Meet Our Research Team
Brian Belski,
Chief Investment Strategist at BMO Capital Markets
Brian, Chief Investment Strategist and leader of the Investment Strategy Group, provides strategic investment and portfolio management advice to both institutional and private client. Brian's group produces several investment strategy publications on a regular basis, with particular focus on both the U.S. and Canadian equity markets.
In his more than 29 years in the investment industry, Brian has held various senior strategy and research roles, including positions at Oppenheimer & Company, Merrill Lynch, and Piper Jaffray.
Brian is frequently quoted in the financial press, including regular appearances on CNBC, Bloomberg, and BNN, and is renowned for his accuracy as a strategist.
Brian has been ranked as a Top Gun analyst by Brendan Woods since 2016. He holds a B.Sc. degree from St. Cloud State University and splits his time between the BMO offices in New York and Toronto.
Mark Steele,
Managing Director - Quantitative & Technical Analysis
Mark joned BMO Capital Markets in 2002 as a quantitative/technical analyst. He has over 25 years' experience in the investment business.
In 2018, 2017, 2014, 2013, Mark achieved an all-star ranking in the Brendan Wood International survey in index analysis, quanititative and technical analysis, and has reveived an all-star ranking in index analysis for 10 years in a row.
Mark holds a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Toronto.
Douglas Porter,
Chief Economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns
Douglas has over 30 years of experience analyzing globval economies and financial markets. As chief economist at BMO Financial Group, he oversees the macroeconomic and financial market forecasts and co-authors the firm's weekly flagship publication, Focus. Douglas manages the team that won the prestigious Lawrence Klein award for forecast accuracy of the U.S. economy, and was named by Bloomberg as top Canadian Forecaster. As a respected commentator on economic and financial trends, he is regularly quoted in the national press and often interviewed on radio and television.
Before Joining BMO, Douglas held the positions of economist and country risk analyst with other Canadian financial institutions, and also worked at the Bank of Canada.
Douglas has been a member of C.D. Howe's Monetary Policy Council since 2008 and also serves on the Investment Management Committees of the Bank of Montreal's Canadian Pension Plan and Western's Endownment Fund as well as on the American Bankers Association Economic Advisory Committee.
Douglas has held the CFA designation since 1995 and earned a masters degree in economics from the University of Western Ontario.
Bert Powell,
Director of Canadian Equity Research at BMO Nesbitt Burns
Bert was named Director of Canadian and U.K. Equity Research in February 2017. Bert has more than 20 years of equity research experience. He joined BMO Capital Markets Equity Research in 2000 as a software research analyst, after covering the sector for another investment dealer. In 2003, Bert transitioned his coverage to special situations/industrials stocks, and subsequently narrowed his focused to the industrial names over time. During Bert's tenure in the sector, our industrial products team was consistently ranked #1 in the Brendan Wood International Survey by Greenwich Associates.
Bert holds a BBA and BIS (bachelor of information systems) from St. Francis Xavier University, and is a CFA charterholder.
Carl Kirst,
Director of U.S. Equity Research at BMO Capital Markets
Carl was named Director of U.S. Equity Research in July 2015. He was an analyst with BMO Capital Markets for seven years covering the North American pipeline and energy infrastructure industry. With more than 25 years of equity research experience, Carl began covering pipelines in 1993 as an associate at Rauscher Pierce, and subsequently as a senior analyst at Jefferies, Merrill Lynch, and Credit Suisse before joining BMO in early 2008. In his capacity as Director of Research, he has grown the U.S. analyst platform and stock coverage over 25% while BMO's U.S. institutional broker vote ranking (average) for research improved into the teens.
Carl has been recognized as a top-ranked analyst in the sector by Institutional Investor's All-American Research Team (ranked in top five in nearly every year from 2006-2015), The Wall Street Journal's Best on the Street survey (ranked first for stock-picking for two consecutive years), StarMine (ranked first or second from 2011-2015), and Brendan Wood (Top Gun in 2012)
Carl has a bachelor of arts from Rice University in economics and English, and is a CFA charterholder.