WE'RE CHANGING THE GAME

Ryan Beedie

Ryan Beedie oversees one of the most successful industrial and residential property development companies in Western Canada. Born and raised in Burnaby, BC, Ryan’s passion for real estate was ignited early on, learning about the family business at the dinner table from his father Keith, who founded the company in 1954. Ryan joined the company in 1993 and became President in 2001. By 2018, the company had diversified activities while exemplifying its community-driven principle, Built For Good.

With a personal commitment of $50 million, Beedie Luminaries is Ryan’s biggest philanthropic endeavour to date. It furthers his belief that you have a responsibility to give back to the community where you live and work. A philanthropist at heart, Ryan has donated or committed more than $35 million in the past decade to organizations such as Ronald McDonald House, BC Children’s Hospital, Beedie School of Business, YWCA, BC Institute of Technology, and Vancouver Police Foundation, to name a few. Ryan holds an MBA in real estate from the University of British Columbia and an undergraduate degree from Simon Fraser University. He resides in Vancouver and shares his love of music with his wife Cindy and their three children.

Martina Meckova

Martina is a social-profit leader with over twenty years of experience in strategic fundraising, business development, operations management, marketing, governance, and special events. She joined Beedie Luminaries from the Vancouver Police Foundation where she led the implementation of important initiatives that resulted in the organization’s growth from $2 million to $20 million in assets. Martina was instrumental in launching the Vancouver Police Cadets, an award-winning youth program that continues to change the lives of hundreds of aspiring high school students from challenging backgrounds.

Before joining the Vancouver Police Foundation, Martina was the Executive Director of Cystic Fibrosis Canada – BC, Senior Manager of Communications for the YMCA of Greater Vancouver, and Senior Account Director of Spectrum Marketing Corporation. She also holds an MBA from Queen’s University. Martina’s personal experience of being a new immigrant and a beneficiary of scholarship funding herself solidifies her strong commitment to our mission. She sees her role as a unique opportunity to pay it forward and inspire others to achieve their dreams.

Paula Salloum

Paula joined Beedie Luminaries in February of 2019 with over 30 years of experience in diverse administrative and organizational roles, working in the fields of law, insurance, office management, hospitality, and fund development.

In her role as the Program Development Coordinator, Paula works with the Executive Director to build and maintain relationships with essential partners, including community groups, educators, post-secondary institutions, and corporate partners to ensure that the program and processes roll out smoothly and evolve & grow as needed.

Previously, Paula worked for the owner and founder of Rocky Mountaineer and his family office, where she was also exposed to the philanthropic activities and many charity events and programs. From this experience, she had found her passion for the social profit sector and decided to join the Vancouver Police Foundation. In her role as the Executive and Development Coordinator, she assisted the Executive Director in the growth, program development and grants distribution.

Paula is excited to support this inspiring and meaningful scholarship program.

Jessica Lazaruk

Jess joined Beedie in September of 2016 with several years of experience in event management, philanthropic initiatives, marketing and brand awareness. As Communications & Events Coordinator, Jess works as a liaison between all departments within the organization, including Beedie Luminaries. In her role, she is integral to Beedie’s internal and external corporate communications initiatives as well as ensuring the brand is well represented across the business.

Jess is excited to be combining her passion for philanthropy, community, marketing and event management by working with Beedie Luminaries and supporting the Foundation’s outreach on social media, and the management of events and BL Digital Community initiatives.

Ann Bolton

Ann holds a Bachelor of Education degree and a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology. Ann has held several leadership positions for the Vancouver School Board, including Counselling Department Head and Summer School Principal. She has worked with many community partners, including the Cinderella Project, Big Sisters, Firefighters Challenge, Kelty Mental Health, YWCA, and the Boys and Girls Club. In addition to co-editing an anti-racism manual, she has been a co-editor of the Vancouver Counsellor Newsletter and has attended an International Conference for Counsellors in Scotland, at St. Andrews University.

