Ted Weicker
President
The President of FWCO is Ted Weicker, who has over 30 years of experience in management consulting. Ted Weicker is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC), and a member of the Canadian Evaluation Society. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan and a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Western Ontario. Since graduating very near the top of his MBA class from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in the early 1980s, Ted Weicker has established a prominent career specializing in undertaking assignments for government, the non-profit sector, and industry. He has conducted more than 500 studies utilizing quantitative and qualitative analytical techniques including surveys, interviews, observations, case studies, focus groups, extensive statistical analysis, etc.
Slavica Stevanovic
Managing Partner
Slavica Stevanovic is the Managing Partner of FWCO, specializing in public sector research including labour market studies and program evaluations. She is a Certified Evaluator with 10 years of experience in management consulting, a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, and a Master of Arts degree in Immigration and Settlement Studies. She has conducted a large number of program evaluations for the federal and provincial governments (e.g., Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, Alberta Health, Alberta Health Services, Alberta Children and Youth, Department of Justice, Health Canada, and the BC Ministry of Advanced Education) as well as non-profit organizations. Slavica was lead consultant for the evaluations of the Alberta Youth Tobacco Reduction Program; the BC Foreign Credential Recognition Program; the Federal Skilled Worker Program; Temporary Foreign Worker Program; the Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program; the Host Program; the Welcoming Communities Initiative; BC Settlement and Adaptation Program; BC Settlement Workers in Schools Initiative; and the BC ESL Settlement Assistance Program. She has done a number of evaluation for Health Canada, Justice Canada and ESDC involving Indigenous communities.
Bryan Kingsfield
Principal
Bryan Kingsfield is a Principal with FWCO. He has a Masters of Business Public Administration degree and over twenty-five years of experience in designing, implementing and evaluating public sector initiatives. This includes eight years as a senior bureaucrat within the Government of British Columbia and the last 18 years working as a management consultant with Ference Weicker & Company and FWCO Management Consultants. His areas of specialty include the evaluation of government programs, community economic development and organizational reviews. Working with national and international clients, he has conducted projects in Canada, Latin America, India, Ukraine, Philippines, and Africa.
Dr. Rachana Raizado
Senior Consultant
Rachana has a Ph.D. in International Business from the University of British Columbia, a Masters of Business Administration with a major in marketing from the University of Windsor, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the Delhi University. For the past six years, she has been working with Ted Weicker on a variety of program evaluation, export assistance and trade promotion, investment attraction, and science and technology studies. Much of her focus during this time has been on regional economic development. Some of the clients she has service include the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Western Economic Diversification, and FedDev Ontario. Prior to her consulting career, she was the Research Manager of Leading Edge British Columbia, an agency of the Government of British Columbia which took the lead role in marketing the province as an internationally competitive location for technology investment, research and job creation. She was also the Manager of Research and Analysis at the Vancouver Economic Development Commission.
Brian Retallack
Consultant
Brian has 5 years of international consulting experience with a focus on organizational design, business analysis and change management. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of Calgary and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Upon completing his MBA with honours, Brian joined an international consultancy specializing in establishing new and strengthening current operations for businesses operating on the international market. He also worked with Federal, State, Municipal and NGO Trade Departments/Organizations from Australia, India and China to review their operations for efficiencies and effectiveness in achieving their mandate
Kinwa Bluesky
Senior Associate
Kinwa Bluesky is an Indigenous scholar with over 10 years of experience in legal research with a focus on Indigenous law, legal orders and traditions. She is Anishinaabe from the Sandy Lake First Nation and Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg. She is a PhD Candidate at the Allard School of Law, UBC and has a Master of Law degree from the University of Victoria. She is a member of the Indigenous Bar Association and was a keynote presenter at the ‘Future of Indigenous Law. 20th Annual UBC Conference’, one of many speaking engagements she has done over the years.
