Who We Are

Dr. Michael Foster

Dr. Mike Foster has over 30 years of experience in economic analysis, modeling and forecasting. Mike currently maintains a database of thousands (1000s) of economic variables of the Atlantic Canadian, Provincial and National economies supported by years of experience in data collection including a thorough knowledge of Statistics Canada and other sources of economic data.

Dr. Foster has working knowledge of most of today's leading econometric and financial software such as EViews, SPSS, @Risk and Profit Planner to mention a few. Recent model building projects include a Self-sufficiency Model of Atlantic Canada BDC, Input-Output Models of the Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island economies.

During the past thirty years Dr. Foster has conducted numerous program evaluations, economic impacts, strategic plans, market analysis, and general economic studies. Many of these studies were augmented with specifically constructed forecasting and economic simulation models.


Dr. Jim McNiven

Dr. McNiven is Professor Emeritus at Dalhousie University and Senior Policy Research Advisor with Canmac Economics. He was the Fulbright Research Professor at Michigan State University's Canadian Studies Center in 2010-11.

Until his retirement from Dalhousie, Jim held the R.A. Jodrey Chair in Commerce in the School of Business Administration and was a Professor of Public Administration. From 1988 to 1994, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie. Prior to that, he was the Deputy Minister of Development for the Province of Nova Scotia (1981-1988) and the President of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (1977-1981).

Jim has been the CEO of a small technology company and has been a member of a number of corporate and government boards, including the Blue Cross of Atlantic Canada and the federal government's International Trade Advisory Committee. He was a member of the federal government's Royal Commission on National Passenger Transportation.

Dr. McNiven has a PhD from the University of Michigan. He has written widely on public policy and economic development issues. His most recent research work has been about the relationship of demographic changes to Canadian regional economic development. He also has an interest in American history, with a book, 'The Yankee Road', published in 2015. He is the co-author of three books. He continues to teach at Dalhousie on a part-time basis and is a columnist with factsandopinions.com, a digital magazine published in Vancouver, B.C.

Dr. Lenoard MacLean

Dr. Len MacLean is currently Professor Emeritus at Dalhousie University.  Dr. MacLean holds a PhD in mathematics.  He has published over 100 research papers of Optimal Growth and Risk Analysis.  His work experience includes:
 
-  Associate Dean of Research, Dalhousie Business School, Halifax, Nova Scotia
-  Professor, School of Business Administration, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
-  Director of Research, Canmac Economics, Sackville, Nova Scotia
-  Affiliate Professor, Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Columbia



Ms. Cynthia Currie

Cynthia Currie has been with Canmac Economics for over 30 years. Cynthia has extensive experience with database creation, manipulation and management. Cynthia has developed and analyzed some of the largest databases in existence - hundreds of variables over a large time period.