Urban planning. Sustainable finance.
Insight. Entrepreneurial. Multilingual.
Jean-François has 15+ years of experience in academia, financial services, media, sustainability consulting, and public policy. Jean-François works as a Research Fellow at the Ivey Business School at Western University. He has worked with firms, universities and governments in Canada, Europe, Latin America, the U.K., and the U.S.
He is a Registered Professional Planner designation and a Full Member of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute. Jean-François is an Urbaniste with the Ordre des urbanistes du Québec. He is also a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners.
Previously, he worked with Ombrello Solutions to develop the $250 million Civic Infrastructure Bond to protect urban nature. He also rated financial institutions, insurance and real estate firms on their ESG risks as a Lead Analyst at Sustainalytics.
He completed a Master of Planning in Urban Development at Toronto Metropolitan University (Formerly Ryerson University). His major research paper described how the City of Toronto can remove obstacles to use reserve funds for parkland acquisition and described 25 financial tools that can be used for this purpose. He held a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council – Canada Graduate Scholarship (Master’s) and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. He holds an Honors in Business Administration from the Ivey Business School at Western University, where he did an exchange term at the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University in The Netherlands.
He co-founded A Voice for Transit, an advocacy organization focused on transit equity in the Toronto region. He has also co-founded Friends of Marita Payne Park in Vaughan, Canada.
Jean-François is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
His publications are available below:
- Towards Sustainable Food Production Systems: A Theory of Change and Associated Metrics, Western University, 2025, Obregón, J-F., Lazzarini, S., Gualandris, J., Arjaliès, D-L, Huang, G., Kempton, E., Singla, R., Sharma, Y., Wang, J. and Turner, L.
- Farmers and the missing middle: A match made in planning? (pp. 20-21), OPPI Y Magazine, Fall 2024, Jean-François Obregón Murillo
- Advancing Regenerative Agriculture in Canada: Barriers, Enablers, and Recommendations, Western University, 2023, Obregón J-F., Aguanno M., Brooking M., and Arjaliès D-L.
- Biodiversity finance for cities: The time is ripe for new financial tools for urban parks, OPPI Y Magazine, Fall 2022, Jean-François Obregón Murillo
- Paying for Parkland, Novae Res Urbis: Toronto, June 24, 2022, Rahul Gupta
- The Time is Ripe: A survey of financial tools to enable urban biodiversity conservation finance in the City of Toronto, Ecological Design Lab. November 15, 2021, Jean-François Obregón.
- Taking the TTC During COVID-19, A Voice for Transit, August 30, 2021 – Faizan Ahmed, Ozora Amin, Sherwin Lau, Devan Moura, Jean-François Obregón
- Circular Investing, pp.48-54 Sustainalytics, January 29, 2021 – Christine Ha Kong, CFA, Jean-François Obregón, Martin Vezér, PhD (This chapter is a part of 10 for 2021: Investing in the Circular Food Economy, which won the 2021 UN PRI Award for ESG research innovation of the year and the 2021 Environmental Finance Award for impact research)
- Inequitable Transit in Toronto, A Voice for Transit, May 5, 2020 – Faizan Ahmed, Ozora Amin, Devan Moura, Jean-François Obregón
- How insurers ready for catastrophe, Morningstar Canada, April 9, 2020 – Andrew Willis
- Insuring a volatile planet (chapter), 10 for 2020: Creating Impact Through Thematic Investing, Sustainalytics, January 2020 – Jean-François Obregón, Justin Cheng, Megan Wallingford, Doug Morrow
- Beef, Banks and the global context behind Brazil’s deforestation, Corporate Knights, August 27, 2019 – Jean-François Obregón, Jessica Grant and Thijs Huurdeman
- Brazil: Deforestation in the Global Context – Part 2, Sustainalytics, August 22, 2019 – Jean-François Obregón, Jessica Grant and Thijs Huurdeman
- Brazil: Deforestation in the Global Context, Sustainalytics, July 24, 2019 – Jean-François Obregón, Jessica Grant and Thijs Huurdeman
- Can Italian Banks Avoid Another Financial Crisis?, Sustainalytics, April 30, 2019 – Jean-François Obregón
- Money where it matters, Corporate Knights, May 4, 2011 – Jean-François Obregón
- Starting the Conversation, Corporate Knights, Summer 2010 – Jean-François Obregón with files from Toby A.A. Heaps
