About the Authors


Deirdre McMurdy

Deirdre is a veteran business journalist and born-again policy wonk. She has covered corporate and financial markets news for 20 years in both print and broadcast at the Globe & Mail, Maclean’s, CTV’s Canada AM and Global Television’s MoneyWise. Since re-locating to Ottawa in 2006, Deirdre has focused on the nexus between private and public sector agendas. In 2008, she joined the Public Policy Forum as vice-president, but she continues to write weekly columns and daily blog for MSN Finance.


Gordon Powers

A long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning at Ottawa’s Algonquin College, and is also a columnist for Investment Executive, Canada’s national newspaper for financial advisors.


James Havers

James is the senior editor of Sympatico / MSN Finance living in Toronto. He has worked for the Nikkei Shimbun (Tokyo), canoe.ca, AOL.ca, Canadian Business and other publications. Havers turned to journalism after teaching overseas.


Joe Lee

While attending a journalism school in New York, Joe never thought that dollars and cents would later rule his career as a journalist. Despite meeting several savvy Wall Street and Bay Street experts, he still credits his parents – both of whom are bankers -- for his money smarts. Their motto and his: Being frugal isn’t a sin and being wasteful is simply sinful. Prior to MSN Finance, Joe worked at CNBC, CNN/Money, canada.com and the Financial Post. He is the product manager of Sympatico/MSN Finance.


Dawn Cuthbertson

Dawn is assistant editor of Sympatico/MSN Finance. With caviar dreams on a tuna can budget, she’s always looking for ways to save for a down payment and contribute more to her RRSP with a little left over for fun. With a print journalism degree from Ryerson, Dawn has worked at a handful of Ontario newspapers.