Perry Spitznagel is Vice Chair of Bennett Jones, a former longstanding Managing Partner of the Calgary office and a senior corporate lawyer with extensive national and cross-border experience in a broad range of matters. He has acted for clients in some of the largest transactions in Canada, including many of Canada’s and North America’s largest national and cross-border financings and mergers.
He has been recognised by Financial Post Magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in corporate Canada. He is also widely recognised as a leading lawyer in his areas of expertise.
Perry is a director of a large private holding company and a director of the Calgary Zoological Society. He is also the longstanding Chair of the Bennett Jones Business Forum, held annually at Lake Louise, Alberta. He has been a director and Chair of WinSport, which manages the legacy assets and programmes of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics; a member of the Alberta Securities Commission Advisory Committee; Co-Chair of the Pipestone Securities Law Conference; and a director of Alpine Canada, the governing body for alpine ski racing in Canada.
A former international ski racer, Perry remains active in skiing.
He is a graduate of McGill University, BA (Economics), 1979, with great distinction, and Osgoode Hall Law School, LLB, 1982.
He is a frequent speaker and has chaired national and international conferences on a variety of topics. Perry speaks French and German.
Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic and a Pulitzer-prize winning historian. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the SNF Agora Institute.
She was a Washington Post columnist for more than fifteen years and a member of the editorial board. She has also worked as the Foreign and Deputy Editor of the Spectator magazine in London, and as a columnist at Slate as well as the Daily and Sunday Telegraphs.
Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine was published in October 2017. It received the Lionel Gelber Prize as well as the Duff Cooper prize in 2018.
Her previous book, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956, described the imposition of Soviet totalitarianism in Central Europe after the Second World War. Iron Curtain won the 2012 Cundill Prize for Historical Literature and the Duke of Westminster Medal, and was a National Book Award finalist.
She is also the author of Gulag: A History, which narrates the history of the Soviet concentration camps system and describes daily life in the camps, making extensive use of recently opened Russian archives as well as memoirs and interviews. Gulag won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 2004 and was also a National Book Award finalist.
Iron Curtain, Gulag: A History and Red Famine have all appeared in more than two dozen translations, including all major European languages.
Anne Applebaum is also the co-author of a cookbook, From a Polish Country House Kitchen, and a recently re-published travelogue, Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe, which describes a journey across Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine made in 1991, just before the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Over the years, her writing has also appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune, Foreign Affairs, The New Criterion, The Weekly Standard, the New Republic, The National Review, The New Statesman, The Independent, The Guardian, Prospect, Commentaire, Die Welt, Cicero, Gazeta Wyborcza and The Times Literary Supplement, as well as in several anthologies.
She has lectured at Yale, Harvard, Stanford and Columbia Universities, as well as Oxford, Cambridge, London, Heidelberg, Maastricht, Zurich, Humboldt, Texas A&M, Houston and many others. In 2012-13 she held the Phillipe Roman Chair of History and International Relations at the London School of Economics. She received honorary doctorates from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and Kyiv-Mohyla University.
Anne Applebaum was born in Washington, DC in 1964. After graduating from Yale University, she was a Marshall Scholar at the LSE and St. Antony’s College, Oxford. Her husband, Radoslaw Sikorski, is a Polish politician and writer. They have two children, Alexander and Tadeusz.
Thought leaders and panels to be announced soon.
Born in Kitchener, Ontario, Senator Peter M. Boehm holds a Ph.D in History from the University of Edinburgh, a Master of Arts in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, and a Bachelor of Arts in English and History from Wilfrid Laurier University.
He was Deputy Minister for the G7 Summit and Personal Representative of the Prime Minister (Sherpa) from July 2017, until his retirement from the public service in September 2018. Peter Boehm had previously been Deputy Minister of International Development, Associate, and, subsequently, Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. From 2013 to 2017, he concurrently served as Sherpa for the G8 and subsequent G7 Summits, as well as the Nuclear Security Summit.
