ABOUT

Vann Struth Consulting Group Inc. is a Vancouver-based consulting company with two partners – Elissa and Jamie Vann Struth. Jamie started consulting in 1998 shortly after finishing grad school, meaning he has never held a full-time job. Elissa was briefly employed, then started consulting in 2001. They incorporated the firm in 2003 and regularly work with associate consultants to round out the team for specific projects.

Jamie Vann Struth, M.A. (Economics)

Jamie studied economics in graduate school and remains an avid consumer of economics writing and speaking. This means that he really likes working with numbers and often starts projects by crunching a bunch of statistics to help understand what’s going on. But economics is not accounting or math – it’s a social science, and the human dimension is what makes it really interesting. Economics is really the study of human decision-making.

Jamie does a lot of work in local economic development with communities and regions throughout British Columbia. He also really likes building complicated spreadsheets and speaking at conferences and community events on local economies and economic development principles. He has taught economics at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and almost never meets someone who grew up in a smaller town than Ninette, Manitoba.

Jamie is a member of the following groups:

  • Economic Development Association of British Columbia (EDABC)
  • Association of Professional Economists of British Columbia (APEBC)
  • Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR)

You can follow him on Twitter, or send him an email or call (604-762-6901).

Elissa Vann Struth, B.A., M.A. (Asian Studies)

Elissa specializes in providing marketing and communications expertise to a variety of corporate and non-profit clients. Over the past eight years, Elissa has worked on a variety of corporate and promotional projects, including identity creation, website development, and marketing campaigns for North American audiences.

Her recent work has included:

  • crafting a corporate identity and promotional postcard campaign for a Washington DC-based consulting company;
  • creating a hardcover photo-essay book designed to showcase world heritage sites on behalf of a non-profit organization;
  • consulting on ecommerce options for a national business organization;
  • managing the design and development of a large website with a number of interactive elements, including Flash-based navigational maps, streaming video, secure forms, and photo tours.

Elissa completed her Master’s Degree in Arts (Asian Studies) at the University of British Columbia after graduating from the University of Manitoba with an Honours Bachelor Degree (Economics/History).