Economic leadership for British Columbia’s public finances, energy and resources, and communities.
Seven years in the BC Public Service across oil and natural gas royalties, low-carbon fuels, and forest economics, with a policy fellowship at Treasury Board Staff. I lead teams and analysis that help executives decide, and I teach graduate climate policy at Royal Roads University after earlier teaching and research at UBC and the University of Victoria.
NowSenior Economist, BC Ministry of ForestsAssociate Faculty, Royal Roads University
Public service
7years in the BC Public Service
3ministries: Energy, Forests, and Finance (Treasury Board Staff)
7roles and fellowships across economics, policy, and data leadership
Teaching and research
22+peer-reviewed journal articles
1,700+citations (h-index 22, Google Scholar)
24graduate supervisions (5 PhD, 19 MSc)
PhD, University of British Columbia · P.Eng., Engineers and Geoscientists BC · Associate Faculty, Royal Roads University
Work experience
What I have delivered
Seven years in the BC Public Service, most recent first. Each role shows what I did and the skills it used.
Oct 2024 – present
Current
Senior Economist
Ministry of Forests · Innovation, Bioeconomy and Indigenous Opportunities Branch
ResultLed the economic and impact assessment for the fibre utilization component of the BC Timber Sales Review. The review team was nominated for a 2026 Premier’s Award.
Lead economic and data analysis for forestry and bioeconomy policy, covering supply chains, markets, fiscal impacts, and strategic investments, and advise senior leadership on the results.
Provide analysis for the branch’s Indigenous opportunities programs and engage directly with Indigenous partners.
Supervise staff, review the quality of their analysis, and drive data governance and repeatable workflows across ministry teams.
Economic impact modelling
Fiscal impact analysis
Supply-chain analysis
Indigenous partnerships
Data governance
Staff supervision
Aug – Oct 2024
Chief Engineer and Data Systems Architect
Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation (now Energy and Climate Solutions)
Led and supervised multi-disciplinary technical teams on systems integration, policy modelling, and implementation roadmaps for energy and climate initiatives.
Led agile delivery of the data architecture, analytics frameworks, and decision-support tools for renewable energy transitions and low-carbon infrastructure planning.
Team leadership
Data architecture
Agile delivery
Policy modelling
Oct 2023 – Aug 2024
Senior Policy Advisor Lead
Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation · Low Carbon Fuels Branch
Directed the policy analysis and economic evaluation of low-carbon fuel standards and compliance, combining life-cycle carbon-intensity analysis with cost and distributional assessment.
Supervised staff, led regulatory impact assessments, and briefed senior leadership on implementation costs and who bears them.
Led engagement with the fuel industry, environmental groups, and provincial agencies, and built scenario and forecasting models for fuel-transition pathways.
Regulatory impact assessment
Life-cycle assessment
Scenario and forecasting models
Stakeholder engagement
Oct 2022 – Oct 2023
Royalties Economist
Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation · Energy Economics and Royalties Branch
Analyzed oil and natural gas royalty frameworks, revenue forecasts, and inter-provincial fiscal comparisons.
Modelled the economic and fiscal impact of policy options and prepared analysis and briefing materials for senior officials.
Revenue forecasting
Royalty frameworks
Fiscal comparisons
Briefing senior officials
Aug 2021 – Oct 2022
Senior Economist and Data Warehouse Architect
Ministry of Forests (formerly Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development)
Architected a data warehouse for forest inventory, harvest, and economic data, and led the development of automated reporting and decision-support tools.
Managed cross-ministry data governance committees and policy analytics initiatives.
Data warehousing
Automated reporting
Data governance
Decision-support tools
Aug 2019 – Aug 2021
Biomass Economist and Database Systems Lead
Ministry of Forests (formerly Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development)
Analyzed biomass supply chains, carbon accounting, and energy economics.
Designed databases and analytics platforms for large timber and forest-product datasets, and contributed to national standards for biomass sustainability assessment.
Biomass economics
Carbon accounting
Database design
National standards
2018
Senior Economist (Mitacs Policy Fellow)
Ministry of Finance · Treasury Board Staff
Advised on British Columbia labour and total factor productivity growth using applied statistics, econometrics, and forecasting.
Econometrics
Forecasting
Productivity analysis
2024 – present
Alongside
Associate Faculty
Royal Roads University · School of Environment and Sustainability
Teach SPCC 615, Climate Policy and Governance, a graduate course using real British Columbia and Canadian cases and data.