A former career foreign service officer, he served as Ambassador to Germany from 2008 to 2012 and previously as Assistant Deputy Minister for the Americas, North America and Consular Affairs. Abroad, he was Minister (political and public affairs) at the Embassy of Canada to the United States in Washington and Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States. He has held a variety of diplomatic positions including assignments in Cuba and Costa Rica.
He was National Summit Coordinator for the Santiago and Québec Summits of the Americas, Special Envoy for the Organization of American States Democratization Mission in Peru and Personal Representative (Sherpa) of the Prime Minister for the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata in 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he was the senior official responsible for the annual North American Leaders’ Summit.
He is a recipient of the Public Service of Canada Outstanding Achievement Award and the Canadian Foreign Service Officer Award for his contribution to advancing peace in Central America.
He was appointed to the Senate of Canada, representing the province of Ontario in October 2018. He is currently the Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
With four decades of experience in the business of energy—from oil and gas to renewables—Peter Tertzakian is a respected industry leader. He’s frequently called on to share his knowledge of strategic macroeconomic and business issues with investors, corporate leaders, policymakers, and educators around the world.
Using creative stories, personal photographs, digital art, and his collection of energy ephemera, Peter distils, clarifies, and communicates complicated issues regarding energy, economics, and the environment in a uniquely imaginative way. His presentations spark and guide important discussions on some of today’s most critical topics.
In his most recent venture, Peter founded Studio.Energy, a next generation think tank working at the intersection of energy, policy, and economics. By convening decision-makers and using real-time modelling, the studio diagnoses economic health, prescribes interventions to unlock stronger capital flows, and cultivates the next generation of energy leaders.
Peter is also well known for the popular podcast ARC Energy Ideas, which he cohosts with Jackie Forrest. Together, they explore the trends that influence the energy business, including financial, political, environmental, technological, social, and economic forces.
A graduate of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Peter has published three books: A Thousand Barrels a Second and The End of Energy Obesity—both international bestsellers—and his latest book, The Investor Visit and Other Stories: Disruption, Denial and Transition in the Energy Business. He also curates The Art of Energy at the Peter Tertzakian Gallery in Canmore and sits on the Board of the National Gallery Foundation.
Nancy Southern, A.O.E., B.E.M., is Chair & Chief Executive Officer of ATCO Ltd., and Executive Chair of Canadian Utilities Limited, an ATCO Company. Reporting to the Boards of Directors, she is responsible for the vision, strategic direction, and ongoing operational success of both companies. She also serves as Executive Vice President of Spruce Meadows Ltd. and is a founding Director of AKITA Drilling Ltd., a Director of Sentgraf Enterprises Limited, an Honorary Director of BMO Financial Group, and a Director Emeritus of the Rideau Hall Foundation.
Ms. Southern has long played a prominent role in advocating on social issues of global importance—most notably, the rights of Indigenous peoples and the role of women in business. She is an Honorary Chief of the Kainai (Blood Tribe of Alberta) who bestowed the name Aksistoowa’paakii, or Brave Woman, upon her in 2012.
Over the course of her career, Ms. Southern has served with many respected business and academic organizations. She is a member of the Business Council of Canada, the American Society of Corporate Executives, and is a Canadian member of the Trilateral Commission. She is also a member of the University of Calgary School of Public Policy Advisory Council.
Ms. Southern is the recipient of numerous honours for her community leadership and commitment to democratic principles and free enterprise. In 2025, Ms. Southern was honoured with the King Charles III Coronation Medal in recognition for her outstanding services to Alberta, Canada, and her fellow citizens, noting her pivotal role in shaping industry and community progress.
In 2024, she was honoured as a member of the Alberta Order of Excellence, the highest honour the Province of Alberta can bestow on a citizen. Also in 2024, Canada’s True Patriot Love Foundation awarded Ms. Southern with the Patriot Award for ATCO’s leading role in supporting the Canadian Armed Forces and its Veterans as well as ATCO’s support of the Invictus Games movement.
