Alessandro Alasia is Assistant Director at the Centre for Special Business Projects (CSBP), Statistics Canada. He joined this agency in 2007, to work with the Rural Research Group of the Agriculture Division, and moved to the Centre in 2012, where he has led and contributed to numerous innovative data development and research projects aimed to improve local statistics; for instance through data crowdsourcing, open micro data, real-time local indicators, definitions of local labour markets, and measures of remoteness and proximity. Since 2017, Alessandro is Chair of the Working Party on Territorial Indicators at the OECD and has contributed to several OECD Territorial Reviews.

Prior to joining Statistics Canada, Alessandro has led research projects with the agency and the Rural and Co-operatives Secretariat (AAFC) as consultant and post-doctoral fellow, while also working as consultant in agriculture and rural development research projects, mainly in Southern Africa, with international organizations. Alessandro has taught at the graduate and undergraduate levels at the University of Bologna (Italy), the Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique), and the International Comparative Rural Policies Studies program.

Alessandro graduated in Economics from the University of Torino (Italy), earned a MSc from the School of Specialization in Agriculture Economics and Business of the Catholic University (Italy), and a PhD in Agricultural Economics with specialization in Rural Studies from the University of Guelph.