About Canada 2020

About Anna

Anna Gainey is the Executive Chair of Canada 2020, Canada’s leading, independent and progressive think tank. An active member of the Global Progress network, Canada 2020’s goal is to build a community of progressive ideas and people that will move and shape governments.

From 2014-18, Anna served as President of the Liberal Party of Canada. Her leadership was key to growing and empowering grassroots organizing and innovative campaign technologies, which contributed to the election of the first Liberal majority government in 15 years.

After Canada’s 2015 election, Anna led the transformation to open up and modernize the party - including by eliminating all membership fees and redrafting the party's constitution to better suit 21st-century organizing and campaigns. She has also been a leading Canadian advocate in support of more women’s participation and leadership in our democracy, government, and economy.

Anna is the founder of the Gainey Foundation, which provides funding for environmental and arts education programs for youth, and has been the Executive Director since 2008. She continues to sit on the national board of directors of the Liberal Party of Canada as Past President, as well as on the Board of WarChild Canada, Pointe-à-Callière Museum and the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation.

Anna is a graduate of McGill University and the London School of Economics.

About Mark

Born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and raised in Edmonton, Mark Carney is a globally-recognized Canadian economist, public policy leader, sustainability advocate, and author. He serves as the United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Change and Finance, Vice Chair of Brookfield Asset Management and Head of Transition Investing, and previously served as Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008-13) and Governor of the Bank of England (2013-2020).

About Braeden

Braeden Caley is Executive Director of Canada 2020, Canada's leading independent progressive think tank. For over seventeen years, Braeden has advised a variety of progressive political leaders in government and served in leading roles on their campaigns – including serving as Director of Policy and Communications for former Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, as Senior Director, Communications for the Liberal Party of Canada and in key roles on Justin Trudeau’s federal election campaigns in 2015, 2019, and 2021, and advising a number of senior federal Parliamentarians.

Braeden was born and raised in Richmond, British Columbia. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of British Columbia, and an Executive Certificate in Public Policy from Harvard' s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2016, he was named one of B.C. Business Magazine’s “Top 30 under 30.”

About Aisha

Aisha Jarrah works on content strategy and production for Canada 2020. A skilled strategist with expertise in producing written, broadcast, and live content, Aisha manages the development, launch, and delivery of original podcasts, events, and more. Before working with the Canada 2020 team, Aisha spent over five years as the producer of 6 Degrees, the Institute for Canadian Citizenship’s global forum for inclusion. Aisha has a B.A.&Sc. in Cognitive Science from McGill University, as well as a B.Ed. from OISE at the University of Toronto.

About Andy

Andy is Managing Partner and CEO of Section 32, a venture capital fund investing at the frontiers of technology.

Prior to Section 32, Andy was in leadership roles at Alphabet, including at X (previously GoogleX) and Verily (previously Google Life Sciences). At GoogleX, Andy worked with a variety of projects across robotics, quantum computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other technology disciplines. He played a role in the spin out of the robotics and quantum computing teams and continues to serve as an advisor to various teams at X.

At Verily, Andy was the Global Head of Business and Corporate Development and a member of the executive leadership team. His team executed go-to-market campaigns for a wide range of next-generation healthcare technologies building creative and pioneering partnerships, collaborations and joint ventures with some of the world’s top companies. Andy’s efforts directly contributed to Verily’s rapid scale up, multi-billion dollar financing rounds and Verily’s efforts to address the opioid and Covid-19 epidemics. Andy also co-founded the Verily Ventures program to make early-stage venture investments. Under his stewardship, the program generated top-tier venture returns.

Prior to Google, Andy helped build and scale two businesses. One firm was seeded by Stanford University’s Endowment, which was successfully acquired while the second — a health-care oriented private equity firm — is growing and active in San Francisco. He started his career at RBC Ventures at a fund which was a part of the DFJ Global Network.

Andy is a patented inventor with an Undergraduate Degree in Biochemical Engineering from McGill University and a Master in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

About Carolyn

Carolyn Smith is the Director of Operations and Events at Canada 2020. Carolyn is an accomplished event planner and producer, with experience spanning a number of industries including entertainment, sports, and business. Prior to joining the Canada 2020 team, Carolyn worked for the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group in sales and marketing. Carolyn has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, with a major in Leadership and Management, from St. Francis Xavier University.

About Jennifer

Jennifer M. Welsh is Professor and Chair in International Relations at the European University Institute and a Senior Research Fellow at Somerville College, University of Oxford.

She was previously a Professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford, and co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. In 2013, she was appointed by the UN Secretary-General to serve as his Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect.

Professor Welsh is a former Jean Monnet Fellow of the European University Institute and was a Cadieux Research Fellow in the Policy Planning Staff of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs. She has taught international relations at the University of Toronto, McGill University, and the Central European University (Prague).