In 2023, Ms. Southern received the Lifetime Business Achievement in the Americas Award from the Canadian Council for the Americas and was named Energy Person of the Year by the Energy Council of Canada. In 2022, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce honoured her with the Canadian Business Leader Lifetime Achievement Award. Also in 2022, she was honoured with the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal and, in 2020, she was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to British equestrian, military, and commercial interests in Alberta.
In 2018, she received the Canadian Business Leader Award from the University of Alberta and was named a Distinguished Policy Fellow by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy in recognition of her lifetime commitment to Canadian public policy. She was inducted as a Companion into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 2017.
Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Ms. Southern studied economics and commerce at the University of Calgary, which also awarded her its highest academic honour, an Honorary Doctor of Laws, in 2014. She also holds Honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Mount Royal University, the University of Lethbridge, and Western University.
John Mercury is Executive Chair and Chair of the Board of Bennett Jones. As Chair, John has overall responsibility for the direction, management and financial performance of the firm, with a focus on its strategic plan, market and industry initiatives, and client relationships. In his practice, John was formerly the head of the firm’s private equity practice and has been recognized as one of Canada’s leading M&A lawyers with a significant focus on cross-border transactions. He will continue to practice and serve clients in his new role.
John joined Bennett Jones after spending nearly a decade in New York, where he practised corporate and U.S. tax law with a leading New York-based law firm and where he worked as an investment banker with Merrill Lynch in its M&A group. In these roles, John provided legal and financial advice to a broad range of U.S., Canadian and foreign companies, primarily in the fields of mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, debt and equity financings and corporate governance matters. John serves on a number of corporate and not-for-profit boards. He is also a member of the American Bar Association and the New York City Bar.
Nancy Southern, A.O.E., B.E.M., is Chair & Chief Executive Officer of ATCO Ltd., and Executive Chair of Canadian Utilities Limited, an ATCO Company. Reporting to the Boards of Directors, she is responsible for the vision, strategic direction, and ongoing operational success of both companies. She also serves as Executive Vice President of Spruce Meadows Ltd. and is a founding Director of AKITA Drilling Ltd., a Director of Sentgraf Enterprises Limited, an Honorary Director of BMO Financial Group, and a Director Emeritus of the Rideau Hall Foundation.
Ms. Southern has long played a prominent role in advocating on social issues of global importance—most notably, the rights of Indigenous peoples and the role of women in business. She is an Honorary Chief of the Kainai (Blood Tribe of Alberta) who bestowed the name Aksistoowa’paakii, or Brave Woman, upon her in 2012.
Over the course of her career, Ms. Southern has served with many respected business and academic organizations. She is a member of the Business Council of Canada, the American Society of Corporate Executives, and is a Canadian member of the Trilateral Commission. She is also a member of the University of Calgary School of Public Policy Advisory Council.
Ms. Southern is the recipient of numerous honours for her community leadership and commitment to democratic principles and free enterprise. In 2025, Ms. Southern was honoured with the King Charles III Coronation Medal in recognition for her outstanding services to Alberta, Canada, and her fellow citizens, noting her pivotal role in shaping industry and community progress.
In 2024, she was honoured as a member of the Alberta Order of Excellence, the highest honour the Province of Alberta can bestow on a citizen. Also in 2024, Canada’s True Patriot Love Foundation awarded Ms. Southern with the Patriot Award for ATCO’s leading role in supporting the Canadian Armed Forces and its Veterans as well as ATCO’s support of the Invictus Games movement.
In 2023, Ms. Southern received the Lifetime Business Achievement in the Americas Award from the Canadian Council for the Americas and was named Energy Person of the Year by the Energy Council of Canada. In 2022, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce honoured her with the Canadian Business Leader Lifetime Achievement Award. Also in 2022, she was honoured with the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal and, in 2020, she was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to British equestrian, military, and commercial interests in Alberta.
In 2018, she received the Canadian Business Leader Award from the University of Alberta and was named a Distinguished Policy Fellow by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy in recognition of her lifetime commitment to Canadian public policy. She was inducted as a Companion into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 2017.
Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Ms. Southern studied economics and commerce at the University of Calgary, which also awarded her its highest academic honour, an Honorary Doctor of Laws, in 2014. She also holds Honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Mount Royal University, the University of Lethbridge, and Western University.
Ken Seitz is the President and Chief Executive Officer at Nutrien.
Prior to his appointment as CEO in 2022, Mr. Seitz served as Nutrien’s Executive Vice President and CEO of Potash. He brings over 25 years of global management experience working across more than 60 countries, with an extensive background in agriculture and mining. Earlier in his career, Mr. Seitz served as President and CEO of Canpotex, one of the world’s largest suppliers of Potash, giving him deep experience in global fertilizer marketing and logistics and strong connections within the industry.
Mr. Seitz serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the International Fertilizer Association (IFA). He is a member of the Board of Directors of The Fertilizer Institute and the Business Council of Canada.
He holds a Certificate in Management from the Stern School of Business at New York University, a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, a Bachelor of Engineering, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Saskatchewan. Additionally, Mr. Seitz is a Professional Agrologist with the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists.
Mr. Setoguchi is President & Chief Executive Officer of Keyera. Prior to this, Mr. Setoguchi served as Keyera’s President (2020-present), Senior Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer (2018-2020), Senior Vice President, Liquids Business Unit (2014-2018), and Vice President & Chief Financial Officer (2008-2012).
Mr. Setoguchi has over 30 years of senior leadership experience in the energy industry. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CA) and holds a Bachelor of Management (University of Lethbridge).
Mr. Setoguchi has served on the boards of several public companies, and the Board of Governors of the University of Lethbridge. He currently serves on the Boards of Keyera Corp., Business Council of Canada, and Calgary Food Bank.
Heather Exner-Pirot is a Senior Fellow and Director of Energy, Natural Resources and Environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, Special Advisor to the Business Council of Canada, and Research Advisor to the Indigenous Resource Network.
She has twenty years of experience in Indigenous, Arctic and resource development and governance. She has published on northern and Indigenous economic development, resource politics and policy, energy security, regional Arctic governance, First Nations equity and own source revenues, and more. She obtained a PhD in Political Science from the University of Calgary in 2011.
Exner-Pirot sits on the boards of the Saskatchewan Indigenous Economic Development Network and the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation. She is a member of the Canadian Defence and Security Network and a Network Coordinator at the North American and Arctic Defense and Security Network. She is the Managing Editor of the Arctic Yearbook (an international, peer-reviewed annual volume), a member of Yukon’s Arctic Security Advisory Council, and the former Chair of the Canadian Northern Studies Trust.
She has published over 45 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and edited volumes, and presented at over 100 conferences and events nationally and internationally, in addition to authoring dozens of op-eds in Canada’s top publications.
She currently lives near Calgary with her husband and two children.
Fred Di Blasio is a proud member of the Wendat First Nation and the Co-Founder & CEO of Longhouse Capital Partners. A 30-year finance and corporate development leader, Fred has built a career bridging Bay and Wall Street with Indigenous economic sovereignty.
He has led $100 billion+ in M&A and financing transactions, from AT&T’s Latin American expansion to TELUS Optik TV’s launch and the $1.4 billion Sen̓áḵw Development financing. At the forefront of Canada’s reconciliation economy, Fred is redefining how institutional capital partners with First Nations to build lasting, sustainable infrastructure and shared prosperity.
Martha Hall Findlay has been dedicated to shaping public policy for Canadians for many years. She served as chief sustainability officer and chief climate officer for Suncor Energy, and before that was president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation, where she developed a reputation for being non-partisan, objective, and pragmatic by advocating for public policy solutions based on thorough research.
As a Member of Parliament, she was a member of the Official Opposition shadow cabinet and served on several House of Commons committees as the critic for International Trade; Finance; Government Works and Public Services; and Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities.
As a corporate lawyer and senior business executive, she developed extensive experience in energy, telecommunications, sustainability, trade (international and internal) and global markets.
