in particular in the areas of regulation and taxation – affect employment and productivity growth through their impact on trade, innovation and financial development. He also contributes to OECD work for the G20 and G7. Before that he was Head of the Structural Policy Surveillance Division in the OECD Economics Department, supervising the preparation and publication of the annual Going for Growth report. He has recently worked on economic and financial resilience and, prior to that, on the policy determinants of investment in knowledge-based capital, as well as on green growth policies and the economics of climate change mitigation. Part of his work has been published in journals such as Economic Policy, European Economic Review, Environmental and Resource Economics and the Journal of Economic Geography. Mr. de Serres is Canadian and before joining the OECD, has worked for many years at the Bank of Canada and the Ministry of Finance in Ottawa.

  Christopher Ragan, Director, Max Bell School of Public Policy, McGill University

  Christopher Ragan is the founding Director of McGill University's Max Bell School of Public Policy and is an Associate Professor in McGill's Department of Economics.

  Mr. Ragan was the Chair of Canada's Ecofiscal Commission, which launched in November 2014 with a 5-year horizon to identify policy options to improve environmental and economic performance in Canada. He was also a member of the federal finance minister's Advisory Council on Economic Growth, which operated from early 2016 to mid 2019. During 2010-12 he was the President of the Ottawa Economics Association. From 2010-13, Mr. Ragan held the David Dodge Chair in Monetary Policy at the C.D. Howe Institute, and for many years was a member of the Institute's Monetary Policy Council. In 2009-10, Mr. Ragan served as the Clifford Clark Visiting Economist at Finance Canada; in 2004-05 he served as Special Advisor to the Governor of the Bank of Canada.

  Chris Ragan's published research focuses mostly on the conduct of macroeconomic policy. His 2004 book, co-edited with William Watson, is called Is the Debt War Over? In 2007 he published A Canadian Priorities Agenda, co-edited with Jeremy Leonard and France St-Hilaire from the Institute for Research on Public Policy. The Ecofiscal Commission's The Way Forward (2015) was awarded the prestigious Doug Purvis Memorial Prize for the best work in Canadian economic policy.

  Trevin S. Stratton, Ph.D., Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

  As Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Trevin Stratton helps develop economic analyses and national policy positions aimed at improving Canada's economic performance and the competitiveness of Canadian business. Prior to joining the Chamber, Mr. Stratton was named as Ottawa's Forty Under 40 for founding and leading BDO Canada's national economic development consulting line.

  He studied at Carleton University in Canada, as well as at the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Switzerland. He has held appointments as an International Scholar at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, as an E.C. Harwood Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, and as a lecturer in politics, economics, and international studies at the American University in Dubai.

  Mr. Stratton currently sits on the Board of Governors at Ontario Tech University, the Leadership Council at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee at the OECD. He is a frequent media contributor to programs such as Power & Politics, BNN Bloomberg, CTV National News and Global News, as well as the Globe and Mail, Financial Post, and The Hill Times.

  Carolyn A. Wilkins, Corporate Director, Intact Insurance Company and Former Senior Deputy Governor, Bank of Canada

  Carolyn A. Wilkins was recently appointed to the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee as an external member (starting June 2021). She is a member of the Board of Directors of Intact Financial Corporation, the largest provider of property and casualty insurance in Canada and a leading provider of specialty insurance in North America.

  Prior to this appointment, Ms. Wilkins had a distinguished twenty-year career at the Bank of Canada, serving as Senior Deputy Governor from 2014 to 2020, setting monetary and financial system policies with Governing Council, and overseeing strategic planning and economic research. Ms. Wilkins led the development of the Bank's market liquidity facilities and large-scale asset purchase program as part of its COVID-19 response. She has made important contributions to international financial policies over her career, most recently as the Bank of Canada's G20 and G7 Deputy and member of the Financial Stability Board. Ms. Wilkins has published and spoken on a broad range of international issues, including economic resilience, global financial regulation, and Fintech.

• Panel 2 – Competition and government agendas

  Moderator:

  Francis Bilodeau, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

  Francis Bilodeau is Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector, at the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). Prior to joining ISED, Mr. Bilodeau held several senior positions in the Government of Canada, including servings as the Government of Canada's Chief Information Officer of Canada, the Assistant Secretary of Digital Policy and Services at the Treasury Board Secretariat, and the founding Assistant Deputy Minister for the Privy Council Office's Results and Delivery Unit.

