Imagining a Better Digital Future for Canadian Agriculture

Katherine MacDonald is director general, strategic management, in the Information Systems Branch at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). Her mandate covers digital agriculture and agricultural technology, cyber security in agriculture, project management and governance, information management, the Canadian Agricultural Library and more. She has worked in various policy executive roles in AAFC since 2008, and more recently as corporate secretary. She has been with the department since 2005 and worked previously for the Canada Revenue Agency. She attended Carleton University and holds a Bachelor of Journalism. She lives and works in Ottawa.

Tyler McCann is the managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. He spent almost a decade working in government advising Ministers, serving the Agriculture and Agri-Food minister for most of that time. He has also worked as a consultant for farm groups, industry associations, and small and large agri-food businesses, advising on government relations, policy, and association management. Tyler operates a beef and goat farm with his wife and children in Western Quebec.

Lenore Newman is the director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley and specializes in agricultural innovation and policy. She holds a research chair in food and agriculture innovation and is a past Canada Research Chair in Food Security. Lenore is an emeritus member of the Royal Society of Canada’s New College and consults widely for the agritech industry. Her third book, Dinner on Mars, coauthored with Evan Fraser, was published in 2022.

Phillips earned his PhD at the London School of Economics, worked for 13 years as an economist in industry and government and retired after well over two decades in a series of professorial appointments in agricultural economics, business, political studies and public policy in Canada and abroad. He is author/editor of 18 books, and nearly 100 articles and book chapters. He currently serves as policy fellow with the Global Institute for Food Security, Chair of the Board of Genome Prairie and Clean Growth Panelist with the Canadian Climate Institute.

Jennifer is the President and CEO of the IRPP. She is a not-for-profit sector executive and seasoned communicator with 25 years of experience working to make complex public policy issues and politics better understood by Canadians. From 2016 to 2021, she was the Editor-in-Chief of the IRPP’s influential digital magazine, Policy Options. Prior to joining the IRPP, Jennifer spent two decades covering national and parliamentary affairs for The Canadian Press and for CBC Television.