GRI Fellows and Executives in Residence

Our GRI Fellows and Executives in Residence assist GRI management in the development of leading edge enterprise risk management research and education programs, drawing on their specific areas of expertise and contributing to the building of risk management capacity and capability across various industry sectors.

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John Hull

Senior Research Fellow

John Hull is the Maple Financial Professor of Derivatives and Risk Management at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He is an internationally recognized authority on derivatives and risk management and has many publications in this area.

Dr. Hull is a respected researcher in the academic field of quantitative finance. He was, with Alan White, one of the winners of the Nikko-LOR research competition for his work on the Hull-White interest rate model, which is widely used by practitioners.

In 1999 he was voted Financial Engineer of the Year by the International Association of Financial Engineers. He has acted as consultant to many North American, Japanese, and European financial institutions. He has won many teaching awards, including University of Toronto’s prestigious Northrop Frye award, He has written three books: “Risk Management and Financial Institutions” (now in its 4th edition), “Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives” (now in its 9th edition) and “Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets” (now in its 9th edition). The books have been translated into many languages and are widely used in trading rooms throughout the world, as well as in the classroom.

Dr. Hull is co-director of Rotman’s Master of Finance program and Rotman’s new Master of Financial Risk Management program. In addition to the University of Toronto, Dr. Hull has taught at York University, University of British Columbia, New York University, Cranfield University, and London Business School.

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Janet Ecker

Government Advisor

Janet L. Ecker was President and CEO of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance (TFSA), a growing public–private partnership dedicated to building Toronto as a global financial services centre. With government and industry support, she has also established the Global Risk Institute in Financial Services to leverage the sector’s global reputation for stability, as well as the Centre of Excellence in Financial Services Education to capitalize on Toronto region’s talent advantages.

A former Ontario Finance Minister, Ms. Ecker also held the portfolios of Minister of Education, Minister of Community and Social Services and Government House Leader. Ms. Ecker currently sits on a number of corporate and non-profit boards and agencies and is also a member of the Ontario Finance Minister’s Economic Advisory Panel.

 

A frequent public speaker and media commentator, she was recognized in 2010 as one of the “Most Influential People in the World’s Financial Centres” by Financial Centres International and received a “Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award” from the Women’s Executive Network and the Richard Ivey School of Business in 2003. She is also one of the founders of Equal Voice, a national, multi-partisan organization working to elect more women.

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Rita Achrekar

Executive in Residence

Rita Achrekar was appointed as the Global Risk Institute’s Executive in Residence in 2020.

She is an experienced corporate director and a former banking executive with expertise in global capital markets, risk management, governance, and business transformation. She currently serves on the boards of QuadReal Property Group, ICICI Bank Canada, Farm Credit Canada, and Canadian Investor Protection Fund. She previously served on boards of Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and Scotia Commodities Inc. She is a frequent speaker on topics relating to risk management, ESG, and risk governance at industry events.

Until 2019, she was a senior executive at Scotiabank. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008, she was appointed Senior Vice President – Trade Floor Risk Management and strengthened the governance and market risk oversight of Global Capital Markets businesses across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.  As Senior Vice President – Corporate Credit, she had responsibility for a USD 300 billion credit portfolio across multiple industry sectors and countries and was involved in several M&A transactions globally. As Senior Vice President – Compliance Transformation, she led an enterprise-wide program spanning four business lines and 30 countries to support the bank’s digital transformation. She was a member of key executive committees.

Prior to joining Scotiabank, she held senior treasury and trading roles with American Express Bank and ING Bank.

She holds ICD.D and has completed Advanced Management Program (AMP) from the Wharton Business School,   Bachelor of Technology (Electrical Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai University.

She was awarded Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR) designations by the Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Laurence B. Mussio

Executive in Residence

Dr. Mussio is one of North America’s most senior business historians whose career has connected decisionmakers to an advanced understanding of the long-run processes behind the grand challenges we face. A working scholar and senior advisor to senior executives, Dr. Mussio publishes and advises on the history of financial institutions, government policy and regulation to help senior decision makers navigate contemporary challenges. Using the lens of past technology transformations, his current research focuses on the implications of Artificial Intelligence as a technology, as an economic force, and as a generator of unprecedented risk and opportunity.