Previously taught and led research at the University of Victoria (2016–2018) and the University of British Columbia (2010–2016).
Graduate teaching
Curriculum delivery
Student mentoring
Research supervision
Earlier: Senior Policy Analyst, R.A. Malatest & Associates (2018–2019), program evaluation; Policy Advisor and Environmental Engineer, City of Vancouver Sustainability Group (2014); Environmental Engineer-in-Training, RES’EAU-WaterNET Strategic Network (2014–2015).
Capabilities
Skills and tools
What I use day to day, grouped by what an employer needs done.
Economic analysis
Economic impact and input–output modelling
Cost-benefit analysis
Regulatory impact assessment
Revenue and royalty forecasting
Fiscal impact analysis
Scenario design and uncertainty
Distributional and equity analysis
Program evaluation
Life-cycle assessment and GHG accounting
Data and analytics
Data warehouse architecture
Data governance
Automated reporting
Decision-support dashboards
Applied econometrics
Forecasting and predictive analytics
Reproducible workflows
Responsible AI in the public sector
Leadership and delivery
Supervising teams of up to 10
Agile delivery
Project management
Briefing senior leaders
Cross-ministry committees
Indigenous and stakeholder engagement
Graduate teaching and supervision
Sectors
Forestry and the bioeconomy
Oil, natural gas, and LNG royalties
Low-carbon fuels
Public finance
Municipal and community energy
Critical minerals (area of focus)
Tools: Python (scikit-learn, statsmodels) · R · SQL and relational databases · Excel (advanced) · Power BI · Git · Jupyter · LaTeX · OpenLCA
Executive leadership
Leadership, with the evidence
Organized by the BC Public Service competencies for strategic leaders, plus Indigenous relations.
Vision and goal setting
Set data and analytics roadmaps for energy and climate initiatives, and led the economic and impact assessment for the fibre utilization component of the BC Timber Sales Review.
Creating and managing change
Built a ministry data warehouse with automated reporting, led agile delivery of decision-support tools, and now drive data governance and repeatable workflows across ministry teams.
Building strategic alliances
Led engagement with the fuel industry, environmental groups, and provincial agencies; managed cross-ministry data governance committees; Co-Chair of the Biomass Supply Analysis Working Group; member of a National Standard of Canada committee.
Promoting empowerment
Supervised staff in three roles, led multi-disciplinary technical teams, and supervised or co-supervised 24 graduate students.
Executive presence
Brief senior leadership on royalties, revenue, and the costs of regulation; teach graduate climate policy at Royal Roads University; author of 22+ peer-reviewed articles.
Indigenous relations
Analysis for the branch’s Indigenous opportunities programs, direct engagement with Indigenous partners, and formal Indigenous relations training.
Every piece of advice should answer a question someone has to decide, and say plainly what it means for that choice.
How I lead
Economics
Policy areas
Public finance, economic development, energy and resources, communities, and climate. Each card says whether it comes from my own work or is a current area of focus.
Experience
Public finance and fiscal policy
Revenue forecasting, royalty and fiscal frameworks, inter-provincial fiscal comparisons, and fiscal impact analysis, including a policy fellowship with Treasury Board Staff at the Ministry of Finance.
Track recordRoyalties Economist, Ministry of Energy (2022–2023) · Treasury Board Staff fellowship, Ministry of Finance (2018)
Experience
Economic development and investment
Economic impact modelling with input–output methods, market and strategic investment analysis for the forest bioeconomy, and program evaluation.
Track recordSenior Economist, Ministry of Forests (2024–present) · input–output research in Energy Economics · program evaluation at R.A. Malatest
Experience
Energy, oil and gas, and LNG
Royalty frameworks for oil and natural gas, the resource base behind British Columbia’s LNG supply, the economics of low-carbon fuel standards, and data systems for energy and climate policy.
Track recordThree roles in the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation (2022–2024)
Area of focus
Critical minerals and mining
Bringing resource economics, supply-chain analysis, and life-cycle assessment to critical minerals: fiscal returns, supply-chain risk, and the emissions of extraction and processing.
Builds onMy royalty, supply-chain, and life-cycle assessment work
Experience
Municipal and community economics
Policy work with the City of Vancouver Sustainability Group, and research on city-integrated renewable energy, low-carbon community planning, and municipal waste-to-energy.