Ann has a special interest in acculturation issues, which was the focus of her master’s thesis. She also strives to take a pro-active approach to help students to prepare and navigate their post-secondary transition. She has over thirty years of experience working with adolescents and is passionate about supporting students to build personal and academic resilience, overcome barriers to success and achieve their goals.

Margaret Suchonska

Margaret holds a Master Degree of Special Education (Poland), and a Master Degree in Counselling Psychology (Canada).

Margaret is an experienced, passionate educator and youth mentor with over 30 years of experience, assisting youth 13 to 25 years old from an extensive range of ethnic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds with issues around relationships, identity development, mental well being, developmental transitions and life issues including trauma, poverty, losses and acculturation. She has worked with youth in Europe, Africa and Canada.

Margaret feels privileged to have learned from the young people she has worked with and admires their perseverance, resilience and determination. She understands the challenges faced by young people who have recently immigrated to Canada, as well as for youth endeavouring to honour their heritage and family values whilst finding their own unique voice and identity.

Over the last 15 years, Margaret has worked with Vancouver Coastal Health as a clinical youth counsellor. During this time, she has also worked with the Child and Youth Mental Health Team, as a mental health clinician.

Understanding the need for balance in life, Margaret is involved in her community; she enjoys time with family and friends, reading, walking the family dog and kayaking.

Florence Cosulich

Always behind the scenes taking projects from the ideation to reality, Florence is a multidisciplinary team builder and group facilitator. Florence’s drive for helping people realize their ideas and dreams began with her work in theatre as a stage manager, and since then she has brought an element of play and creativity to all of her work.

She has trained and worked as a leader and facilitator locally and internationally in the areas of public art, youth leadership, student travel, wellness, personal development and experiential education.

Florence’s facilitation style centers on becoming more comfortable with the uncomfortable and establishing deeper and more vulnerable connections both to one’s self and others.
Guided by these experiences, groups and individuals are free to serve a greater purpose and create a world around them that they are proud of.

Mackenzie Dickson

Mackenzie is a facilitator, educator, and professional futurist who loves engaging with groups in exploring both personal and global issues.

After completing his MSc in Strategic Foresight, Mackenzie took his relentless curiosity to UNESCO to further his learning about futures literacy and global systems. At UNESCO he had the opportunity to facilitate international workshops for policymakers and government advisers.

Drawing on his experience in group facilitation and personal development training locally and internationally, combined with his BA in Psychology from UBC, Mackenzie created FAM Studios and partnered with Florence Cosulich to design and offer engaging group experiences intended to provoke curiosity, vulnerability, openness, and connections.

Mackenzie is delighted to be working with Beedie Luminaries and is honoured to be a Community and Student Forum Facilitator for these amazing students. While he continues to develop new options for engaging online, Mackenzie and Florence are both aimed at making the student community self-sustaining over the next few years. And from what they’ve seen of these incredible students so far – it won’t be long!

Ian Chisholm

Originally from Saskatchewan, Ian is a social entrepreneur and pioneer in the field of executive development. From 2000 to 2004, Ian served as the first CEO of the Columba 1400 Community and International Leadership Centre on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Columba 1400 was created to develop the leadership potential of young people from tough socio-economic realities across the UK. He has since served as the Centre’s first Fellow, assisting operational outreach in both Australia and South Africa.

Before his time in Europe, Ian served as the Director of Programs for Operation Enterprise, a division of American Management Association International headquartered in New York City, USA. There he played an integral role in pioneering an initiative to bring young talent from inner-city USA to experience a regime of formal leadership development.

Laurie Clarke

Laurie is a senior executive leader in health, education and social service sectors with over three decades of progressive experience as the leader of fundraising and non-profit organizations. She has served as a chief spokesperson in all areas relating to fund development, donor cultivation, stewardship, and government relations and advocacy, and has extensive experience in board cultivation, development and governance.

As CEO of the BC Women’s Hospital Foundation and member of the hospital executive, the Vice President of Development at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and many other executive leadership roles, Laurie possesses a unique combination of strategic leadership and organizational effectiveness expertise in high-growth environments.

