Adam Barrett is a strategist and ‘doer’ helping
socially responsible organizations solve wicked problems, help build a more human-centered economy, and deliver positive, holistic, and tangible impact.

BIO

Adam Barrett is currently a Senior Policy Advisor with the Ontario Ministry of Finance in the Office of the Budget, having previously served as a policy advisor supporting financial policy and regulation of provincially-regulated financial institutions including credit unions, insurance companies/brokerages/agencies, mortgage brokerages/lenders/administrators, and cooperative corporations.

Passionate about building a more inclusive and sustainable economy, Adam has primarily worked in financial inclusion/microfinance previously, as:

• Senior Associate at New Power Labs (a startup, non-profit “think and do” tank aiming to improve access to capital for underserved and historically under-recognized groups, across the capital spectrum, from philanthropy and impact investing to venture capital/private equity and conventional financing)

• Manager, Strategy & Development at Prosper Canada (a national charity advocating and running programs to improve the financial health of low-income households)

• A co-organizer of the Symposium on Financial Inclusion (SoFI) (previously a marquee event for the global financial inclusion/economic empowerment field) with the Mastercard Foundation, and

• A summer associate/research intern with the Centre for Financial Regulation & Inclusion (Cenfri) (a think tank based in Cape Town, South Africa specializing in improving financial access and inclusion across the Global South).

Increasingly, he is drawn towards addressing the intersection between climate change and economic (in)security, seeing the need to help marginalized and vulnerable groups to build the economic resilience needed to adapt to climate impacts, taking him into the related fields of impact investment/social finance, natural/social capitals accounting, and innovation in financial regulation.

A 2015 Queen Elizabeth Scholar, Adam is a graduate of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, and from Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Science in Economics & Philosophy. He is a firm believer in the value of working across disciplines, listening to others first, and taking the long-term view.