Biographies of senior management (transition binder 2019)

A native of Moncton, New Brunswick, André-Marc Allain is a marketing and communications professional with close to 25 years of experience.

Following his post-secondary studies in public relations and sociology, he worked for publicly traded telecommunications companies such as NBTel, Aliant and iMagicTV. The latter was the first New Brunswick company to be traded simultaneously on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. He led the investor and public relations efforts for the company’s Initial Public Offering.

Following six years in the private sector, he moved to the public service and began working for the Government of New Brunswick. During this time, he held an executive leadership position in marketing and communications at Business New Brunswick, reporting to the Deputy Minister. He was then asked by former Premier Bernard Lord to lead Communications New Brunswick, the government’s central marketing and communications agency, reporting directly to the Clerk of the Executive Council. He completed his tenure as Special Advisor to the President of Service New Brunswick.

Since 2008, he has been an employee of the Government of Canada and is part of the senior management team at FCAC.

In addition, he has been involved in figure skating for more than 30 years and is an Olympic level judge. His long-time commitment to excellence in officiating was recognized in 2007 when Skate Canada and Sport New Brunswick’s named him Official of the Year. He serves on numerous committees through the national governing body of Skate Canada and the provincial body of Patinage Québec, where he is an elected board member (Vice President of High Performance). He was also a director on the board of Skate New Brunswick and Sport New Brunswick.

Group and Level: REX-07

Linguistic Profile: EEE

FCAC Start Date: February 25, 2008

Ekaterina Ohandjanian is Senior Counsel with the Finance Legal Services Unit at the Department of Justice. She has served the Agency as in-house counsel since joining in 2015.

Her principal responsibility is to advise the Commissioner on matters such as the delivery of the quasi-judicial role and the Agency’s strategic legal direction on financial consumer protection.

Ekaterina started her career in the Public Service at the Competition Bureau (Mergers Branch), working on complex merger files and gaining experience with proceedings before the Competition Tribunal. She then joined the Department of Justice and gained significant experience advising senior officials and Ministers at the Department of Transport, Natural Resources Canada, and the Canadian Coast Guard on matters of corporate, commercial, administrative, machinery of government and Crown law. For example, Ekaterina delivered on key priorities such as the merger of the port authorities in Vancouver’s Lower Mainland (2008), the overhaul of the permitting process for resource development and its impact on navigation (2014) and the introduction of the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (2015). From 2008 to 2012, Ekaterina advised the Clerk of the Privy Council and the Prime Minister on government priorities, Senior Personnel and machinery of government, as part of PCO’s Legal Operations Unit.

She is the recipient of a number of awards, including an award for creating Shared Services Canada (PCO, 2012) and a Public Service Excellence Award for Policy (Governor General, 2015).

Ekaterina is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and holds a Bachelor of Commerce, a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Bachelor of Laws from McGill University in Montreal.

Group and Level: LP-03

Linguistic Profile: EEE

FCAC Start Date: April 1, 2015

Jane Rooney is Senior Advisor to the Commissioner, tasked with undertaking research and providing advice on financial literacy and financial wellness issues.

Before her current role, she was Canada’s Financial Literacy Leader until April 2019. This Governor in Council appointment was a five-year term with a mandate to exercise leadership at the national level to strengthen the financial literacy of Canadians.

She worked to engage and collaborate with stakeholder groups from the public, private, and non-profit sectors, to coordinate efforts by FCAC and others to strengthen Canadians’ financial well-being. She also lead the development and implementation of the National Strategy for Financial Literacy – Count me in, Canada, which resulted in hundreds of initiatives aimed at helping Canadians manage their money and debt, plan and save for their future and protect themselves from fraud and financial abuse. Her public outreach was instrumental in building momentum around financial literacy, and ensured hundreds of organizations across the country were committed to the strategy’s goals, including 17 financial literacy networks representing more than 570 organizations.

She established and chaired a National Steering Committee for Financial Literacy made up of senior executives from the public, private and non-profit sectors tasked with providing advice and to undertake initiatives to advance the goals of the National Strategy. She also established and chaired a federal government inter-departmental committee on financial literacy tasked with embedding financial literacy into government programs. She was Canada’s representative, national coordinator, and member of the advisory board of the International Network on Financial Education (INFE), which was created by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2008.

An experienced communicator, she has given speeches at more than 200 events across Canada and internationally, including at a recent G20 conference in Germany.

She has worked in the financial sector for 25 years and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Carleton University.

Group and Level: RE-06

Linguistic Profile: ECB and continuing to work towards ECC

FCAC Start Date: January 14, 2002

Jérémie Ryan has had a long career in the public and private sectors. In 2004, after more than 10 years in the financial services industry, he joined the Compliance and Enforcement Branch of FCAC where he was responsible for ensuring that federally regulated financial institutions complied with the regulations set out by the federal government. In 2007, he took on responsibility for the development of FCAC’s new Financial Literacy Program.

As the Director of Financial Literacy and Stakeholder Engagement, he engages and mobilizes stakeholders towards strengthening the financial well-being of Canadians through the implementation of the National Strategy for Financial Literacy. He and his team also develop initiatives such as Financial Literacy Month and promote educational resources to help Canadian consumers increase their knowledge, skills and confidence in managing their personal finances.

He chairs the Federal Interdepartmental Committee for Financial Literacy, co-chairs FCAC’s Financial Literacy Working Group for Indigenous Peoples, and is a member of Excellence Canada’s Financial Health Standard Steering Committee. He represents FCAC at various engagements on the national and international front including OECD and G20 fora.