  Mr. Bilodeau has also previously held positions at the Treasury Board Secretariat, where he was Executive Director in the Government Operations Sector, and Infrastructure Canada, where he held various executive positions and helped lead the development and implementation of multiple generations of federal infrastructure programming. Mr. Bilodeau holds a degree in mechanical engineering as well as a master's degree in business administration.

  Panelists:

  Melanie Aitken, Co-Chair, Competition, Antitrust and Foreign Investment, Bennett Jones (US) LLP

  Melanie Aitkens is co-chair of Bennett Jones' Competition/Foreign Investment practice. She specializes in the Canadian aspects of global competition law and litigation. She leads and litigates major international and domestic merger cases and represents clients in significant abuse and class action matters. Ms. Aitken was Canada's Commissioner of Competition from 2009-2012, in charge of the Competition Bureau, and headed merger review from 2007-2009. Ms. Aitken is widely recognized as one of Canada's leading competition lawyers.

  Senator Colin Deacon

  Senator Colin Deacon was appointed to represent Nova Scotia in the Senate of Canada in June 2018. A lifelong entrepreneur, he passionately believes that we must build an inclusive economy if we want a more resilient economy. As a result, Senator Deacon believes that entrepreneurship is a tool to not just enable economic empowerment, but to create positive social change. Recently, he is most focused on harnessing the digital economy, improving Canada's public and private sector competitiveness, and addressing climate change.

  Denise Hearn, Author, "The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition"

  Denise Hearn is an advisor, author, and project catalyzer who works with organizations, asset managers, and companies who want to use their resources to support a more equitable future.

  Ms. Hearn is co-author of "The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition" — named one of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2018. Her writing has appeared in the Financial Times, Quartz, The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post and others, and she has presented internationally on competition policy, macroeconomic trends and new economics.

  She is currently a Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project — a Washington D.C. based antimonopoly organization — and a thought partner to SheEO and The Criterion Institute. Ms. Hearn is Board Chair of The Predistribution Initiative — a multi-stakeholder project to improve investment structures and practices to address systemic risks like inequality and climate change.

  William B.P. Robson, Chief Executive Officer, C.D. Howe Institute

  William Robson took office as CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute in July 2006, after serving as the Institute's Senior Vice President since 2003 and Director of Research from 2000 to 2003. He has written more than 240 monographs, articles, chapters and books on such subjects as government budgets, pensions, healthcare financing, inflation and currency issues. His work has won awards from the Policy Research Secretariat, the Canadian Economics Association, and the Donner Canadian Foundation. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College and holds an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is a member of the Panel of Senior Advisors to the Auditor General of Ontario and the Ifo World Economic Survey expert group, and a regular commentator on BNN/Bloomberg. Mr. Robson taught undergraduate public finance and public policy at the University of Toronto from 2000 to 2003, and a Master's level course in public finance at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy from 2014 to 2019.

• Panel 3 – The perspective from heads of competition agencies

  Moderator:

  William Kovacic, Non-Executive Director, U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy and Director, Competition Law Center, The George Washington University and Former Member and Chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission

  Before joining the law school in 1999, William E. Kovacic was the George Mason University Foundation Professor at the George Mason University School of Law. From January 2006 to October 2011, he was a member of the Federal Trade Commission and chaired the agency from March 2008 to March 2009. He was the FTC's General Counsel from June 2001 to December 2004. In 2011 he received the FTC's Miles W. Kirkpatrick Award for Lifetime Achievement.

  Since August 2013, Professor Kovacic has served as a Non-Executive Director with the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority. From January 2009 to September 2011, he was Vice-Chair for Outreach for the International Competition Network. He has advised many countries and international organizations on antitrust, consumer protection, government contracts, and the design of regulatory institutions.

  Panelists:

  Matthew Boswell, Commissioner of Competition, Competition Bureau of Canada

  Matthew Boswell was appointed Commissioner of Competition on March 5, 2019, for a five-year term.

  Mr. Boswell first joined the Bureau in January 2011 as Associate Deputy Commissioner, Criminal Matters. In 2012, he became Senior Deputy Commissioner, Cartels and Deceptive Marketing Practices. In July 2017, he began a one-year assignment as Senior Deputy Commissioner, Mergers and Monopolistic Practices.