Kinwa is very skilled and an experienced facilitator and community engagement leader. She has recently facilitated a full-day event for the City of Vancouver on how collectively various stakeholders, including over 70 women-serving organizations, funders, and governments can support the local families involved in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). She has conducted research on a wide variety of issues related to Indigenous peoples and communities, ranging from Justice issues to health and community engagement. Kinwa has published numerous papers and reviews on Aboriginal health, healing and wellness, self-government, review of Aboriginal Justice Strategy (2003) for the Department of Justice, Indigenous rights, etc. She has led numerous workshops, forums, focus groups and community consultations.
Dr. Matt Jacques
Senior Associate
With over 15 years of applied research and evaluation experience, Matt Jacques is a senior program evaluator. Matt has a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Ottawa, where he studied the cognitive science underlying human decision-making. Having worked on evaluations across a wide range of federal, provincial, municipal and territorial contexts, Matt was among the first cohort of Credentialed Evaluators recognized by the Canadian Evaluation Society in 2011.
Evaluation highlights to date include evaluations of the RCMP Cadet Rating System and Driver Training Program, leading data collection and analysis for the Health Transition Fund Saskatchewan Population Health and Dynamics Survey of over 7,000 SK residents, Planned Parenthood Regina program evaluation, the Community Futures, Community Investment – Community Development Resources, and Trade and Investment program evaluations for Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and the economic, environmental and social impact evaluation of the proposed Kinder-Morgan pipeline expansion for the Vancouver Economic Commission.
Yuli Chen
Senior Associate
Yuli is a graduate of SFU who has been working with the senior management group since 2007. During this time, she has served as Assignment Coordinator, head of our market research activities, and lead consultant on a variety of studies ranging from evaluation studies (e.g. an evaluation of the Temporary Worker Program), big data projects (e.g. an assessment of completion rates of apprentices in BC), major surveys (e.g. a survey of judicial and court officials), and labour market studies (e.g. a review of the labour market in the construction industry).
Lisa Giamo
Research Lead
Lisa Giamo has six years of consulting experience with a focus on social research. She is a highly skilled researcher with broad experience in research methodologies, survey development and implementation, data analytics, and program evaluation. Lisa is in the final stage of completing a PhD in Social Psychology from Simon Fraser University. She has a Master of Arts in Social Psychology (2009 from Simon Fraser University) and a B.A in Psychology from Penn State. Her academic research included investigating how experiences of discrimination impact multiracials’ sense of group identification and their psychological well-being. As researcher with FWCO, Lisa further developed her research skills in conducting qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis including managing online surveys and conducting telephone interviews with various stakeholders, reviewing documents, files and literature, developing program profiles, conducting comparative analysis, and conducting qualitative analysis (data coding, summaries) and quantitative analysis using SPSS. Recently, she has been involved in program evaluations for Lotteries Yukon, FedDev Ontario, the BC Provincial Nominee Program, Western Economic Diversification, and Health Canada.
Tasmia Nower
Researcher
Tasmia Nower is a graduate student at SFU who joined FWCO in 2017. She has previous research experience in foreign aid and development at the United Nations Development Program. She also worked with the KfW German Development Bank where she carried out research and analysis on topics such as renewable energy projects, urban development, and macroeconomic situations. Given her background, she has theoretical and practical experience in research management, including research design, analysis, and report writing and editing.
Currently, she is in the final stages of completing her MA thesis in International Studies. Her thesis explores the sectarian dynamic of the 2011 Syrian conflict. She holds a bachelor degree in arts and sciences from Quest University in International Relations with an emphasis in International Laws.
Dr. Sharon Hope
Researcher
Sharon Hope has over 30 years of experience in research and holds a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. Sharon specializes in market research and has worked with Ted Weicker on a wide range of assignments during the past 20 years including market studies, program evaluations, marketing studies, and industry surveys. Prior to her consulting career, Sharon worked for the Research Branch of the BC Ministry of Forests for 14 years.
Market Research Team
FWCO has a team of survey staff and market researchers who are very experienced in conducting large-scale internet and telephone surveys in a wide range of languages as well as providing logical support for our field research teams. For some assignments, the survey team is also involved in developing linkages with service providers, agencies and other organizations, facilitating referrals to online surveys and call in numbers, and assisting in the scheduling of key informant interviews, focus groups, and other components of the field research.