He was instrumental in FCAC’s 2018 Excellence Canada Certificate of Merit for FCAC’s workplace wellness program. In 2010, he received the Public Service Award of Excellence for his work on The City, a simulated online world that offers an interactive, engaging and fun way for students to learn about money.

Jérémie is FCAC’s Mental Health Champion, is a member of the federal government’s Mental Health Champions Committee and works with Senior Executives and FCAC employees on the development and implementation of our Mental Health Action Plan.

Jérémie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from the University of Ottawa, as well as a degree in Administration with a concentration in Finance from La Cité Collégiale and a Master’s Certificate in Project Management from the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University.

Group and Level: REX-07

Linguistic Profile: EEE

FCAC Start Date: January 6, 2004

Julie Neveu joined FCAC in late November 2018. She moved to the Agency from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) where she held the position of Chief Human Resources Officer.

She is a seasoned public servant with more than 25 years of experience in human resources management, having worked in a variety of public and private sector organizations including Natural Resources Canada, Canada Border Service Agency, Canada School of Public Service, Human Resources Development Canada, The Mutual Group/MetLife Insurance Company and Ottawa General Hospital.

She is an active senior executive member of the Human Resources Council and was awarded the 2017 Public Service Michelle C. Comeau HR Leadership Award in the Head of Human Resources category.

Julie holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Ottawa with Honours in Human Resources Management.

Group and Level: REX-08

Linguistic Profile: EEE

FCAC Start Date: November 19, 2018

As Senior Advisor to the Commissioner, Marilyn Leblanc serves as the principal liaison between the Commissioner’s office and the executive team. She provides strategic advice to the Commissioner and the executive team on a broad range of policy and operational issues. She also manages the administration of the Commissioner’s decision-making process in adjudicative proceedings and supports the Commissioner in the role as Chair of FinCoNet.

In 2016, she led consultations with all provinces and territories and key domestic and international stakeholders in response to a request from the Minister of Finance that FCAC identify best practices in financial consumer protection. She also directed the drafting of the report to the Minister of Finance.

Prior to joining FCAC, she worked as a senior competition law officer at the Canadian Competition Bureau, where she assisted the Commissioner in various initiatives related to the development and enforcement of the Competition Act. As Canada's lead negotiator, she also played an important role in the negotiation of several free trade agreements.

Between 2011 and 2013, she was counsel at McCarthy Tétrault, where she advised Canadian and foreign companies on all aspects of competition law.

She is the author of several legal publications and co-author of the “Droit de la concurrence” volume of the JurisClasseur collection. Marilyn is a member of the Law Society of Quebec and holds a degree in civil and international law from Laval University. She is currently completing her general management certificate at Queen’s University.

In November 2012, she was awarded the Leaders of Tomorrow: Lawyer of the Year Award by the Young Bar Association of Montreal.

In the past 10 years, she has served on various boards of directors and currently serves as Vice-President of the Board of Directors of Mayday Danse, an international dance company.

Group and Level: RE-06

Linguistic Profile: EEE

FCAC Start Date: February 23, 2016

Teresa Frick is the Director of Supervision at the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. She leads a dedicated team of compliance professionals who work with federally regulated financial entities to promote, monitor and enforce compliance with federal consumer provisions in the Bank Act and other federal statutes as well as monitoring industry Codes of Conduct and Public Commitments.

She has had a varied career in the public and private sectors. After almost 10 years working in the financial industry, in both retail and commercial banking, she joined FCAC in 2005. She has worked in a variety of roles of increasing responsibility at the Agency in Supervision and Enforcement, Consumer Education and Research branches.

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a major in accountancy from Concordia University in Montreal as well as her Personal Financial Planner designation.

Group and Level: REX-07, Acting REX-08 until September 2019

Linguistic Profile: ECC

FCAC Start Date: June 2005

In March 2019, Werner Liedtke joined the Agency as Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Corporate Services.

Before joining FCAC, he had a long career in the military. He began as a member of the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders. Upon reaching the rank of Corporal, he was accepted as an Officer Cadet at Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. In 1988, he graduated with a Bachelor of Administration from Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean in 1988.

His first posting was in Toronto, Ontario and he served extensively with the Logistics Finance Community. Highlights include being appointed the 8 Wing/CFB Trenton Comptroller, Staff Officer to the Director General Financial Services and various finance positions in Ottawa. He also served at Joint Force Command Brunssum in the Netherlands as the J8 Budget Officer responsible for NATO ISAF operations in Afghanistan. He was deployed to Kabul in January 2004 as the ISAF HQ Deputy CJ8.

Promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 2006, he served as the Information Management Group Comptroller and as Director of Budget 3, responsible for budget operations within the Department of National Defence. In 2009 he assumed command of the Canadian Forces Support Unit (Europe) in Geilenkirchen, Germany.

He was promoted to Colonel in 2010 and served as the Royal Canadian Air Force Comptroller/Director Air Comptrollership and Business Management. In 2015, he was promoted to Brigadier-General and worked as the Director General Financial Management. He retired from the Canadian Armed Forces in October 2017 and worked as the Chief Financial Management/Deputy Chief Financial Officer for National Defence until March 2019.

He is a Certified Management Accountant and completed Masters Degrees in Business Administration at the University of Ottawa and in Defence Studies at Royal Military College. In addition, he graduated from the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College in 2006.

Group and Level: REX-09

Linguistic Profile: CBC

FCAC Start Date: March 11, 2019