# Brock Lalla **Director of Business Development** — Vancouver, Canada > Economist and business development lead with a background in economic advisory, investment attraction, and tech sector growth across Canada. Currently building AI-assisted sales tooling and automated prospecting at OTH Security. Career Archetype: **All-Terrain Navigator** (HB-DG) — One of the first All-Terrain Navigators on Saywise ## Links - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/brock-lalla ## Experience ### Pro Bono Technology Consultant, Local Church-Run Food Bank (2026-08 – present) Burnaby, BC · Designing and deploying a client tracking application to replace a dated spreadsheet system for a food bank serving nearly 3,000 people annually. The goal is faster check-in, more reliable household tracking, and cleaner data for grant applications. ### Various Roles, The Way Church (2026-04 – present) Vancouver, BC · Facilitate weekly Alpha discussions for guests exploring their faith and lead a small group working through Sunday teachings. Serve on the Safety and Support team, connecting the church community with residents of the Downtown East Side. ### Director of Business Development, OTH Security (2025-09 – 2026-07) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · Designed and launched an automated M&A cybersecurity due diligence service with the CEO, including the pitch package and go-to-market strategy for mid-market private equity firms. Built lead-generation dashboards with Claude Code and Python for ICP-based prospect discovery from startup funding announcements. Revived a dormant partnership channel into a $250K per year pipeline and secured $400K+ in additional engagements, and overhauled the proposal framework so most low-cost assessments converted into six-figure projects. ### Investment Attraction Advisor, British Columbia, Invest Alberta Corporation (2024-10 – 2025-09) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · Grew the investment pipeline from $0 to over $3 billion across 18 opportunities by targeting BC companies that could benefit from expanding to Alberta. Hosted executive dinners and roundtables for 10+ Metro Vancouver companies at a time, and secured 5 articles and a radio interview that prompted a response campaign from the BC Business Council. Also provided over 35 referrals to partners outside the agency's mandate. ### Sector Development Lead - High Tech & Innovation, Invest Vancouver (2023-11 – 2024-10) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · Managed a pipeline of international investment opportunities valued at over $600 million, mostly multinational tech firms and scale-ups setting up R&D and technical support offices. Provided business intelligence analyses on regional economics, deal flows, and incentive programs for senior executives. Represented Metro Vancouver's tech sector as a panelist and presenter at conferences across Asia and Europe. ### Co-Chair, BC Deals Advisory Social Committee, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (2022-01 – 2023-11) Vancouver, BC · Organized social events for over 80 staff and partners across Deals Advisory, including snowshoeing and kayaking outings. Ran two firm-wide bowling events for over 170 staff and partners. ### Senior Associate, Economics & Policy Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (2021-04 – 2023-11) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · Delivered advisory work for senior leadership across tech, insurance, education, life sciences, utilities, natural resources, and gaming, covering economic impact analysis, econometric modelling, and litigation support. Served on core teams for 30 engagements, and follow-on work made up 20% of practice revenues. Led an 18-month internal project to build and launch an in-house economic impact model used across Canada. ### Graduate Teaching Assistant, Simon Fraser University (2019-08 – 2021-04) Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada ### Credit Risk Manager, Global Risk Management, Scotiabank (2018-05 – 2019-05) Mississauga, Ontario, Canada · Adjudicated over 25 credit applications a day, including revolving credit, personal loans, and mortgages, with total borrowing above $3.5 million. Managed credit for International Private Banking clients with asset bases above USD $250,000, working within retail credit policy and OSFI regulations. ### Lending Solutions Associate, Scotiabank (2017-05 – 2017-08) Mississauga, Ontario ### Scheduling and Quality Assistant, Samuel, Son & Co. (2015-06 – 2016-09) Hamilton, Ontario ## Education ### Master of Arts - MA in Economics, Simon Fraser University (2020-08) GPA 4.04 / 4.33, graduated with High Distinction ### Bachelor’s