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Our People

David Leis

David Leis

President and CEO

Marco Navarro-Génie

Marco Navarro-Génie

Vice President of Research and Policy

Ian Madsen

Ian Madsen

Senior Policy Analyst

Lee Harding

Lee Harding

Research Fellow

Rodney Clifton

Rodney Clifton

Editor/Senior Fellow

Conrad Eder

Conrad Eder

Policy Analyst

Lindsay Shepherd

Lindsay Shepherd

Director of Communications and Engagement

FELLOWS (29)
David Beito

David Beito is an associate professor of history at the University of Alabama. Much of his research has focused on the history of the non-governmental provision of public services.

He wrote Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression (1989), From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fratermal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967 (2000), and edited The Voluntary City: Choice Community, and Civil Society (2002). He has also published articles in the Journal of Urban History, Critical Review, the Journal of Policy History, the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, and the Journal of Southern History. He is currently writing (with his co-author Professor Linda Royster Beito of Stillman College), a biography of Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a black civil rights pioneer, entrepreneur, and mutual aid leader. He was recently appointed Chairman of the Alabama State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He contributes to the Liberty and Power Group Blog at the History News Network (http://hnn.us/blogs/4.html). Professor Beito, a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Sir Roger Douglas

Sir Roger Douglas was Finance Minister in New Zealand’s Labour Government from 1984 to 1988.

Sir Roger was responsible for one of the most comprehensive restructuring program ever attempted by a government anywhere. The program included cutting income tax rates in half, deregulating wide sectors of the New Zealand economy, ending farm and business subsidies, and restructuring and privatizing most state-owned enterprises. Most significantly, Sir Roger overhauled the operating philosophy of government agencies and departments to make them run as competition-oriented, bottom-line business enterprises that are fully accountable for resources they receive from taxpayers. Sir Roger retired from politics in 1990 and now operates an international consulting firm based in Auckland, New Zealand where he lives. In 2008 he was re-elected to the New Zealand parliament with the party he founded, the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers. See more at www.rogerdouglas.org.nz.
Johan Hjertqvist

Johan Hjertqvist is the founder and president of the Health Consumer Powerhouse based in Stockholm, the European do-tank for better healthcare by consumer information and knowledge.

Before the Powerhouse, Mr. Hjertqvist was the manager of Timbro Health Policy Unit, a division of the Timbro Policy Group in Stockholm, Sweden. Mr. Hjertqvist has a background in health care policy and welfare entrepreneurial activities. Beginning in 1999 he led a four-year project to analyze the transformation of health care in the Stockholm region which resulted in three comprehensive reports. His “The Stockholm Health Care Revolution” published in 2000 is an internationally well-known inspiration to reform. During the 1990’s, Mr. Hjertqvist played an active role in the transition of internal market ideas to a number of countries, UK, Norway and Canada not the least. Mr. Hjertqvist has also acted as an advisor to the Greater Stockholm Council, specializing in market infrastructures where purchasers and providers can meet and the focus of his projects between 1995 – 99 was on creating new arenas where private health care entrepreneurs and contractors could come together to strengthen the impact of market pluralism. Mr. Hjertqvist has a Master of Laws degree from the University of Stockholm and is a member of international health care networks and institutions such as the Stockholm Network in London and the Centre for the New Europe in Brussels and also serves on the Board of Research Advisors at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
E.S. Savas

E.S. Savas is a Presidential Professor at Baruch College, City University of New York.

He is the author of fifteen books and over 130 articles; his books have been published in 23 foreign editions. He is an internationally known pioneer in, and authority on, privatization. He served as First Deputy City Administrator of New York, appointed by Mayor John V. Lindsay, and as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, appointed by President Ronald Reagan. He also served as a councilman in his suburban town. He was a professor of public management at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and taught in Baruch’s Department of Management, where he also served for eight years as chairman.
He has B.A. and B.S. degrees from the University of Chicago, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, and honorary doctorate degrees from two European universities
Graham Lane

Graham Lane is a retired CA and has had a multifaceted career spanning almost 50 years in the public and private sectors of seven provinces as a Senior Executive and Consultant.

