MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Top CEOs to lead Brazil-Canada forum to promote trade and investments

Nova Scotia bank CEO Rick Waugh will represent the Canadian side

Canadian government has enlisted Bank of Nova Scotia CEO Rick Waugh to lead a group of chief executives who will help broker deeper trade and investment relations with Brazil, the world’s seventh largest economy.

Together with Brazilian Vale CEO Murilo Ferreira, Mr. Waugh will co-chair a chief executives forum of 12 that will offer Ottawa and Brasilia advice on expanding bilateral trade.

The advisory group was announced Monday when Canadian PM Stephen Harper visited Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia.

Ferreira is CEO of Brazil’s mining giant Vale SA, one of the world’s largest and which bought Canada’s Inco several years ago.

Mr. Waugh and Mr. Ferreira will each choose five additional chief executives from their respective countries to round out the advisory group. The CEO forum will meet on the sidelines of future high-level political meetings between Canada and Brazil.

“As president and CEO of Scotiabank and an advocate of deeper economic ties with Canada’s partners in the Americas, Rick Waugh’s role within this new Forum will help strengthen the economic relationship between our countries,” Mr. Harper said Tuesday.

Mr. Waugh has served as president and CEO of Bank of Nova Scotia since 2003. Bank of Nova Scotia struck a deal to buy a Brazilian bank last year, agreeing to purchase Dresdner Bank Brasil SA from its parent, Commerzbank.