Laurie has served on numerous non-profit boards, campaign cabinets and as a member of the Burnaby Board of Trade. Currently, Laurie is a Fundraising Strategist and Consultant and serves on the national board of the Canadian Women’s Foundation.

Tim Cormode

Tim leads an organization that lives by its values, inspires philanthropy, and strives to have real impact in the communities in which Power To Be operates. Initially supporting young adults with disabilities at a summer camp as a teenager, Tim’s passion for the outdoors and supporting others led to a leadership program at Yamnuska Mountaineering School in Canmore, Alberta. This is where the inspiration came to help youth and families living with barriers climb their own mountains. With the help of a small government grant in 1998, the Power To Be adventure began and has grown to reach more than 10,000 participants and their families.

Tim is a recipient of the For Kid’s Sake Award giving by Today’s Parent magazine. In 2009, Tim received the Community Leader of the Year award for Vancouver Island. In 2010, he was awarded the Business Person of The Year for Victoria and was shortlisted as one of Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneurs of the year. His greatest accolade came in 2011 when he received the British Columbia Community Achievement Award from the Lieutenant Governor of BC.

Deeply committed to leaving the world a better place for this family and others, Tim connects people to causes that matter and inspires change in the world around him.

Kris Magnusson, Ph.D.

Dr. Magnusson has served as Dean of the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University since 2009. During that time, he also served two terms as the Chair of the Association of BC Deans of Education, was co-chair of the BC Advisory Group on Provincial Assessment, led the development of the ACDE Accord on Internationalization in Education, and was co-chair of the SFU Aboriginal Reconciliation Council.

Kris’ academic work is in the area of counselling psychology and career development. He was the recipient of the Province of Alberta Career Development Award of Excellence and the 2006 recipient of the Stu Conger Award for Leadership in Career Development. Kris is also a co-founder of the Canadian Research Working Group for Evidence-Based Practice. Before joining SFU, Kris was a junior high school teacher, a college counsellor, and a faculty member in counselling psychology at the Universities of Calgary and Lethbridge.

Heather McCaw

Heather is pleased to have re-joined her alma mater, the University of British Columbia, to lead its Development and Alumni Relations program after serving for three years as the Vice-President of Advancement at the University of Alberta. As UBC’s Vice-President, Heather is responsible for development and alumni staff and programming across the university’s two campuses. Throughout her career, she has been involved in several major campaigns and co-directed UBC’s successful Start an Evolution Campaign, which raised over $1.6 billion from 2008 to 2015.

In addition to over 20 years of experience in the post-secondary sector, Heather was vice-president of two associated consulting companies, Give Canada Fundraising Corporation and Spectrum Marketing Corporation. These organizations specialize in securing strategic business partnerships and multimillion-dollar donations on behalf of non-profit clients that have included the United Way of the Lower Mainland, the Rick Hansen Foundation, the universities of Calgary and Victoria, and the Toronto Rehab Foundation. Heather’s volunteer activities have focused on social services and disability resources.

Peg Tyre

Peg is a bestselling author, award-winning journalist (The Atlantic, The New York Times, Smithsonian, The New York Times Magazine) and op-ed contributor to the New York Times. She is also Director of Strategy at the Edwin Gould Foundation Accelerator, a residential incubator in New York City that transforms small, education-related nonprofits into larger, sustainable organizations with a profound and lasting impact. She also serves as a senior advisor to several other New York-based foundations and philanthropists and is a hands-on coach, mentor and head of strategic partnerships for Quill.org, a non-profit ed-tech company that provides low-income students with classic writing instruction—free. In the last two years, Quill.org has grown from having 20,000 to one-million users.

Her books, journalism and work in the philanthropic and non-profit sector have focused on social mobility and equity in education and the workforce. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, novelist and television writer Peter Blauner. She is an avid hiker and has climbed mountains all over the world. Her next trip is not certain, but she has a big photo of Patagonia next to her computer screen at work.