 

Dr. Mussio is Chair and co-founder of the Long Run Institute (LRI), an independent, not-for-profit organization that operates across the North Atlantic world. The Institute was established with the mission of generating actionable insights for select senior decisionmakers in government and enterprise linking our critical historical experience to a widening spectrum of contemporary grand challenges including risk, technological transformation and globalization. 

He is the CEO of Signal Influence Executive Research & Communications (SIERC Canada), a boutique consulting firm specializing in the strategic application of organizational experience for senior leadership. Dr. Mussio is Special Advisor to the Office of the CEO at BMO Financial Group, a position he has held since 2017. 

Dr. Mussio teaches in the MBA Program at Schulich School of Business, York University, having also taught at McMaster University and Syracuse University. He is a member of the Leadership Council of the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership, Ivey Business School, Western University, and sits on the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Economics, Policy and History, Queen’s University Belfast.

Dr. Mussio’s most recent publication is an acclaimed two-volume scholarly history of the Bank of Montreal: “Whom Fortune Favours: Bank of Montreal and the Rise of North American Finance.” He is also the author of “Telecom Nation: Telecommunications, Computers and Governments in Canada,” a classic study of how governments handled technological change in the 20th century. Both works are published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. He is currently working with senior Google technologist Mark Ryan on a book about AI and human judgement: “The Decision-Maker’s Dilemma: Artificial Intelligence vs. Human Judgement.”

Dr. Mussio is fluent in French, Italian and (intermediate) German.

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Hugh O'Reilly

Executive in Residence

Hugh O’Reilly is an experienced business leader with excellent strategic skills and has strong knowledge of human resource best practices for the development of an inclusive workplace culture. As the former President and Chief Executive Officer of OPTrust, he oversaw all aspects of operations including the investment of its assets and the administration of pension benefits for the 92,000 members and retirees.

Currently, he’s a Senior Fellow with the C.D. Howe Institute and on the Boards for Vancity Community Investment Bank and Namerind, a not for profit aboriginal housing corporation. In the past he has served on the Boards of the Catholic Children’s Aid Society, the Regent Park Community Health Centre and the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (“CCGG”). Hugh was also a member of both the Audit and Finance and Governance Committees of the CCGG Board and was Chief of Staff to an Ontario Provincial Government Cabinet Minister.

Having practiced law prior to his assuming the role of President and CEO of OPTrust, he was recognized by his peers as one of Canada’s foremost legal experts in pension law. Hugh previously was a Partner at Torys, a leading corporate law firm, and at Cavalluzzo, a leading labour law firm. Hugh has an in-depth understanding of investments across all asset classes.

Hugh holds a B.A. (Great Distinction) from the University of Regina and an LLB from the University of Calgary where he was the Silver Medalist in his law class. As well, he has been awarded the Industry Leadership Award from Benefits Canada and the Pension Defender Crystal Globe Award. 

Anthony Peccia

Executive in Residence

Anthony Peccia is a highly respected expert in the field of risk management and capital markets, with a distinguished career as a senior executive and educator. He has held key Managing Director positions at several leading global banks, including Citibank, CIBC, BMO, and RBC, where he was responsible for chairing the Risk Committees and the Cyber Risk Committees and for overseeing the management of credit, market, liquidity, operational, and pension fund risks. He has led the creation and management of new departments, including those focused on Market Risk, Operational Risk, the Option Hedging Group, Strategic Investment Group, and Treasury Strategy Group.

Mr. Peccia has held leadership roles in asset liability management, capital market financing, corporate insurance, structured derivatives, and securitization at several global banks, and as a consultant has provided expert consultation to major international banks in the development of risk management frameworks and strategies. He started his career as a US equity trader at a major asset management firm.

He developed the first industry operational risk measurement model and founded the Industry Working Group on Operational Risk, which included 15 of the largest global banks. The group provided consultation to the Basel Committee as it developed a regulatory approach to operational risk management, and most of its recommendations were incorporated into Basel II.

Mr. Peccia is also an accomplished educator, teaching advanced risk management and financial innovation MBA-level courses at leading universities and executive programs in Canada, the US, the UK, Italy, and China. He has published articles and chapters on risk management and is a frequent keynote speaker at major risk management and fintech conferences. He has also produced two conferences on Machine Learning Startups and Innovation in Financial Services.

He holds an MBA and MSC in Theoretical Physics

 
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James (Jason) Stewart

Executive in Residence

Jason Stewart worked for more than two decades in senior debt capital markets roles with three major investment dealers. He is the author or co-author of more than 30 articles, reports and studies of economic, financial, and policy issues.