In the public sector, before concluding his career as the Chairman of the PUB, he consulted for three provincial governments and was employed by four provinces. In Manitoba, he was the CEO of Credit Union Central, bringing in online banking, a Vice-President of Public Investments of Manitoba, the interim President of MPI, reorganizing the corporation after its massive losses of 1986, a Vice-President of the University of Winnipeg, and the CEO of the WCB, restructuring the insurer and returning it to solvency. His experience with Crown Corporations go well beyond Manitoba, he was the Comptroller of Saskatchewan’s Crown Investments Corporation, and a consultant reviewing government auto insurance in BC and workers compensation in Nova Scotia. He received the gold medal in Philosophy as an undergraduate, and a Paul Harris Fellowship from Rotary International for excellence in vocational service. Throughout his career, and wherever he worked, consulted or volunteered, he maintained an external objectivity.
Wayne Anderson - Chair

Wayne Anderson was born in Winnipeg and graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1963 with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, an appropriate degree: after he earned his MBA from York University in 1968 he became actively involved in his family’s cattle operation.

He continued this farm work as he carved a path into Winnipeg’s business community. He has been a self employed entrepreneur for most of the last 40 years. In 1973, Mr Anderson was named President and General Manager of General Window Products of Canada Ltd. In 1981, he became President of Bonar Plastics Western Ltd. He remained there until 1993, when he became President at St Boniface Pallet Co., a position he still holds today. He was Vice President of Hillside Farms Manitoba Ltd from 1963 until 2003, and from 1993 to 2003 he was Chairman of the Manitoba Horse Racing Commission. He also served as a Director on the Board of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association for 18 years, including three years as Chair. Multitasking has always been his strength: while a university student he was a hockey player for both the Department of Agriculture and the U of M Bison Men’s Hockey Team, he was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity and he served on the Agriculture Student Council. In 1998, Mr Anderson was elected to the University of Manitoba’s Board of Governors as a Representative of the Graduates. He was re-elected in 2001 and 2004. He served as Vice Chair from September 2000 until June 2002, when he was elected as Chair of the Board of Governors. That same year he was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal. He served as Chair of the Board with great integrity for four years and then remained on the Board until May 2007.  Mr Anderson has also been a member of the University of Manitoba’s Trust and Endowment Committee since 1999. Since 2009, he served as Chair of the St Boniface Hospital’s Board of Directors and continues to be an integral part of the University of Manitoba community. He has been the Chair of the Frontier Board since 2002.
David Leis - President and CEO

David is a long-time supporter of the Centre’s mission. He is passionate in his role about inviting and engaging a strong national community in support of the mission of the Frontier. He believes strongly in the importance of good Public Policy for the benefit of the lives of all Canadians.

He has served in a variety of senior leadership roles within industry, government, First Nations, and education. David studied at Waterloo, Ryerson, Toronto, and undertook his Masters in Public Policy at Queen’s University.

Cheryl Simpson - Director

Cheryl Simpson is a Chartered Professional Accountant with a Bachelor of Applied Business Administration.

She has worked in the Accounting field since 1999, and is presently the owner of her own public practice firm. Prior to this Cheryl was a licensed Customs Broker working in both imports and exports for one of the largest firms in Canada. Cheryl has resided in Winnipeg since 1996. She currently holds a position on the Board of Directors of the Winnipeg Rotary Career Symposium.
Ivan Holloway - Secretary

Ivan is a partner at the Winnipeg law firm of Gange Collins Holloway and specializes in construction law, construction litigation and commercial litigation.

He has practiced since 2003 and is called to the Bars of Manitoba and Alberta.  Ivan has acted as lead counsel in legal proceedings at all levels of court in Manitoba, as well as courts in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the Supreme Court of Canada. For recreation, Ivan enjoys hockey, cross-country skiing, travelling, camping, hunting, fishing, gardening, reading, and annoying his wife. Ivan is also an experienced wilderness canoeist and back-country traveler. Ivan has canoed the Grass, Manigotogan, Bloodvein, Churchill, Hayes, Black, Wind, Berens, Ponask, Stull, and portions of the God’s and Red Sucker rivers. Among many other mildly interesting experiences on these trips, Ivan has run class V rapids, engaged in mortal combat with a bear, been ‘nose to nose’ with a bull moose, navigated across a lake in a blinding snowstorm, observed numerous pre-contact and fur trade-era artifacts, dined under the midnight sun, told tall tales under the Northern Lights, and generally put to shame any archeologist with the last name “Jones”.
John Heimbecker - Director

John Heimbecker has been a Vice President at Parrish & Heimbecker since 1999. He graduated from MacMaster University with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (Finance) in 1987.

