Dr. Ari Van Assche is a Professor at the Department of International Business, and
Co-Director, International Institute for Economic Diplomacy, at HEC Montréal.
Dr. Deborah Elms is Head of Trade Policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was the Executive Director and Founder of the Asian Trade Centre (ATC). She was also President of the Asia Business Trade Association (ABTA) and the Board Director of the Asian Trade Centre Foundation (ATCF).
Dr. Elms serves on the board of the Trade and Investment Negotiation Adviser (TINA) at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UNESCAP). She was on the International Advisory Council for APCO (2021-2023) and was a member of the International Technical Advisory Committee of the Global Trade Professionals Alliance and Chair of the Working Group on Trade Policy and Law. She was also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Trade and Investment Council for 2018-2020.
Dan Ciuriak is Director and Principal, Ciuriak Consulting Inc. (Ottawa), which provides analytical and policy analysis services related to international trade, finance, industrial policy, and economic development. He also holds fellowships with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (Waterloo), where his research interests are focussed on the nexus between innovation and trade, and quantifying the economic impact of the digital transformation, and with the C.D. Howe Institute (Toronto), where he focuses on Canadian trade policy issues.
An APF Canada Distinguished Fellow, he has published widely as author and editor, including numerous studies on Canada’s trade relations in the Asia Pacific, and comments frequently in the media.
Pitman B. Potter is Professor Emeritus in Law, University of British Columbia; Distinguished Fellow, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada; and, a Member of the Order of Canada.
Robert Williams is a Kitchener, Ontario-based journalist and feature writer for the Waterloo Region Record. As part of The Record’s investigations unit, he has worked on long-term projects on Conestoga College’s international student enrolment, Ontario’s public education achievement outcomes, and the Government of Ontario’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
Robert is a winner of the Goff Penny Award and Atlantic Journalism Award for feature writing, and his work has appeared in publications across Canada, including the Toronto Star, iPolitics, and the Telegraph-Journal.
Dr. Sanjay Ruparelia is an Associate Professor of Politics and the inaugural Jarislowsky Democracy Chair at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is the author of Divided We Govern: Coalition Politics in Modern India, editor of The Indian Ideology, and co-editor of Understanding India’s New Political Economy: A Great Transformation?
Sanjay serves as co-chair of Participedia, an international network that studies democratic innovations, and co-hosts On the Frontlines of Democracy, a monthly podcast and lecture series with TMU School of Journalism and the Toronto Public Library, respectively. He regularly contributes essays and commentary to prominent media outlets in Canada and abroad.
His current research analyzes democratic backsliding, the contentious transformations of India and China over the last decade, and the evolution of rights, welfare, and constitutionalism in the global South.
Patrick Leblond is CN-Paul M. Tellier Chair on Business and Public Policy and Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. He is also Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Research Fellow at CIRANO, and Affiliated Professor of International Business at HEC Montréal.
Dr. Leblond is an expert on economic governance and policy. He has published extensively on banking regulation, financial and monetary integration, international investment, international trade, and business-government relations. Before embarking on his academic career, he worked in accounting and auditing for Ernst & Young as well as in corporate finance and strategy consulting for Arthur Andersen & Co. and SECOR Consulting in Montreal.
Dr. Stephen Nagy is originally from Calgary, Alberta. He received his PhD in International Relations/Studies from Waseda University in 2008. His main affiliation is professor at the International Christian University, Tokyo.
Stephen is also a Senior Fellow (non-resident) with APF Canada, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI), a visiting fellow with the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA), a senior fellow at the MacDonald Laurier Institute (MLI), and a senior fellow with the East Asia Security Centre (EASC). He also serves as the Director of Policy Studies for the Yokosuka Council of Asia Pacific Studies (YCAPS), spearheading the Council’s Indo-Pacific Policy Dialogue series.
Jia Wang is a Senior Fellow and Senior Advisor, and served as the Interim Director (Jan 2021 – Aug 2023), of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, where she has managed research, programs, and government and media relations since 2011. She is also a Senior Fellow (non-resident) with APF Canada.
Jia has more than 17 years of direct management experience focusing on the economic and political dimensions of contemporary China and Canada-China relations in various capacities.
Woojoo Hong is a Research Scholar at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, funded by the Korea Foundation’s Global Challengers Program. Woojoo holds a master’s in international studies, focusing on International Development and Cooperation, from Korea University.
