Jeff Cyr
Advisory Board
M@st3rSCP
Jeff Cyr is Co-Founder of Raven Capital, Founder and Managing Partner of Raven Indigenous Outcomes and President and CEO of the Raven Indigenous Impact Foundation.
Métis from the White Horse Plains area of Southern Manitoba, the traditional Buffalo Hunt staging grounds in the Red River Valley, he has 25 years of experience providing strategic leadership for Indigenous for-profit companies and not-for-profit companies and governments at senior levels.
Jeff pioneered the community-driven outcomes contract (a unique pay-for-success social finance model) and the Indigenous Solutions Lab process, which earned him an Ashoka Fellowship in 2019. That model has now expanded to a first of its kind Indigenous Outcomes Fund.
Recently, he was Vice-President of the Indigenous Innovation Initiative at Grand Challenges Canada, a sessional lecturer at Carleton University in Public Policy and a guest lecturer at Oxford University in Social Finance. Previously, Jeff was the CEO of the National Association of Indigenous Friendship Centres (NAFC) and Chair of the Institute Advisory Board for Indigenous Peoples’ Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Jeff lives and works on unceded Algonquin lands in what is now known as Mont-Tremblant, QC.
He holds a BA in Asian Languages and Politics and an MA in Political Studies/International Relations from the University of Manitoba.
Tiffany Callender
Advisory Board
M@st3rSCP
Tiffany Callender is a dedicated advocate for the advancement and prosperity of the Black community in Canada. In 2021, she co-founded the Federation of African Canadian Economics (FACE), a non-profit organization focused on accelerating the creation of generational wealth for individuals of African descent in Canada.
In a significant collaboration with the government of Canada, Tiffany co-developed and administers the $160-million Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund, which provides financial support and resources to Black entrepreneurs, fostering economic growth and empowerment within the community.
Tiffany is committed to community development and social entrepreneurship and has spent decades actively crafting and implementing programs that uplift and support Canada’s Black community.
In 2022, she was recognized with the Ones to Watch award at the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards. Her influence and impact have also secured her a spot on Afroglobal television’s 100 most influential Black Canadians list and the MIPAD (Most Influential People of African Descent) 100 most influential individuals of African descent under 40 list. She is also a member of the Forbes Business Council.
Tiffany has a passion for driving change, creating opportunities, and contributing to the prosperity of the Black community across Canada through initiatives that promote economic growth and empowerment.
Victor Beausoleil
Advisory Board
M@st3rSCP
Victor Beausoleil has served historically under-represented communities in the social economy, social finance, impact investing and cooperative ecosystems for two decades. At the age of 24, he Co-Founded Redemption Reintegration Services, one of the largest youth-led youth justice agencies in Canada. In 2013, he received his first public service appointment as a member of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Council on Youth Opportunities.
He is currently the founder and Executive Director of SETSI – The Social Economy Through Social Inclusion and co-founder of the Canadian Centre for Non-Profit Digital Resistance.
He has served on numerous boards and committees, including the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, Laidlaw Foundation, the Toronto Community Housing Social Investment Fund, Toronto Community Benefits Network, The Canadian Community Economic Development Network, the Fair Finance Fund, the Table of Impact Investment Practitioners, New Power Labs, the Regional Ethno- Advisory Council for Corrections Services Canada, the Catalyst Community Finance Initiative, the Canadian Employee Ownership Coalition and the Tribe Network.
As a lecturer, he has travelled extensively throughout Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Africa to speak with community organizations, institutions and philanthropic foundations.
Victor has written thirteen books and is a husband and father of four brilliant children.
Vass Bednar
Advisory Board
M@st3rSCP
Vass Bednar is executive director of McMaster University’s Master of Public Policy program and frequently contributes to Canada’s policy ecosystem of possibility.
Vass writes a popular newsletter about technology and public policy called “regs to riches,” is a contributing columnist at The Globe and Mail and the host of their business and technology podcast, Lately. She is also senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), where she co-hosts the podcast “policy prompt.”
Finally, she is co-author of The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians with Denise Hearn.
Antoine Genest-Grégoire
Fellows
M@st3rSCP
Antoine is an assistant professor of the Department of Taxation at Université de Sherbrooke and a researcher at its Chaire en fiscalité et en finances publiques.