He began working for Parrish & Heimbecker as a Domestic Feed Grain trader that same year and was promoted to General Manager of Eastern Trading in 1990. In 1999 he was appointed as Vice President in charge of all grain related operations across Canada and the U.S. and presently serves on the Executive Committee of P & H. Other professional activities include Past President of the Canada Ports Clearance Association; Past President of Winnipeg Commodity Clearing Ltd.; Director, Martin Mills Ltd.; Chairman, The Winnipeg Commodity Exchange Feed Grains Committee and Director, Smith Brokerage Ltd. John Heimbecker is on the Rural Renaissance Project Advisory Committee.
Russell Kalmacoff - Director

Mr Kalmacoff is President and CEO of Rockmount Financial Corporation, a Calgary-based company that manages investments, develops real estate, and has interests in downstream cleantech. Its subsidiary, Rockmount Trust Company has a business plan directed at mortgage banking services for builders and developers.

Mr Kalmacoff began his post-secondary education at the University of Calgary, successfully completing first-year engineering, then transferring to the University of Manitoba for a Bachelor of Commerce, following which he was accepted at the University of California, Berkeley, into the MBA program. At Berkeley, Mr Kalmacoff was a Research Assistant at the Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics and assisted in the development of a computer model of the Bay Area in anticipation of the construction of the rapid transit system (BART). Upon graduating with his MBA degree he was awarded a Senior Fellowship from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp and entered the doctoral program at Berkeley. At Manitoba and Berkeley, Mr Kalmacoff did papers in gasoline marketing and competition law. He transferred to the doctoral program at New York University and worked for a year on Wall Street with Salomon Brothers, following which Mr Kalmacoff moved to Toronto where he was employed at the head office of AE LePage. After circulating in all departments, he settled into the mortgage department and among other things, with Canada Packers Pension Fund, designed a breakthrough financing model involving land purchase leasebacks and NHA insured leasehold mortgages with participating rent payable to the pension fund in addition to interest. He has been active in community development on Internal Avenue (17th Avenue SE), working closely with the Business Revitalization Zone. He also serves as a Director of the International Avenue Arts & Culture Centre (IAACC) which will be tied to and coordinated with the International Avenue Technology Centre (IATC) which Rockmount is currently developing as a business incubator.
Kenneth J. Muys - Director

Mr. Muys is a partner with the firm and has been with D’Arcy & Deacon since 2002. He practices in a broad range of civil litigation cases and has significant experience in creditors and debtor law, bankruptcy and insolvency law, construction law, insurance law and employment law. He has appeared in all levels of court in Manitoba and the Federal Court of Canada as well as before various boards and tribunals. Mr. Muys also has an active real estate practice and achieved the highest standing in Real Estate Transactions at the University of Manitoba Law School.

Mr. Muys was also a lecturer for seven years at the University of Manitoba Law School in the first-year clinical course of
Legal Methods which emphasizes oral advocacy skills. Mr. Muys has also been a lecturer in the second-year clinical course
of Introduction to Advocacy at the University of Manitoba Law School.

Chris Bloomer - Director

Chris is Director and co-founder of Enhanced Optimization Solutions Inc. (“EOSinc”) a private energy technology company with proven proprietary production enhancement and emission reduction processes. From 2015 to 2021 he was the President, CEO and Director of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association a leading and respected advocate for the oil and gas industry.

As CEO and director of Connacher oil and Gas Ltd from 2013 to 2015, he headed a $1.5 billion restructuring of the oil sands company while growing production. From 2001 to 2013 Chris was a key executive of Petrobank Energy and Resources fulfilling key roles in his tenure as Senior Vice President and COO and CFO from 2004 to 2007. Petrobank operated conventional oil and gas business units in Canada and Colombia as well as Canadian oil sands and became a leading energy company on the TSX.

Other positions include Senior Client Partner with Korn Ferry where he conducted senior executive retain search in domestic and international oil and gas, technology and financial sectors; Co-Founder, President and COO Of Talon Resources an Ecuadorian and Colombia mid-stream project development operation in conjunction with PacAlta Resources; Senior Vice President and COO of Castle Energy Corporation’s Canadian crude marketing and US exploration, natural gas production and pipelines.

Chris began his career, after graduating from the University of Toronto in earth sciences with Shell Canada Ltd. from 1978 to 1993. He moved with increasing responsibility from exploration, economics, corporate planning, oil sands development and operations and natural gas marketing, culminating in the role of Director Liquids Business Center. In this role he was responsible for crude oil and liquid natural gas marketing and business development.

