Tiff Macklem


Richard Tiffany "Tiff" Macklem is a Canadian banker and economist who serves as the current Governor of the Bank of Canada. He was also the former Dean of the Rotman School of Management and had previously served as the Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada.

Early life and education

Macklem was born in Montreal, Quebec to Dick Macklem and Janet Gray-Donald. His father was the chief financial officer of Birks. His uncle, Peter Macklem, was a prominent physician. He grew up in Westmount, where he attended Selwyn House School from Grade 5 to 11. Instead of attending CEGEP afterwards, he completed one year of pre-university at Lower Canada College. He graduated from Queen's University in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in economics, and completed a master's degree and a PhD in economics from the University of Western Ontario in 1989.

Career

Macklem joined the Bank of Canada in 1984 where he worked in the Department of Monetary and Financial Analysis for one year. He returned to the Bank of Canada in 1989 following the completion of his graduate studies. He occupied increasingly senior positions in the Research Department until his appointment as Chief in January 2000.
Macklem was appointed Adviser to the Governor in August 2003. In 2003-4, he was seconded to the Department of Finance, returning to the Bank of Canada as a Deputy Governor in December 2004. He rejoined the Department of Finance as Associate Deputy Minister in 2007, in which he served until 30 June 2010.

Senior Deputy Governor

Macklem was appointed Senior Deputy Governor for a term of seven years beginning 1 July 2010. In his position, Macklem is the Bank of Canada's Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Bank of Canada's Board of Directors. Macklem is also responsible for overseeing strategic planning and coordinating of the Bank of Canada's operations, sharing responsibility for the conduct of monetary policy as a member of the Bank of Canada' Governing Council, and participating in fulfilling the Bank of Canada's responsibilities for promoting financial stability. Macklem also chairs the Standing Committee on Standards Implementation at the Financial Stability Board.
As the Senior Deputy Governor and number two at the Bank of Canada, Macklem was widely expected to succeed as BOC Governor with the appointment of Mark Carney as Governor of the Bank of England. However Macklem was passed over in favor of Stephen Poloz, becoming the third senior deputy governor in a row, after Malcolm Knight and Paul Jenkins, not to be chosen as the governor of the BOC. Macklem was considered a successor to former BOC Governor David Dodge and widely respected in the BOC and worldwide, though being a career civil servant he lacked the private sector experience that Carney and Poloz possessed. Some commentators suggested that Macklem would soon leave the BOC after being snubbed twice for the top position.
Although Macklem's term would have run until 2017, he announced his resignation to take effect on May 1, 2014, where he has assumed the position of Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada, suggested of Macklem's departure “It’s a real loss for the bank, that you lose that human capital” as Carney and Macklem formed the tandem that had guided Canada through the late-2000s financial recession.
On June 22, 2015 the Bank of Nova Scotia announced that Macklem had been appointed a new member of its board of directors.

Bank of Canada Governor

On May 1, 2020 Macklem was named as the new Governor of the Bank of Canada, succeeding Stephen Poloz. He assumed the office on June 3.