Sébastien Mc Mahon – The Bridge Launcher

For Sébastien Mc Mahon, everyone is interested in finances. You just have to find the right way to present it. A skilled communicator, the Chief Economist also acts as media spokesperson for iA on macroeconomic and financial market issues. “It’s an important part of my job,” said Sébastien. “My wife is a high-school teacher, and we talk a lot about education in our house.”

During his doctoral studies in economics, he in fact aspired to become a university professor. But he set that dream aside to focus on analysis and modelling, another way to make data talk. “There is a science and art to graphs and diagrams. I liked building models, taking theory and making systems of equations to show impacts and make predictions.”

After several years in the private and public sectors, notably at the Quebec Ministry of Finance and Autorité des marchés financiers, Sébastien joined the economic team at iA Financial Group in January 2013. Since then, he has been working his way up the ranks. “My role now is to get people up high enough to see the macro view, the big picture, and to understand how events unfold,” he said.

His first contact with finance was with eBay as a teenager. The transactional site made him realize that his American comic books could be resold at premium prices. After 20 years, the economist is still passionate about the superhero universe. Even without a cape, he has found a way to get a panoramic view of the forces that affect the economic world.

An electric guitar player, runner and avid reader, Sébastien Mc Mahon is interested in history, anthropology and other social sciences. “Investing takes more psychology than you think,” he noted.