The Board of Directors of the Bank of Canada today announced the appointment of Michelle Alexopoulos as an external Deputy Governor for a term of two years, effective March 17, 2025. Dr. Alexopoulos’ appointment is the result of a public external recruitment process and will bring the size of the Bank’s Governing Council to seven members on an ongoing basis.
“I am delighted that Michelle Alexopoulos is joining the Bank’s Governing Council and I am looking forward to working with her,” said Governor Tiff Macklem. “She is a top-tier macroeconomist with deep expertise in issues critical to Canada’s economic prospects. I am confident that her knowledge and innovative thinking will contribute importantly to our policy decision making.”
The Bank’s Governing Council is its policy-making body, responsible for conducting monetary policy and promoting a safe and efficient financial system. Alongside other members of the Council, Dr. Alexopoulos will also be responsible for communicating with Canadians about the Bank’s policy decisions and its outlook for the economy and inflation.
The Bank created the external Deputy Governor role in 2023 to bring diverse perspectives to its consensus-based policy-making process. The first external Deputy Governor, Nicolas Vincent, was appointed effective March 2023 for a term that has been extended to three years. In October of last year, the Bank announced it would create a second external Deputy Governor position.
In keeping with the nature of the role, Dr. Alexopoulos will work with the Bank of Canada in a part-time capacity and will maintain her affiliation with the University of Toronto, where she is a professor of economics.
Dr. Alexopoulos’ research focuses on the business cycle as well as the effects of technical change and uncertainty. She has conducted innovative work in the application of data mining and textual analysis to create indicators for economic modeling and forecasting. More recently, her research has looked at technological change, productivity and central bank communications. She is past president of the Canadian Economics Association and has been a multi-year recipient of the Bank of Canada’s Fellowship Award.
Born in Toronto, Dr. Alexopoulos received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto, as well as a Master's and a PhD in economics from Northwestern University.