Team Bios

Hugh J. Murphy

With founding partners Cynthia and David Enns taking a full step back to focus on enology, Hugh has been brought on to guide the ship forward. Hugh began his research career in 1989 as a researcher at Ontario Place. His interests have taken a varied path, but he has concentrated in the last decade on research within the financial services industry. Hugh holds a BComm in marketing and consumer behavior from the University of Guelph and a MBA from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Hugh’s knowledge, experience and expertise are well suited to expand the quantitative and qualitative research solutions that Credo provides to the company’s broad base of Canada’s financial industry clients.

Immediately prior to joining Credo at the beginning of 2007, Hugh was the Vice President of the financial services research team at Environics Research Group. There for almost five years, Hugh helped numerous asset managers, banks and insurance companies understand how to better connect with Canada’s personal financial advisors and investors; he developed brand equity benchmarking processes that have become recognized as the standard within the industry. Before Environics he spent four years as a research analyst with Ernst & Young’s renowned Center for Business Knowledge where he began his ongoing pursuit of the CFA designation.

When he’s not working on his research, Hugh makes time to have fun with his wife and two youngsters. He spends too much time curling and not enough time golfing. He has also been sighted, occasionally, in sailing races on the Atlantic and on other occasions he has been seen attacking a guitar.

Frank Hracs, Chief Economist

Frank Hracs is Credo's Chief Economist. He has 30 years experience in Canada's financial industry, having served in the past as Chief Economist for RBC Dominion Securities and Director of Currency and Credit Markets Research and Strategy for TD Securities. Frank has an Honours BA in Economics from Brock University and an MA from Guelph University where he specialized in Money and Banking and Econometrics. His research has focused on forecasting the economy and its impact on interest rates, the Canadian Dollar and bond markets.

Frank has traveled to every important world financial centre to discuss his forecasts with clients. Most recently, he developed the Canadian Mutual Fund Analyst (CMFA) suite of research publications which provide completely new and innovative analyses and forecasts of mutual fund demand trends at the industry and individual firm level. The CMFA reports are now available through subscription to Credo’s ongoing research program.

Mark McCarvill, Research Consultant

Mark has seven years of marketing research experience, most of it focused within the financial services industry. Mark has an MA in political science from Carleton University, where he specialized in public opinion research. While at Carleton, Mark was awarded the Pollara Prize in Advanced Research for a paper on financial policy. He also is a past winner of the Joseph Doyle Award, given by the Marketing Research & Intelligence Association.

Before joining the Credo team in 2007, Mark was President of Stepwise Research, a marketing research consultancy focusing on helping clients in the financial services and publishing industries. Prior to launching Stepwise in 2005, Mark was director of marketing research at Advocis, Canada’s largest association for financial advisors. While at Advocis, he designed and conducted numerous studies involving financial advisors and gained a unique perspective on the challenges facing advisors.

Prior to entering the marketing research field, Mark spent more than a decade working in the financial services policy field in Ottawa. He was director of government relations for Advocis from 1994 to 2000 and, during his time in Ottawa, Lobby Monitor newsletter named Advocis one of Ottawa’s “Top 10 Lobbying Organizations.” From 1988 to 1993, Mark was legislative assistant to the Official Opposition spokesperson for financial institutions. In this capacity he participated in the historic financial services legislation reform of 1992, as well as many other legislative changes that shape the financial services industry today.

When Mark isn't doing marketing research, he is either making black-and-white landscape photographs in Algonquin Park or swing dancing at jazz clubs in Toronto.