The BDL Team

Stephen Tapp is the Chief Economist at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. In this role, he is a key member of the Chamber’s executive leadership team, responsible for the operations of the new Business Data Lab as well as all economic analysis and research. His current focus is on developing the Chamber’s data and analytics capabilities to provide real-time, forward-looking insights for Canadian businesses of all sizes, in all sectors and regions of the country.

Stephen brings 20 years of diverse experiences at many of Canada’s top economic organizations including at: Export Development Canada as the Deputy Chief Economist, the Bank of Canada, Parliamentary Budget Office, Finance Canada, two think tanks as well as academia.

He is a recognized thought leader, frequent commentator, and sought-out spokesperson on economic issues in Canada. Stephen’s research was awarded the Purvis prize for Canadian economic policy and has been published in academic journals, such as the Canadian Journal of Economics and Canadian Public Policy. He has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Queen’s University and an Honors B.A from Western. During his undergrad, he studied in the Netherlands and was the owner-operator of a student painting company.

Patrick Gill is the Senior Director of Operations and Partnerships at the Business Data Lab. As a key architect behind the Business Data Lab and its innovative Business Data Trust, Patrick is putting his knack and zeal for founding successful national business programs towards a project that enhances the public’s understanding of Canadian business conditions and trends, while also democratizing economic data for research and decision-making.

Previously, Patrick held the role of Senior Director of Tax and Financial Policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce where he led high-profile national projects including the Think Growth Project – a business led review of Canada’s tax system.

As a founder of national, multi-million dollar programs, Patrick has helped established 5 successful initiatives during his career, including the Business Data Lab at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Canada’s Trade Accelerator Program (TAP) and Market Activation Program (MAP) at World Trade Centre Toronto, the Business Resilience Service with Canada’s accounting industry and the establishment of the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions with Statistics Canada.

Devoted to the betterment of communities, Patrick sits on the Board of Directors of Toronto’s oldest and largest community development agencies – Yonge Street Mission (YSM) – as well as his local neighbourhood association.

Patrick’s education includes a Master’s of Public Policy and an Advanced Certificate in Public Administration and Governance from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). Patrick’s graduate work on labour market needs was recognized by the Ontario Public Service, winning Ontario’s Graduate Policy Research Challenge in 2017.

Patrick and his thought-leadership frequently appear in Canadian media, think tanks and business journal publications.

Nada Habli was the first Data Scientist hired at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Business Data Lab. In this role, she is an integral member of the team that is building the Chamber’s data and analytics capacity, including developing business data dashboards and the Business Data Trust in collaboration with Statistics Canada, among other projects.

Nada has a Bachelor’s degree (joint honours in Computer Science and Mathematics) and a Master’s in Statistics from the University of Ottawa. She brings to the Chamber over five years of experience at Statistics Canada in various roles in the Economic Analysis, Statistics, and International Divisions — all of which have developed her expertise in programming, data analysis and modelling. Nada recently helped create the agency’s COVID-19-recovery dashboard, and was the team leader tracking pandemic restrictions across jurisdictions in real-time, and assessing their impacts on Canadian businesses.

After over 12 years of multidisciplinary experience abroad, taking on this unique role at the Canadian Chamber is an opportune and fitting homecoming for Marwa.

Prior to her role at the Chamber, Marwa served as the Advisor to the Minister of International Cooperation of Egypt for Private Sector Engagement where she managed a portfolio of projects totaling over $3 Billion USD. She also worked directly with and within some of the world’s most renowned multilateral organizations, private sector organizations, and country governments including the World Bank Group, Commonwealth Secretariat, APEC, OECD, Ernst and Young, Nathan Associates and the Asian Development Bank. In addition to leading dozens of capacity and technical assistance projects, consulting on regulatory, legal and policy reforms with these institutions, she also co-authored a number of publications and working papers.

Marwa’s journey has seen her through a number of professional pit stops spanning the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region where she’s worked on trade facilitation, gender equity, equality, social, and financial inclusion as well as the enablement, engagement and empowerment of the private sector. Still, one driver and common thread has always remained: championing, advocating and catalyzing impactful interventions for vulnerable groups, including businesses and SMEs, through rigorous data analysis, inventive research and storytelling.

Marwa received her master’s degree in international relations and international economics from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She received her bachelor’s degree in finance and economics from Queen’s University Smith School of Business in Canada.

Dakshdeep Singh will report to the Chief Economist, and work closely with our Data Scientist, Nada Habli. He will be responsible for building and maintaining the Chamber’s Business Data Trust, in collaboration with Statistics Canada — which along with other objectives, will provide data and insights on SMEs for the SME Institute. Dakshdeep will use his impressive coding skills to help Nada develop our suite of BDL business data dashboards, better automate our operations, and provide ad hoc research and analytical support to the BDL team.

He recently graduated with a Master of Statistics from Carleton University, which added to his previous degrees in Actuarial Science from the U.K. and India. He has worked as a Data Scientist for the Economic Research Team at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, where he built sophisticated models using big datasets (including analyzing the effects of COVID on patent filing activities, using natural language processing). Prior to that, he worked as a Data Analyst in the Actuarial department for a major life insurance company.

Mahmoud has 10 years of experience and brings advanced empirical and analytical skills. In this role, he will leverage his help us continue to build the Chamber’s economic, data, and analytics capacity. Mahmoud will conduct independent research on a variety of topics that matter to Canadian businesses and next-gen entrepreneurs, with an initial focus on priority topics such as Business Conditions. He will also help to develop new BDL Business Insights reports and policy briefs, written independently as well as in collaboration with external researchers from government, academia, think tanks and non-profits.

Mahmoud’s track record has prepared him well for this role. Prior to joining the Chamber, he worked with the National Bank of Kuwait and Central Bank of Egypt where he conducted similar research. Mahmoud completed his Masters in Economics at the University of Marburg, Germany in 2016. He obtained his Bachelors in Economics from Cairo University in 2011 – during which time he also completed a semester at the University of Chicago.