  As a Senior Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Boswell led numerous merger reviews and directed major investigations targeting criminal cartels, abuse of dominance and deceptive marketing practices.

  Before joining the Bureau, Mr. Boswell was Senior Litigation Counsel in the Enforcement Branch at the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), where he primarily prosecuted securities fraud and related matters.

  Prior to his work at the OSC, Mr. Boswell was an Assistant Crown Attorney in Toronto with the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario. As a Crown Attorney, he prosecuted all types of criminal offences.

  Mr. Boswell has also worked in private practice and began his legal career at a Toronto law firm.

  Andrea Coscelli, CBE, Chief Executive, U.K. Competition and Markets Authority

  Andrea Coscelli has been the Chief Executive of the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) since July 2016.  He joined the CMA in November 2013 as the executive board member heading the Directorate responsible for UK merger control, the markets regime and the CMA's work in regulated sectors. He joined the CMA from Ofcom (UK Communications Regulator) where he was a Director of Economic Analysis.  He previously worked at Charles Rivers Associates (CRA) in London where he was a Vice President (Partner) in the Competition Practice.  He co-founded the Association of Competition Economics (ACE) in 2003.  He holds a PhD in Economics from Stanford University and was awarded a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to Competitive Markets in the 2020 New Year Honours.

  Richard A. Powers, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division U.S. Department of Justice

  On February 8, 2021, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Powers was designated Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division.

  Richard A. Powers serves as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Enforcement. He has spent the bulk of his career at the Antitrust Division prosecuting cartel and fraud cases in a range of industries including bid rigging in the municipal bonds industry and various offenses related to the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). Mr. Powers received the Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award for his work on the LIBOR case. In 2016, he joined the Criminal Division Fraud Section's Healthcare Fraud Unit in the Eastern District of New York, where he spent two years prosecuting complex, multimillion dollar health care fraud, money laundering, and tax conspiracies and schemes. A West Point graduate, Mr. Powers served in the U.S. Army as an infantry officer and received a Bronze Star and Combat Infantryman's Badge for his service in Iraq. Mr. Powers holds a J.D. from the University of Alabama.

  Anna Rawlings, Chair, New Zealand Commerce Commission 

  Anna Rawlings was appointed Chair of the New Zealand Commerce Commission in June 2019, and has been a Commissioner since June 2014. She was previously a partner in the dispute resolution division of Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, where she specialised in contentious and non-contentious aspects of competition, regulatory and consumer law. Ms. Rawlings holds a BA/LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland and an LLM from the University of Toronto, where her work focused on law and economics.

  Rod Sims, Chair, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

  Rod Sims was appointed Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in August 2011 for an initial five-year term, reappointed for a further three years in August 2016, and reappointed again for a further three years until July 2022, making him the longest serving Chair of the ACCC.

  Mr. Sims has extensive business and public sector experience. Immediately prior to his appointment to the ACCC, he was the Chairman of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales (IPART), Commissioner on the National Competition Council, Chairman of InfraCo Asia, Director of Ingeus Limited, and a member of the Research and Policy Council of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia. Mr. Sims was also a Director of Port Jackson Partners Limited, where he advised the CEOs and boards of some of Australia's top 50 companies on commercial corporate strategy over many years. Mr. Sims relinquished all of these roles on becoming Chair of the ACCC.

  Mr. Sims holds a first-class honours degree in commerce from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Economics from the Australian National University.

  Rebecca Slaughter, Acting Chair, U.S. Federal Trade Commission

  Rebecca Kelly Slaughter was sworn in as a Federal Trade Commissioner on May 2, 2018, and was designated Acting Chairwoman on January 21, 2021.

  Acting Chairwoman Ms. Slaughter brings to the Commission more than a decade of experience in competition, privacy, and consumer protection. She builds consensus for a progressive vision, and staunchly advocates for our nation's consumers and workers.

  Along with advocating for consumers, particularly those traditionally underrepresented and marginalized, Acting Chairwoman Ms. Slaughter strongly supports working families and work-life balance.

  Before joining the FTC, Ms. Slaughter served as Chief Counsel to Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the Democratic Leader.

  Ms. Slaughter received her B.A. in Anthropology from Yale University and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as an editor on the Yale Law Journal.