She was named a Canadian Climate Champion in 2021; a top global female oil and gas executive and one of the top 275 global women influencers; and was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal.
John Baird is a Senior Advisor at Bennett Jones LLP and a former Senior Cabinet Minister in the Government of Canada.
An instrumental figure in bilateral trade and investment relationships, Mr. Baird has played a leading role in the Canada-China dialogue and worked to build ties with ASEAN countries. In addition, Mr. Baird has worked closely with international leaders to strengthen security and economic ties with the United States and Middle Eastern countries.
A native of Ottawa, Baird spent three terms as a Member of Parliament and four years as Foreign Minister. He also served as President of the Treasury Board, Minister of the Environment, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons. In 2010, he was selected by Members of Parliament from all parties as Parliamentarian of the Year. Prior to entering federal politics, Mr. Baird spent ten years in the Ontario Legislature where he served as Minister of Community and Social Services, Minister of Energy, and Government House Leader.
In addition to his work with Bennett Jones, Mr. Baird sits on the advisory board of Barrick Gold Corp., the corporate boards of Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (CPKC), Canfor Corporation (as Chair), the FWD Group and PineBridge Investments. He also serves as a Senior Advisor at Eurasia Group, a global political risk consultancy.
Mr. Baird also volunteers his time with Community Living Ontario, an organization that supports individuals with developmental disabilities, and is a board member of the Friends of Israel Initiative. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies and an Honourary Doctorate of Law from Queen’s University at Kingston.
The Honourable Jason Kenney served as the 18th Premier of Alberta, where he led the development and diversification of the province’s energy sector, built partnerships with Indigenous communities and created new opportunities for businesses to grow and attract investment. He served for more than 25 years in Canadian federal and provincial elected office.
Jason provides an extraordinary combination of leadership, vision and public policy experience to Bennett Jones clients. As Premier, he led the creation of Alberta’s Recovery Plan, Natural Gas Vision and Strategy, Hydrogen Roadmap and the first-of-its-kind Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation.
From 2007-15, he served as Canada’s Minister for Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism; Minister of Employment and Social Development; Minister of National Defence; and Chair of the Cabinet Operations Committee. He was first elected a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1997 and was re-elected six times.
Jason was the President of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in the 1990s before starting his political career.
The Honourable John Manley is one of the most highly respected business leaders in Canada. For over a decade, he served in the Federal Government as Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance Minister and Industry Minister. More recently, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Business Council of Canada (formerly the Canadian Council of Chief Executives), representing the CEOs of leading Canadian corporations.
Mr. Manley advises clients and helps them succeed through his years of leadership and experience in government and business, and his tremendous understanding of where strategic business opportunities lie.
Mr. Manley is Chair of the Boards of Directors of CIBC and CAE Inc., and is a member of the Board of Directors of TELUS. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and is active in the not-for-profit sector. He is Chair of the Advisory Council of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and past-Chair of the Canadian branch of the Trilateral Commission. He is also a member of the International Advisory Council of the Brookings Institution and the Wilson Center Global Advisory Council.
He holds Honorary Doctorates from the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, University of Toronto, Western University, the University of Windsor and York University.
She served as Premier of British Columbia from 2011 to 2017. Her signature achievements include establishing the LNG industry in Canada, approving and building the last major dam project in B.C., and undertaking the largest program of infrastructure in the province’s history.
Her advisory role is grounded in an intimate understanding of how governments make critical decisions that impact infrastructure projects, resource development, land use, and Indigenous rights and title. Her strategic advice helps businesses focus on how they can align their strategies to take into consideration long-term goals of governments, including sustainability, Indigenous interests and community impacts.
Christy provides clients with a clear roadmap of who in the government is responsible for specific decisions, their priorities and how to effectively communicate with them. Her international experience and the relationships she has built with stakeholders throughout her career further enrich her advisory capabilities at Bennett Jones.
Today, she facilitates cross-border collaborations for clients around the world who have their eyes set on growth in Canada.