Tiff Macklem

Tiff Macklem
Tiff Macklem
	Macklem in 2018
10th Governor of the Bank of Canada
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; June 3, 2020
Preceded by	Stephen Poloz
Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada
	In office; July 1, 2010 – May 1, 2014
Associate Deputy Minister of Finance
	In office; 2007 – June 30, 2010
Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada
	In office; December 2004 – 2007
Personal details
Born	Richard Tiffany Macklem; June 4, 1961 (age 63); Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Spouse	Rosemary Macklem
Relatives	Peter Macklem (uncle)
Alma mater	Queen's University (BA); University of Western Ontario (MA, PhD)

Richard Tiffany "Tiff" Macklem (born June 4, 1961) is a Canadian banker and economist who has served as the 10th governor of the Bank of Canada since 2020.^[1]^[2]^[3] He was also the former dean of the Rotman School of Management^[4] and had previously served as the senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada.^[5]

Early life and education

Richard Tiffany Macklem was born on June 4, 1961, in Montreal, Quebec,^[6]^[7] to Dick and Janet (Gray-Donald) Macklem.^[8] His father was the chief financial officer of Birks.^[9] His uncle, Peter Macklem, was an accomplished academic physician and researcher.^[10] He grew up in Westmount, where he attended Selwyn House School from grades 5 to 11.^[11]^[12] Instead of attending CEGEP afterwards, he completed one year of pre-university at Lower Canada College.^[13]

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.^[14]^[15]

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 (now Canadian Economic Analysis) 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 June 30, 2010.^[16]

Senior Deputy Governor

Macklem was appointed Senior Deputy Governor for a term of seven years beginning July 1, 2010. In this position, Macklem was the Bank of Canada's chief operating officer and a member of its board of directors.

Macklem was 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 chaired 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 favour 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, although as a career civil servant he lacked the private sector experience that Carney and Poloz possessed. An editorial in the Vancouver Sun suggested that Macklem would soon leave the BOC after being snubbed twice for the top position.^[17]

Although Macklem's term would have run until 2017, he announced his resignation to take effect on May 1, 2014, to become the 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.^[18]^[19]^[20]

Macklem was a member of Scotiabank's board of directors from June 2015 until his appointment as Bank of Canada Governor in 2020.^[21]

Bank of Canada Governor

On May 1, 2020, Macklem was named as the new governor of the Bank of Canada, succeeding Stephen Poloz.^[2] He assumed the office on June 3.^[22]

During his tenure, Macklem confronted the post-COVID-19 pandemic inflation surge. The Bank, under Macklem, raised its key interest rate seven consecutive times in 2022. The Bank's key interest rate jumped from 0.25 percent in March to 4.25 percent in December.^[23] As of July 2023, the key interest rate rose to 5.00%.