Track recordCity of Vancouver (2014) · research in Applied Energy and Waste Management
Experience
Environment and climate economics
Cost-benefit and regulatory impact analysis, carbon pricing, and life-cycle assessment with greenhouse gas accounting, so emissions are counted from source to end use.
Track recordLow Carbon Fuels Branch (2023–2024) · GHG accounting certificate, University of Toronto · teaching SPCC 615
2006 – 2026
Career at a glance
Education, teaching and research, and public service across twenty years, running in parallel since 2024. Select any bar or point for details.
20062010201420182022Now
Education
Teaching and research
Public service
Oct 2024 – present
Senior Economist
Ministry of Forests, Innovation, Bioeconomy and Indigenous Opportunities Branch.
Approach
How I lead
No surprises
Assumptions, risks, and limits are written down early, so decision-makers are never caught off guard.
Build capability that lasts
Documented, repeatable workflows and data systems that teams can run and improve themselves.
Partner early
Engage Indigenous partners, industry, communities, and other ministries while advice can still change.
Service
Committees and service
Co-Chair, Biomass Supply Analysis Working Group, BC Ministry of Forests (2019–present).
Committee Member, National Standard of Canada for Biomass Supply Chain Risk Assessment (2020–present).
Representative, BC Public Service data governance and information management committees.
Member, Institute for Integrated Energy Systems (IESVic), University of Victoria (2016–present).
Academic · Royal Roads University
Research and teaching in energy and environmental economics
I am Associate Faculty in the School of Environment and Sustainability at Royal Roads University, where I teach graduate climate policy and governance. My research connects economy-wide energy modelling, life-cycle assessment, and data analytics to climate and energy policy. Before Royal Roads, I taught at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia.
22+peer-reviewed journal articles
1,700+citations
22h-index
24graduate supervisions (5 PhD, 19 MSc)
Citation figures are from Google Scholar.
Positions
Appointments
2024 – present
Associate Faculty
School of Environment and Sustainability, Royal Roads University
2016 – 2018
Postdoctoral Associate and Sessional Lecturer
Institute for Integrated Energy Systems (IESVic), University of Victoria
Energy systems research, undergraduate teaching, and graduate research supervision.
2010 – 2016
Teaching Assistant and Instructor
Environmental Engineering, University of British Columbia
Instruction and laboratory supervision in environmental engineering and quantitative methods.
Teaching
A practitioner’s craft
I teach environmental and energy economics as a practitioner’s craft. Students write the documents they will use in their careers, such as policy briefs, decision memos, and technical reports, built on transparent assumptions, sensitivity testing, and clear limits.
Courses use real British Columbia and Canadian cases and data, with group projects, stakeholder simulations, and peer review.
Courses taught
Royal Roads
SPCC 615Climate Policy and Governance
Graduate · online · 13 weeks · 2024 to present
Carbon pricing, revenue recycling, low-carbon fuel standards, just transition, and sectoral decarbonization, assessed through policy briefs, stakeholder analysis, and a scenario modelling project.
Royal Roads
Lifecycle Analysis and Sustainability Metrics
ISO 14040/14044 methods, organizational carbon footprinting, scope emissions accounting, and verification.
UVic
CIVE 315Environmental Policy and Economics
Undergraduate
Market-based instruments, environmental valuation, cost-benefit analysis, and policy evaluation.
UBC
Environmental Engineering and Quantitative Methods
Water treatment, environmental systems analysis, numerical methods, and optimization, with teaching modules on computational fluid dynamics.
Ready to teach
Environmental Economics Foundations
Energy Economics and Decarbonization Pathways
Forest Economics and Sustainable Bioeconomy
Applied Policy Analysis: Quantitative Methods
Data Systems and Analytics for Policy Professionals
Lifecycle Assessment and Carbon Footprinting
Clean Technology Assessment and Commercialization
Responsible AI for Policy and Governance
Practical AI for Researchers, Analysts and Educators
Research
Research interests
Energy economics and green growth
Economy-wide energy input–output and multiple-criteria analysis of the Canadian economy.
Decarbonization and renewable energy systems
Transport electrification in British Columbia and the planning of low-carbon, climate-resilient urban energy systems.
Life-cycle assessment and the circular economy
Greenhouse gas accounting, waste-to-energy economics, and emissions from municipal solid waste.
Forest bioeconomy
Biomass supply-chain economics, carbon accounting, and sustainability standards.