Degree in Bachelor's of Commerce (Management Economics and Finance), Lang School of Business and Economics - University of Guelph (2018-06) GPA 3.8 / 4.0, graduated with High Distinction. Dean's List 2015-2018. Mark Eglington & Family Scholarship (2017). Dean's Scholarship (2016 & 2017), awarded to the top 25 commerce students. ## Skills Business Advisory Services, Business Development, Sales, Lead Generation, Strategic Partnerships, International Business Development, Market Intelligence, Market Analysis, International Relations, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Keynote Speaking, Project Management, Proect management, Forecasting, Trend Analysis, Business Insights, Microsoft PowerPoint, Management Consulting, Organization Skills, Customer Service, Communication, Teamwork, Leadership, Time Management, Inventory Control, Microsoft Word, Quick Study, Problem Analysis, Microsoft Excel, Dedicated, Adept problem-solver, Excel Macros, Visual Basic, Passion, Success Driven, Challenge Driven, VBA, Stata, Statistics, Statistical Software, Video Production, Economics, Finance, Statistical Inference, R, LaTeX, Risk Management, Statistical Modeling, Decision-Making, GenAI prompt engineering, Claude Code, Claude, ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Power Pivot, Power Query, Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Word), PitchBook, Gazelle, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, HubSpot, Tableau, Power BI, Bloomberg, SAP Concur, Capital IQ, Refinitiv Workspace, Infralogic, IBISWorld, Photoshop, Illustrator, Python, SQL, MATLAB, Econometric Modelling, Business Case Development, Go-to-Market Strategy, Stakeholder Management, Executive Presentations, Change Management, Process Improvement, AI-Enabled Automation ## Credentials - **2017 Dean's Scholarship** — Julia Christensen Hughes, Dean of the College of Business and Economics (issued 2017-11) - **Finance Honours Society** — Department of Economics and Finance (issued 2017-10) - **Mark Eglington & Family Scholarship** — The Department of Economics and Finance (issued 2017-10) - **Dean's Honour List** — Dean of the College of Business and Economics (issued 2017-04) - **Dean's Honours List** — Dean of the College of Business and Economics (issued 2016-12) - **2016 Dean's Scholarship** — Kerry Godfrey, Acting Dean of the College of Business and Economics (issued 2016-11) - **Dean's Honours List** — Dean of the College of Business and Economics (issued 2016-04) - **Dean's Honours List** — Dean of the College of Business and Economcis (issued 2015-12) - **Leader's List** — College of Business and Economics Students' Association (issued 2015-11) - **Dean's Honours List** — Dean of the College of Business and Economics (issued 2015-04) - **Next Level Leadership** — UBC Sauder Executive Education (issued 2025-03) ## AI Fluency - **Claude** — Daily use for agentic coding and content drafting (https://claude.ai) - **ChatGPT** — Additional use for research (https://chatgpt.com) ## Q&A ### [What are your biggest strengths?](https://saywise.com/q/16458e492490) - I've always been the person who finds a way. When a deal stalls, my instinct is to dig in and figure out what's blocking it. At Invest Alberta, that meant growing the pipeline from zero to over $3 billion across 18 opportunities, mostly by sitting down with people and understanding what they needed. The executive dinners and roundtables taught me more than any deck could. You learn who to trust, who is really deciding, and what will keep a company in the room a year later. I've since moved on from OTH Security, where I was building AI-assisted prospecting tools. I'm still learning, and I'm looking at what's next. (https://saywise.com/s/4c9d93ff9711) ### [What AI tools do you use the most?](https://saywise.com/q/10c2b363a976) - I use Claude Code almost every day now, and one of the first real things I built with it was an app for a local church. They had a spreadsheet with about 3,000 people in it, and it needed to get into an online tracking system their grant reporting runs on. Doing that by hand was not an option. Claude Code handled the messy parts: cleaning up the columns, matching records, and writing the import logic so the data landed in the right fields. I still checked every step, because a grant report built on bad data is worse than no report. I also lean on Claude for research and ChatGPT for a second opinion on drafts and numbers. Different tools, different strengths. What I've found is that the work goes fastest when I stay the one deciding what's true. (https://saywise.com/s/47fcb81078c9) --- Source: https://saywise.com/member3892 (last modified 2026-10-20T17:20:25.190Z)