Chris has extensive board of director experience having served on 13 public and private boards in various capacities including Chairman.

Nick Beyak - Director

Nick Beyak is a Canadian entrepreneur and president of the Beyak Automotive Group. After attaining his Bachelor of Business Administration, he began working alongside his father to understand and operate the family auto dealership. At a very young age Nick purchased the business and has since expanded by acquiring several other dealerships within Northwestern Ontario.

Nick has dedicated himself to creating a positive workplace that allows his staff to thrive and prosper as a result of their dedication and loyalty. The Beyak Automotive Group and its affiliated companies regularly re-invest in the communities that they do business in by providing financial support to local organizations and community projects. Nick takes great pride in the ability to make a difference for children and families in the area by supporting activities and events that will enhance their personal lives.

As an entrepreneur, Nick recognizes the need for good stewardship and wise management in all aspects of society. He believes this can be achieved by supporting and encouraging good governance while at the same time holding leaders accountable. Throughout his career, Nick has helped provide leadership and oversight by actively volunteering in various community, professional, and municipal organizations.

Allison Pejovic - Director
Allison Pejovic is a constitutional lawyer and public policy analyst specializing in civil liberties and Charter rights in Canada. She analyzes current affairs and public policy on a daily basis as part of her work with Charter Advocates Canada and serves on its Case Selection Committee, helping determine strategic litigation related to fundamental freedoms. Ms. Pejovic has litigated constitutional cases since 2011, both for and against governments, with expertise spanning freedom of expression and religion, privacy, bodily autonomy, equality rights, and security of the person. She is a frequent media commentator and public speaker, known for clearly and respectfully articulating complex and controversial issues. Ms. Pejovic holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto and is passionate about engaging Canadians in the protection of constitutional rights and freedoms.
Dorothy Dobbie - Director
Dorothy Dobbie, C.M. is a distinguished Canadian publisher, business leader, and former Member of Parliament with decades of experience across media, public policy, and governance. She co-founded Naylor Communications Inc. in 1971, pioneering business-to-business publishing in North America, and later founded Pegasus Publications Inc., publisher of leading Canadian lifestyle and gardening magazines. From 1988 to 1993, Ms. Dobbie served as a Member of Parliament, holding roles as Parliamentary Secretary in multiple portfolios and contributing to landmark national initiatives, including the Charlottetown Accord. A respected board chair and community leader, she has led major cultural, environmental, and civic organizations nationwide. Ms. Dobbie was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2022 in recognition of her exceptional service to public life, business, and community development.
Ron Koslowsky - Treasurer
Ron Koslowsky is a senior executive and policy leader with more than 35 years of experience in private-sector organizations, including construction manufacturing and business associations. He served for two decades as the head of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) Manitoba, where he represented the manufacturing sector through government relations, policy advocacy, and economic development initiatives. Mr. Koslowsky has extensive experience developing and advancing policy positions to governments at all levels and is a frequent speaker on economic and industrial issues. His background also includes senior financial and governance roles, with expertise in budgeting, operations, and investment oversight for both corporate and not-for-profit organizations.
Peter Holle - President Emeritus

Peter Holle is President Emeritus of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, the independent Prairie think tank he founded and led between1997 and 2024. Under his leadership Frontier evolved into one of Canada’s influential policy institutes, known for its empirically grounded research, its willingness to tackle difficult issues, and its distinctive Western Canadian voice. Under his leadership, Frontier earned repeated recognition as one of Canada’s top-ranked think tanks, was profiled in Maclean’s as a “favoured think tank” in Ottawa, and contributed meaningfully to national debates on public-sector reform, housing affordability, Indigenous governance, equalization, municipal performance, energy policy, and consumer-focused health care.

Holle’s career has long been defined by a commitment to high-performance government and structural reform. Before founding Frontier, he served as a senior advisor in the Saskatchewan government during a period of ambitious privatization and public-sector restructuring, building close intellectual ties with reformers such as New Zealand Finance Minister Sir Roger Douglas. He later became the founding director of the Manitoba Taxpayers Association, where he helped craft the blueprint for Manitoba’s landmark Balanced Budget Law.

Through Frontier, Holle fostered a broad, intellectually diverse network of scholars, policymakers, and public leaders—ranging from Nobel laureates and former prime ministers to municipal innovators and international reformers—always anchored by the principles of consumer choice, competitive delivery of public services, sound public-finance architecture, and market-oriented governance.

Holle holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is a long-standing member of the Mont Pelerin Society.