Prof. Welsh is the author, co-author, and editor of several books and articles on international relations,  the evolution of the notion of the ‘responsibility to protect’ in international society, the UN Security Council, and Canadian foreign policy. She was the Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Massey College (University of Toronto) in 2005, and a 2006 recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship and a Trudeau Fellowship. In 2014, she will begin directing a new five-year ERC-funded project on the 'Individualization of War'.

Prof. Welsh sits on the editorial boards of the journals Global Responsibility to Protect and Ethics and International Affairs, as well as the editorial board for the Cambridge University Press BISA series in International Relations. She has also served as a consultant to the Government of Canada on international policy and acts as a frequent commentator in Canadian media on foreign policy and international relations. She has a BA from the University of Saskatchewan (Canada), and a Master's and Doctorate from the University of Oxford (where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar).

About Kate

Kate Graham researches, writes, speaks, and teaches about politics in Canada. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Political Science from the University of Western Ontario. Her areas of focus include Canadian politics, local government, urban politics and public policy.

Her Ph.D. dissertation, Leading Canada’s Cities: A Study of Urban Mayors, examined the role and power of big city mayors in Canada. The research process involved travelling across Canada to conduct 70 interviews with political and community leaders across Canada. She blogged throughout the experience and developed an online following for what became affectionately known as the Mayors Project.

Kate is a regular media commentator and speaker on local politics in Canada. Kate teaches in the Political Science departments at Western University (Local Government Program), King’s University College and Brescia University College. She currently teaches two courses on women and politics. She is an associate producer of the 25% documentary about the underrepresentation of women in Canadian politics.

Before entering academia, Kate spent a decade working as a public servant. Most recently she served as the Director, Community & Economic Innovation at the City of London where she was responsible for the City’s government relations, strategic initiatives, culture and economic partnerships portfolios.

Kate is an active community member and volunteer. She served as the Chair of the Pillar Nonprofit Network Board of Directors, on the Executive of the ReForest London Board of Directors, and as a volunteer for numerous community organizations. She was named one of London’s Top 20 Under 40 in 2015. Kate has also dabbled in politics herself, including running in the 2018 Provincial Election in Ontario.

About Mark

Mark Michener is the Director of Finance for Canada 2020. Mark has led a regional Credit Union in Eastern Ontario as CEO for a number of years. Recently Mark has been working in the United Kingdom for a larger Charity leading their finance team. He has demonstrated accounting expertise working with a number of accounting systems and reporting requirements. Mark has a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Queens University in Kingston Ontario. He trained with an Ottawa Chartered Accountant firm and has his Chartered Professional Accountant designation.

About Matt

Matt Browne is a Visiting Fellow at American Progress, working on building trans-Atlantic and international progressive networks and studying trans-Atlantic policy issues. Previously, Matt was director of public affairs in APCO Worldwide’s London office, where he ran the company’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa government relations practice. Matt is also the former director of Policy Network—the international network founded by Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroeder, Goran Persson, and Giuliano Amato—and remains a member of the organization’s governing board and advisory council. During his time at Policy Network, Matt worked closely with a host of progressive leaders, prime ministers’ and presidents’ offices across the globe, and international organizations such as the U.N. and WTO. Matt also ran the international press operation for New Labour’s general election campaigns in 2001 and 2005.

About Matthew

Matthew Mendelsohn, a Senior Fellow at Canada 2020, is a strategic advisor and public policy researcher and entrepreneur. He supports organizations working at the intersection of strategy, policy, implementation and impact. He is a Visiting Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and a Senior Advisor at the Boston Consulting Group. He has served as a Deputy Minister in the federal and Ontario governments, and was the founding Director of the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto. Previously, he was a tenured professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University and has been a board member for organizations that build community well-being, healthy democracy, and economic and social inclusion.
He spends his time working on democratic resilience, community economic development, institution-building, and playing any sport that his body can handle. He lives in Toronto with his wife, children, and schnoodle.

About Tom

Thomas (Tom) Pitfield is Co-Founder of Canada 2020, Canada’s leading, independent, progressive think-tank. Prior to his appointment, Tom served as the Chief Digital Strategist for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal election campaign, as well as his campaign for leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Previously, Tom served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Honourable Jack Austin. He also worked in China for the Canada Chinese Business Council and as a business strategy consultant, specializing in Corporate Governance, for IBM Canada. After co-founding IBM’s Toronto Innovation Center, he worked as a Policy Advisor to the Director of IBM’s Business Partner Channel.

Tom holds an honours degree in business from Queen’s University and a Master's Degree with Merit in Political Philosophy from the London School of Economics.

About Mark

Born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and raised in Edmonton, Mark Carney is a globally-recognized Canadian economist, public policy leader, sustainability advocate, and author. He serves as the United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Change and Finance, Vice Chair of Brookfield Asset Management and Head of Transition Investing, and previously served as Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008-13) and Governor of the Bank of England (2013-2020).