After the Summit: Canada’s Investment Agenda

Roundtable Luncheon with Sashen Guneratna, John Stackhouse and Elizabeth Wademan.

C.D. Howe Institute events and webinars are open to members and their guests.

Please follow this link or contact events@cdhowe.org to register.

Sashen Guneratna, Executive Vice President, Public Infrastructure, Canada Infrastructure Bank

Sashen Guneratna is a senior infrastructure finance leader with deep experience delivering large-scale investments across several different asset types. As Executive Vice President, Public Infrastructure, he leads a team focused on investments with contracted revenue streams that deliver stable, year over year impacts for Canadians, in areas including power transmission, non-emitting generation, energy storage, trade and transportation, investments to enable housing and digital infrastructure.

During his tenure at the CIB, Sashen has been responsible for the $20B+ clean power and broadband priority sectors, leading investments across the country in renewable power, transmission, energy storage and district energy, including spearheading the CIB’s investment in Canada’s first small modular reactor and the organization’s first interprovincial transmission and equity investment.

Sashen brings more than 25 years of banking and advisory experience across multiple sectors and jurisdictions. Prior to joining the CIB, he was a Partner in PwC’s Capital Projects and Infrastructure group, with a focus on power and utilities, water and wastewater, and Indigenous-led projects. Sashen previously worked in debt capital markets and project finance advisory at National Bank Financial and power and utilities lending at Scotia Capital.

He holds an MBA and BBA from the Schulich School of Business, an ICD.D designation from Rotman, and serves on the board of Wasoqonatl Transmission Inc.

John Stackhouse, Senior Vice-President, Office of the CEO, RBC

John is one of Canada’s leading voices on innovation, economic disruption and geopolitical change. He is Senior Vice-President in the Office of the CEO at Royal Bank of Canada, where he created and leads the RBC Thought Leadership team that publishes cutting-edge research and convenes national conversations designed to inform and inspire Canadian prosperity. Before joining RBC in 2015, John was Editor-in-Chief of The Globe and Mail, where through a 25-year career he led its digital transformation, transformed its business and investing coverage, and was the newspaper’s correspondent in Asia through the 1990s, winning five National Newspaper Awards. John is the author of four books on Canada and its place in the world, and in addition to his role at RBC, is a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute and the Munk School for Global Affairs and Public Policy and sits on the Board of the Canadian International Council.

Elizabeth Wademan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Development Investment Corporation (CDEV)

Elizabeth Wademan is Chief Executive Officer of Canada Development Investment Corporation (CDEV), the Government of Canada's principal commercial execution platform. CDEV structures capital for national priorities, stewards strategic assets, builds new platforms to support Canada’s economic objectives, and advises the federal government on Canada's most complex commercial and financial priorities.

Under her leadership, Elizabeth has transformed CDEV into a high-performing commercial organization that combines private-sector financial expertise with public-sector purpose. The organization has significantly expanded its impact, becoming a trusted advisor and execution partner to the Government of Canada on nation-building initiatives, strategic investments and major commercial transactions.

Elizabeth oversees a portfolio of eight Crown corporations and investment platforms representing more than $75 billion in public assets and programs, including Trans Mountain Corporation, Canada Growth Fund, Canada Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation, Canada Hibernia Holding Corporation and Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corporation. During her tenure, CDEV's asset base has grown by more than 300%, reflecting its expanding role in delivering Canada's economic priorities.

Prior to joining CDEV, Elizabeth spent nearly twenty years as a Managing Director in Investment Banking at BMO Capital Markets, where she advised leading Canadian and international companies on capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic transactions. She has more than 25 years of experience in corporate finance, capital markets and strategic advisory.

Elizabeth is an experienced corporate director and has a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University, has completed executive education at Harvard Business School, and holds the CFA and ICD.D designations.