Data analytics and responsible AI for public decisions
Uncertainty quantification, model verification, and reproducible workflows.
Environmental and process engineering
Advanced oxidation for water treatment and computational fluid dynamics, from doctoral and early work.
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Writing
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Book
2023
Atabaki, M. S., Bagheri, M., & Aryanpur, V. Exploring the role of electrification and modal shift in decarbonizing the road passenger transport in British Columbia. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 56, 103070.
Energy and climate
2021
Esfilar, R., Bagheri, M., & Golestani, B. Technoeconomic feasibility review of hybrid waste-to-energy system in the campus: A case study for the University of Victoria. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 146, 111190.
Circular economy
2020
Bagheri, M., Esfilar, R., Golchi, M. S., & Kennedy, C. A. Towards a circular economy: A comprehensive study of higher heat values and emission potential of various municipal solid wastes. Waste Management, 101, 210–221.
Circular economy
2019
Bagheri, M., Alivand, M. S., Alikarami, M., Kennedy, C. A., Doluweera, G., & Guevara, Z. Developing a multiple-criteria decision analysis for green economy transition: A Canadian case study. Economic Systems Research, 31(4), 617–641.
Energy and climate
2019
Bagheri, M., Delbari, S. H., Pakzadmanesh, M., & Kennedy, C. A. City-integrated renewable energy design for low-carbon and climate-resilient communities. Applied Energy, 239, 1212–1225.
Energy and climate
2018
Bagheri, M., Shirzadi, N., Bazdar, E., & Kennedy, C. A. Optimal planning of hybrid renewable energy infrastructure for urban sustainability: Green Vancouver. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 95, 254–264.
Energy and climate
2018
Bagheri, M., Guevara, Z., Alikarami, M., Kennedy, C. A., & Doluweera, G. Green growth planning: A multi-factor energy input–output analysis of the Canadian economy. Energy Economics, 74, 708–720.
Energy and climate
2017
Bagheri, M., & Mohseni, M. Pilot-scale treatment of 1,4-dioxane contaminated waters using 185 nm radiation: Experimental and CFD modeling. Journal of Water Process Engineering, 19, 185–192.
Engineering
2017
Bagheri, M., Imoberdorf, G., & Mohseni, M. Micropollutants removal from surface water using a pilot vacuum-UV advanced oxidation process. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 143(10), 04017066.
Engineering
2016
Borhani, T. N. G., Afzali, A., & Bagheri, M. QSPR estimation of the auto-ignition temperature for pure hydrocarbons. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 103, 115–125.
Engineering
2016
Thiem, A., Bagheri, M., Große-Siestrup, C., & Zehbe, R. Gelatin–poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) scaffolds with oriented pore channel architecture: from in vitro to in vivo testing. Materials Science and Engineering: C, 62, 585–595.
Engineering
2015
Bagheri, M., & Mohseni, M. Impact of hydrodynamics on pollutant degradation and energy efficiency of VUV/UV and H2O2/UV oxidation processes. Journal of Environmental Management, 164, 114–120.
Engineering
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Education
Education and credentials
2014
PhD, Environmental Economics and Engineering
University of British Columbia
Dissertation: Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling and Optimization of VUV/UV Photoreactors for Water Treatment
2008
MSc, Environmental Engineering
University of Tehran
2006
BSc, Environmental Engineering
University of Tehran
Current
Professional Engineer (P.Eng.)
Engineers and Geoscientists BC
2012 – 2024
Certificates
Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Reporting (Verification and Technical Standards), University of Toronto, 2024. Applied Economics and Public Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (edX), 2016. Project Management, University of British Columbia (MITACS), 2012.
Mentorship
Supervision and mentorship
5 PhD and 19 MSc supervisions or co-supervisions, and more than 100 undergraduate mentees at the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, and Royal Roads University.
Service
Service and recognition
2026 Premier’s Award nomination (team), BC Timber Sales Review, BC Public Service
Co-Chair, Biomass Supply Analysis Working Group, BC Ministry of Forests (2019–present)
Committee Member, National Standard of Canada for Biomass Supply Chain Risk Assessment (ECOSTRAT) (2020–present)
Member, Institute for Integrated Energy Systems (IESVic), University of Victoria (2016–present)
Contact
Let’s talk
I welcome conversations about public finance, energy and resource economics, policy analytics, teaching, and research collaboration.
