Paul Tsounis

Over the past 10 years, I have had the privilege of being a part of the Senior Management Team of the Economics and Markets Branch in the Department of Energy, Government of Alberta. The Branch is comprised of a talented group of 30 professionals consisting of economists, financial analysts, regulatory analysts and engineers. The group monitors and analyzes global, North American and domestic energy markets, energy prices, and hydrocarbon processing in an effort to help design and implement the Government’s royalty policies, market access strategies and energy price forecasts. During my tenure with the Economics and Markets Branch, I have provided leadership and direction to a talented group of professionals in a variety of business units within the Branch including the Oil Sands Economics, Energy Markets, and Price Forecasting business units.

I provided instruction to 4th year Bachelor of Commerce students on global and North American energy markets. Topics covered: crude oil, natural gas, electricity and coal markets (global, North America and regional perspectives)

Prior to my current role with the Government of Alberta, I had the privilege of working at the City of Edmonton for 5 years as Senior Economist with the Planning and Development Department between September 2003 and September 2005, and Chief Economist with the Corporate Business Planning Department and Office of the Deputy City Manager between September 2005 and January 2009. During that time, I was Chair of the City Forecast Committee and Director of the Economic Trends/External Research Unit, which was responsible for producing the City of Edmonton’s corporate economic and demographic forecasts that were used in developing City’s Municipal Development Plan, Transportation Master Plan and Civic Budget. I also provided analysis and consultation on economic issues to key internal and external stakeholders, including members of City Council, Senior Management Team City of Edmonton departments and agencies. A large part of my job with the City of Edmonton was also engaging with external stakeholders and clients, such as the Edmonton Region Home Builders Association, Edmonton Economic Development, various commercial real estate firms and other government agencies.

Prior to my role at the City of Edmonton, I worked as a Senior Economist in the Economics and Public Finance Branch (September 2000 to September 2002) and as a Business Planning Analyst in the Office of Budget and Business Planning (September 2002 to September 2003) – both with Alberta Treasury Board and Finance, Government of Alberta. As Senior Economist, I worked with a team of professionals that were responsible for developing macro economic, demographic and revenue forecasts for the Alberta economy that were used in developing the Government’s quarterly fiscal updates and annual provincial budgets. As Business Planning Analyst, I was responsible for analyzing Government Ministerial financial statements, business plans and key policy initiatives. I also assisted in the integration and reconciliation of government wide financial statements in developing the government’s official quarterly and annual budget documents.

As a fresh graduate from the University of Alberta with a Masters degree in Economics and Finance, I landed my first job as an energy analyst intern with the Oil Sands Business Unit in Alberta Energy. In this role, I used various modeling techniques in developing in-house oil sands cash flow model and conducted financial and economic analysis of various oil sands projects in Alberta.

Focused my studies on Corporate Finance, Macro Economics, Financial Economics M.A. Thesis: Impact of Exchange Rate Variability on Lumber Industry Portfolio Returns