About

Turning Radical Ideas Into Useful Solutions

RADIUS is a social innovation hub based out of the Beedie School of Business, SFU, and located in the heart of Vancouver at the Charles Chang Innovation Centre.

MISSION & VISION

We believe an economy that works for everyone is one that is dynamic, just, sustainable, and resilient.

RADIUS builds programs to collaboratively develop, test, and accelerate innovative responses to tough social problems. Drawing on this leading edge work, we also offer training, events and educational opportunities to build collective capacity to respond to the challenges of our time.

Our Vision is of a transformed economy that is dynamic, just, sustainable, and resilient.

That is an economy which is

… rich in innovation,

… geared toward maximum participation from the most people and perspectives,

… rooted in the long view of social and environmental wellbeing, and

… that shrinks the economic distance between decisions and where their impact is felt.

We believe the economy that accomplishes this will be built up from numerous, diverse, connected and engaged economic actors.

Our Values

The RADIUS Way

Empathy

Empathy through human centered design, a consistent focus on those with lived experience at the core of what we do, and the humility to realize we usually don’t have the answers.

Rigour

Rigour through lean approaches to testing and development and a relentless focus on understanding, measuring, and reporting what works (or doesn’t).

Impact

Impact as our top priority. We constantly ask ourselves if investing in this work, this idea, this entrepreneur maximizes our ability to drive positive impact.

Our Team

Meet the Team

Shawn Smith

Director

Kiri Bird

Director (Interim)

Bonnie Borin

General Manager

Tamara Connell

Associate Director, Education & Training

Camille Dumond

Manager, Refugee Livelihood Lab

Vanja (VJ) Terzic

Incubation Programs Manager

Melanie Matining

HR Advisor

Ayan Ismail

Evaluations Research Assistant, Refugee Livelihood Lab

Candice Day

Manager, First Peoples Enterprise Accelerator Program

Jessie Bennett

Communications, Engagement, and Recruitment Officer

Eliane Bowden

Communications & Engagement Coordinator

Laura Gaaysiigad Cuthbert

Social Innovation Canada Weaver, Fellowship Co-Host, Activator

Ilhan Abdullahi

Manager, Health Promotion Lab

Nada El Masry

Project Manager, Refugee Livelihood Lab

Pegah Djamzad

Changemaker Campus Manager

Aslam Bulbulia

Fellowship Co-Host

Leah Sanford

Education & Training Programs Manager

Jacqueline Jennings

Venture Activator

Annelies Tjebbes

Venture Activator

Nigel Mojica

Fellowship Co-Host

Alia Sunderji

Instructor

Donovan Woollard

Entrepreneur in Residence

Contact

Tim Ames

Instructor

Join Our Team

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Holden Bonwit

Venture Activator, Entrepreneur in Residence

Vidya Crawley

Entrepreneur in Residence

Meet the Extended Team

Venture Mentors

Kai Alderson – Lawyer, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin

Christine Bergeron –Senior Vice President of Member Experience & Community Engagement, Vancity

David Cameron– Executive Director, YELL

Calvin Dallimore – Technology Mentor

Sam Goldman – Founder and Chief Customer Officer, d.light Design

Lee Feldman – Former Founder and CCO of Blast Radius, current Founder of THNK School of Creative Leadership

Chris Gora – Attorney, Miller Titerle LLP

Miguel Herrera – Vice President and Senior Investment Officer at Accion

Kirk Hill – Assistant Dean, External Relations, Beedie School of Business, SFU

Rory Holland – Principal, Change Agents

Mark Jeffrey – President and Chief Curiosity Officer, Mark Jeffrey Consultants

Heather O’Hara – Executive Producer, CityStudio

Sean Peters – CEO, DryGro

Kevin Royes – Entrepreneur

Eesmyal Santos-Brault – Entrepreneur (HiVE, Recollective Consulting, Vancouver Design Nerds, Energy Modelling Institute)

Christie Stephenson –Executive Director, Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics at UBC Sauder

Kate Storey – Senior Associate, Renewal Funds

Paul Wong – technology mentor, co-founder of JukeNuke and HaveUs

Faculty Champions

Paola Ardiles (Teaching Fellow and Lecturer, Social Innovation and Community Partnerships, Faculty of Health Sciences)

Dr. Sarah Lubik (Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Beedie School of Business & SFU Director of Entrepreneurship)

Dr. Blaize Reich (RBC Professor of Technology and Innovation, past RADIUS Advisory Board Chair)

Where we Are

Places We Call Home

The Charles Chang Innovation Centre

RADIUS is based out of the Charles Chang Innovation Centre, at the corner of W. Hastings & Hamilton (2nd floor, entrance on Hamilton Street). We rent some of our desks out to social innovators and mission-aligned professionals.

SFU Beedie School of Business

RADIUS is an initiative of Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business. But we’re not your average business school, or university. Now committed to being Canada’s most engaged university, the book on SFU’s history is called “The Radical Campus”. RADIUS draws on the roots of an institution founded with its gaze firmly on the future, bold questions at the ready, and new ways of thinking welcome.

Vancouver, BC, Canada

One of the world’s most diverse cities and committed to becoming the world’s greenest by 2020, Vancouver increasingly plays host to global thinkers at events like TED and the SIX Social Innovation Exchange. British Columbia is a hotbed for social innovation with leading social ventures, deep connections to nature and indigenous wisdom, and a legacy of questioning the status quo. We are excited about to helping connect the best of our region to the most impactful thinking in the rest of the world.

Interested in working in our space?