At GRI, Jason’s publications have focused upon fiscal and monetary policy as well as financial issues. He has designed and moderated GRI’s annual macroeconomic webinar series for three years. His policy work prior to GRI includes being the primary author of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) report on using behavioural finance and insights in securities regulation.

Jason began his career as an economist on Bay Street before moving to capital markets. He lead or joint lead managed over $100 billion of government and corporate debt issues in domestic, global and international markets. His expertise includes over 27 years working with or for governments, regulators and authorities at the federal and provincial levels.

Jason’s research, market and policy analysis experience includes working at the Bank of Canada, the OSC, the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis, Queen’s Park, RBC Dominion Securities and the C.D. Howe Institute. 

Jason is a Senior Fellow with the C.D. Howe Institute, a member of the Advisory Committee for the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, and a board member of the Institute for Research on Public Policy. His other volunteer work includes being a board member of an international conservation charity and co-chairing the advisory council of a local land trust in Ontario.

 
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Michael Stramaglia

Executive in Residence

Michael Stramaglia was appointed as the Global Risk Institute’s first Executive in Residence in January 2014. He is the President and Founder of Matrisc Advisory Group Inc. (a risk management consulting firm) and serves as Program Director for the SEEC Centre of Excellence in Governance, Risk Management and Control at the Schulich School of Business.

He is currently an independent corporate director for the Equitable Bank, the Economical Insurance Group, Foresters Financial and Munich Re Canada. He also serves as an independent member of the Province of Ontario Internal Audit Committee.

Mr. Stramaglia has over 30 years of professional and leadership experience, including over 10 years with Sun Life Financial (SLF) where he served as a member of the International Executive Team and led the development of one of the insurance industry’s leading ERM practices as Executive Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer for SLF’s global operations. He joined SLF in 2002 following its acquisition of Clarica, where Mr. Stramaglia held the position of Executive Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer and was also head of the International Reinsurance Business. Prior to joining Clarica, Mr. Stramaglia worked for over 13 years with the Canadian operations of the worldwide Zurich Financial Services Group, where he held a number of senior executive positions including Chief Actuary, CFO and President & CEO of the Zurich Life Insurance Company of Canada.

He has also provided interim senior executive services, and his mandates in this area have included serving as Co-Interim President & CEO of an international life insurance and asset management organization and an extended consulting assignment serving as the acting Chief Risk Officer for one of Canada’s largest credit unions.

Mr. Stramaglia is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst. He holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors and an Honours Bachelor of Mathematics Degree from the University of Waterloo.

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Lois Tullo

Executive in Residence

Lois Tullo has been an Executive in Residence since January 2017. She is a Canadian expert in the research and management of non-financial risk. She is CRO & CCO at Novera Capital Inc. Novera Capital is a Virtual Currency capital firm focusing in the area of providing liquidity to the market through synthetic derivatives. She has been teaching risk management and financial services at the Schulich School of Business for the past 22 years at the executive, MBA, and undergraduate level.

She is the author of “Back to the Future: 2007 to 2030”, “The Global Risks and Trends Framework” and “Risk Management – Canadian Best Practices, How did they get there?” Schulich has awarded her the John Peace Prize for outstanding contribution to teaching.

Ms. Tullo was previously CRO & CCO at Smart Contracts Capital Inc. and BlockMine Development Inc. SSC/BMD was developing a blockchain platform to issue Regulated Security Tokens (STO’s). She was CFO at CIBC Finance Inc, responsible for Finance, Treasury, HR and interim risk management. Director of HR, Finance and Business Process Redesign at Unitel Communications. She was a management consultant at Nolan, Norton Canada/KPMG where she consulted on the link between business strategy and information technology architecture. Ms. Tullo worked in Ethiopia with Food for the Hungry, a relief and development organization. At TCPL, she provided systems design and data analysis.

Ms. Tullo is a CPA, C.A. and she articled with Clarkson Gordon Toronto (E&Y) and PWC in Calgary, she has an EMBA from Ivey School of Business, a B.Comm from the University of Saskatchewan, and holds her C.C.O and ICD.D designations. Ms. Tullo is currently the Chair of Urban Promise, JLT & Associates, vice chair of The Richview Residence Foundation, and a former board director for Jameson Bank, The Boulevard Club, and the Girl Guides of Canada.