We are excited to announce the hiring of Laurel Sabur, who steps into a new role at RADIUS as Associate Director, Strategic Partnerships.
Laurel (Oluchi) Sabur (she/her) was born on the beautiful island of Jamaica. Laurel discovered her love for cultures and communities through travelling and her eventual migration to Canada. She enjoys learning intercultural ways to create a symbiotic relationship with our planet and loves immersing herself in nature and exploring herself through movement.
Laurel joins RADIUS as a key member of the leadership team and is responsible for developing partnerships and funding strategies. Laurel has experience in social finance, community economic development, and investment management. Her interdisciplinary career includes mobilizing capital in communities on behalf of impact investors and funders (family offices, foundations, municipality). Most recently, she worked with one of Canada’s wholesalers for the social finance fund, sourcing and conducting due diligence on private equity and debt investment opportunities and initiating a community investment strategy.
One of her interests is supporting more community-owned and led funding strategies. She is also a social entrepreneur and has worked in Jamaica, Canada, Ghana, and Kenya. She holds a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from the University of Western Ontario, a Bachelor of Actuarial Science from the University of West Indies, and a Community Economic Development Certificate from Simon Fraser University.
We asked Laurel what she is most excited about stepping into this role and what she hopes for in 2024:
“I am excited about my own learning and unlearning that has already started to take place with the team, and I am looking forward to my growth as a human. RADIUS SFU has established a reputation for deep community-informed strategies, including the equity-centred accelerator programs and Labs serving refugee and BIPOC entrepreneurs. This, in conjunction with the systems change that the team leads through its equity-centred design training and engagement, really excites me.
This year, I am looking forward to more integration of social finance and participatory investing within the work of RADIUS as the demand for this grows within the ecosystem.
What I love about the team is how intentional they are about shifting power to community, and so far, it has challenged me to always think more about the process instead of only the outcome. Long-term impact where deep democracy takes form is truly about the HOW and not just about the WHAT. I look forward to the journey of supporting more community-informed and led strategies that can yield a win-win for community and funders.”
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Header image by Alesia Kaz.