WEBINAR | 02 September 2026 Indigenous Financing and Equity Partnerships in Canada

CFA Societies Atlantic Canada, Edmonton, Saskatchewan, and Winnipeg are pleased to host a webinar presented by by Moody's Canada.

Indigenous participation is increasingly influencing the financing, development, and long-term viability of infrastructure, energy, and real asset projects across Canada. The market is evolving from consultation-based models toward Indigenous equity ownership, co-governance structures, and innovative financing solutions supported by government loan guarantee programs.

The session would provide investors, lenders, sponsors, public sector participants, and advisers with practical insights into how Indigenous equity partnerships, loan guarantee programs, and innovative financing structures are reshaping transaction execution, risk allocation, and credit considerations across Canada.  

Topics

• The evolution from consultation to Indigenous ownership and partnership models
• Indigenous loan guarantees and their role in facilitating access to capital
• Emerging financing structures, including consortium and blended finance models
• Indigenous participation in debt capital markets and labelled bond issuance
• Credit, risk, and project finance considerations
• Future trends and opportunities across infrastructure, energy, transportation, and utilities sector

MODERATOR

Ghassan Talib, CFA
Assistant Vice President – Relationship Management | Moody’s Canada Inc.

Ghassan Talib is an Assistant Vice President within Moody’s Ratings in Canada, where he leads relationship management and business development initiatives across the Corporate Finance, Infrastructure, Indigenous Finance, and Public Finance sectors. He works with issuers, investors, governments, and Indigenous organizations to support access to capital markets through Moody’s credit ratings and sustainable finance assessments.

Ghassan is actively involved in client engagement, market development, and thought leadership initiatives across Canada, with a particular focus on Indigenous financing, infrastructure, and sustainable finance. He regularly presents on Moody’s capabilities, market trends, and credit solutions while supporting global sales and marketing programs.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Ghassan held relationship management and client service roles at BNP Paribas and worked in senior business development positions within the legal services sector.

He holds an MBA in Investment Management and a Bachelor of Commerce from Concordia University. Ghassan is a CFA charter holder and an active member of CFA Society Toronto.

PANELIST

Radi Annab, MBA

Vice President – Senior Analyst| Moody’s Canada Inc.

Radi Annab is Vice President–Senior Analyst in Moody’s Global Project & Infrastructure Finance Group, where he covers a diverse portfolio of public-private partnerships (PPPs), project financings, and infrastructure issuers across transportation, healthcare, social infrastructure, energy, and digital assets, including data centers.

Radi leads new rating assignments for PPP bids and other project finance and infrastructure transactions in Canada and the United States. He also contributes to Moody’s North America Data Centers Working Group and PPP Task Force. Radi joined Moody’s in September 2022. Prior to that, he was a lead rating analyst on the Infrastructure, Power & Utilities team at Morningstar DBRS in Toronto.

Before relocating to Canada, Radi worked on capital markets transactions, corporate and project financings, and mergers & acquisitions across the EMEA region, including roles at Citibank and a private conglomerate. He also gained experience in insurance and asset management at AIG.

Radi holds an AB from Harvard University and an MBA from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.

PANELIST

Adam Hardi, CFA

Vice President- Senior Credit Officer | Moody’s Canada Inc.

Adam Hardi is Vice President - Senior Credit Officer in Moody’s Global Sub-Sovereign group, based in Toronto. Adam is one of two lead analysts responsible for the Canadian Sub-Sovereign portfolio, which includes the Canadian provinces, municipalities, and a broad section of government-related issuers in Canada (universities, hospitals, and transit and finance authorities). Adam joined Moody’s in late 2015. 

He previously worked at several of the Canadian financial institutions in credit risk analysis and credit risk policy, as well as in trading as an institutional equity and derivatives trader.

Adam holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto) and a BA in Economics from the University of Manitoba. Adam is also a CFA charterholder and has been teaching the CFA curriculum since 2008.

PANELIST

Vivian Lee – Assistant Vice President – Sustainable Finance Assessments | Moody’s Ratings

Vivian Lee is an Assistant Vice President in Moody’s Sustainable Finance Assessments team based in San Francisco, California. She provides Second Party Opinions and Net Zero Assessments to issuers primarily in Canada and the US. Her portfolio includes Second Party Opinions to sub-sovereign, financial institution, corporate, and utility issuers, and Net Zero Assessments to corporates.

Prior to joining the team in 2022, Vivian spent five years as a credit analyst with Moody’s US Public Finance Group, where she covered a diverse portfolio of US local governments credits.

Vivian holds a MSc in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BA in Finance from the University of Hertfordshire.  

PANELIST

Gavin MacFarlane, MBA

Vice President – Senior Credit Officer | Moody’s Canada Inc.

Gavin MacFarlane is Vice President – Senior Credit Officer in Moody’s Global Project and Infrastructure Finance Group where he covers a diverse portfolio of pipelines, regulated gas and electric utilities and power companies. Some of the more topical names in the portfolio include Enbridge, TransCanada Pipelines and TransAlta.

Gavin joined the Moody’s team in September of 2013. Prior to joining Moody’s Gavin was an Associate Director at Standard and Poor’s in Toronto where he was the primary analyst on companies in the Canadian pipeline, utilities and power sectors.

Gavin holds an MBA from the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) from Queen’s University

EVENT DETAILS

Tuesday 02 September 2026   

9:00 am CST & MST | 10:00 am CDT | Noon ADT 

Complimentary Registration | 1 PD credit