When Paul Kishchuk founded Vector Research in Whitehorse in 1999, he wasn’t setting out to build a traditional management consulting firm. Instead, he wanted to create an independent economic research consultancy focused on helping organizations make better decisions through evidence.

More than 25 years later, that mission remains the same.

What’s the Vector Research story?

Throughout more than 325 research projects across the North, Paul has become something of a specialist in working with limited information. He jokingly describes himself as a “qualitative economist”, someone who has learned that in the North, answers don’t always come from massive datasets.

“Data scarcity is one of our biggest challenges,” he explains. “You have to learn how to work with what you have.”

His work spans public finance, First Nation land claim implementation, energy and resource policy, socio-economic impact assessment, community development, program evaluation, and economic research. Whether he’s working with governments, First Nations, businesses, or non-profits, Paul’s goal is always the same: help organizations ask better questions and make better decisions.

His interest in research began long before founding Vector Research. Trained as an economist, Paul entered university just as the personal computer was transforming how people analyzed information.

“I’ve always been interested in the quantitative side of economics,” he says. “I was fortunate to study during a period when both computing hardware and software were rapidly evolving.”

Today, Vector Research combines traditional economic analysis with modern research and visualization tools to help clients turn complex information into practical insights.

What exactly is Data? What’s the biggest misconception about it?

One of the biggest misconceptions Paul encounters is how organizations think about data.

“People often confuse information with data,” he says. “Information is constrained, you can only ask the questions it was designed to answer. Data gives you much more flexibility.”

Ironically, Paul believes the solution isn’t always collecting more data.

“In the Yukon, we often don’t have enough demand to justify gathering entirely new datasets,” he explains. “The opportunity is to make better use of the information organizations already have.”

That might include financial records, accounting systems, operational reports, or administrative information that already exists but isn’t being viewed as data or a strategic asset.

“The first question shouldn’t be, ‘What data should we collect?’ It should be, ‘What are we trying to understand?’ Once you know the story you’re trying to tell, you can identify the data you actually need.”

As artificial intelligence becomes more capable, Paul sees data literacy becoming even more important.

That’s why Vector Research places such an emphasis on data visualization, making complex findings easier to understand through clear graphics and dashboards rather than dense reports.

What brought you to Whitehorse?

Paul grew up in Saskatoon before beginning his career in Ottawa, where he worked for the federal government with the Office of the Comptroller General and Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development.

He never intended to spend his entire career in a government role. In 1992, he and his wife packed everything into a truck and drove to Whitehorse.

Why did he stay? Yukon offered exactly the kind of work he was looking for.

“The Yukon is a small market, which means you get to choose interesting work and tackle a much broader range of problems than you might elsewhere.”

More than three decades later, he still believes that’s one of the territory’s greatest strengths. The opportunity to work across industries, collaborate with diverse organizations, and have a meaningful impact made Whitehorse the ideal place to build both a career and a family.

Why did you join Tech Yukon, how has our community served you?

Paul has served on Tech Yukon’s board for nearly a decade and has long been passionate about making technology and data more accessible.

For him, Tech Yukon has been an opportunity to advocate for greater data literacy across the territory and help organizations better understand the role technology can play in decision-making. Whether through research, visualization, or emerging AI tools, he believes improving how people work with information ultimately leads to better outcomes for businesses, governments, and communities alike.