He studies the distributional effect of tax policy ,as well as how it is perceived by citizens, using surveys and administrative tax data. This includes work on partnering incentives in the Canadian tax system, tax literacy, motivational drivers of tax compliance, the simplicity of Canadian tax returns, capital gains taxation and perceptions of belonging to the middle class.
He has published in the National Tax Journal, the Canadian Tax Journal and Canadian Public Policy. His research had been abundantly covered in Canadian media and he provides regular comment on current tax policy issues in both French and English.
A recipient of both federal and Québec public funding for his research, Antoine holds a Ph.D. from Carleton University.
Karim Harji
Fellows
M@st3rSCP
Karim supports people and organizations to understand, measure and improve their social impact. He is the Programme Director of the Oxford Impact Measurement Programme at the Said Business School, University of Oxford, where he also teaches executive education courses in impact investing and innovative finance. He is also the Managing Director at Evalysis, an impact measurement and management advisory firm.
Karim has been involved in multi-stakeholder efforts to advance impact measurement with the G8, Government of Ontario, American Evaluation Association, Innoweave, Impact Management Project and the Rockefeller Foundation.
He was previously Co-Founder of Purpose Capital, the precursor to Rally Assets, where he led its research, advisory and field-building in impact investing, and Senior Manager at Social Capital Partners, advancing workforce development and cross-sector partnerships.
Karim holds an M.A. in Public Administration from Carleton University, and is completing his doctorate in impact measurement for impact investing at the University of Oxford.
Audrey Jamal
Fellows
M@st3rSCP
Audrey is the Assistant Dean (Strategic Partnerships and Societal Impact) and an Assistant Professor in the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph.
Audrey is currently leading a national SSHRC-funded project that will explore strategies to scale community finance initiatives across Canada.
A community-engaged researcher, she focuses on the role of community engagement in advancing local economic development. Audrey’s research aims to build stronger, more resilient communities and explores everything from community wealth building and newcomer integration to downtown renewal and the sharing economy. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in sustainability, social entrepreneurship and nonprofit community leadership.
She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo (Urban Planning) and holds a M.A. (Conflict Analysis and Management) from Royal Roads University.
Ryan Knight
Fellows
M@st3rSCP
Ryan is an entrepreneur, impact investor and mentor. He has built multiple businesses over the last 10 years and is President and Co-Founder of the Afro-Caribbean Business Network, a non-profit organization created to help entrepreneurs of African and Caribbean heritage to start and grow businesses to become assets for future generations.
After starting a youth social enterprise called Detailing Knights, he launched Knighthood Academy, designed to help underestimated youth in the community develop leadership skills.
Board Member of the Peel Learning Foundation and the Mississauga Board of Trade, Ryan was named one of Brampton’s top 40 under 40, won the Business Excellence Award by the Brampton Board of Trade and the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
Ryan holds a B.B.A in accounting from Pilon School of Business and leads Ontario’s first Black Led Microloan Fund.
Thomas Marois
Fellows
M@st3rSCP
Thomas is Professor of Political Economy, Director of the Public Banking Project and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Public Banking for Sustainability, Inclusion, and Prosperity at McMaster University.
He is a leading scholar of public banks worldwide, focusing on public-public collaborations for the financing of green and just transitions.
Thomas is the author of the award-winning 2021 book, Public Banks: Decarbonisation, Definancialisation, and Democratisation with Cambridge University Press, which was awarded the 2023 Joan Robinson Prize by the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy. He sits on the Council of Europe Development Bank Award for Social Cohesion Jury and is an active member of the Finance in Common Summit Global Research Network.
Thomas holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy from York University.
Gillian Petit
Fellows
M@st3rSCP
Gillian is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Economics at the University of Calgary, where her research focuses on Canadian income and social supports spanning several areas including tax policy, municipal policy, poverty policy and access to justice.
She has advised expert panels, including the BC Basic Income Panel, published peer-reviewed journal articles, and co-wrote a book on basic income.
She serves as a member of the Affordability Action Council and is a regular contributor for IRPP. She works on intersectionality-informed, data-driven solutions to economic and social issues facing Canadians today.
She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Calgary and a J.D. from Queen’s University.