Peter MacLeod, Principal and Co-founder
Peter MacLeod is the co-founder and principal of MASS LBP, an innovative firm based in Toronto which works with visionary governments and corporations to deepen and improve public consultation and engagement. Since 2007, MASS has led some of the Canada's most original and ambitious efforts to engage citizens in tackling tough policy options while pioneering the use of Civic Lotteries and Citizen Reference Panels on behalf of a wide array of clients.
Over the past ten years he has worked with leading organizations in North America
and Europe, including Fast
Company magazine, Vancouver's Wosk
Centre for Dialogue, Britain's Demos
think tank and the Kaospilots,
a Danish school for business design and social innovation. A fellow at the
Centre
for the Study of Democracy at Queen's University, he writes and
speaks frequently about the citizen's experience of the state, the importance
of public imagination and the future of responsible government. A graduate of the University of Toronto and Queen's University, he subsequently left his doctoral program at the London School of Economics to found MASS, after travelling across Canada and visiting nearly 100 federal constituency offices. He is the 2008 recipient of the Public Policy Forum's prestigious Emerging Leaders Award. peter[at]masslbp.com
George Gosbee, Co-founder
George Gosbee is the founder and CEO of Tristone
Capital Inc. Prior to Tristone, George was Managing Director at
Newcrest Capital Inc., a Canadian national investment firm. He joined
Newcrest after five years with the energy investment firm Peters & Co.
Limited, where he was Managing Director and served on the executive
committee. George is Vice Chairman of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), the $70B Government of Alberta fund, and is on the Government of Canada's Economic Advisory Council. He is a member of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) and a board member of the Alberta Economic Development Authority, Edge School and The Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta. George is past Chairman of the Board for the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD), and a past board member of the Banff National Mountain Centre, the Sandy Cross Conservation Foundation and the Art Gallery of Calgary.
In 2004 George was named by the Globe and Mail's Report on Business as one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40. Ernst and Young named him the Prairie Region Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005. In 2009, the World Economic Forum named George one of 200 Young Global Leaders. As well, Alberta Venture Magazine has chosen him as one of Alberta's 50 Most Influential People for four consecutive years (2004-2008). He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calgary.
Chi Nguyen, Director, Participation and
Process
Chi Nguyen has fifteen years of experience in developing community-based
programs primarily for young women, including the McGill Women in House
program, Young Women Vote: the 20,000 Project, and The Little Black
Book: A Guide to Sexual Health for Grrrls by Grrr l s(Annick Press,
2006, 2nd ed.). Chi has also worked with the Citizenship Foundation,
the National Association of Women and the Law, the Toronto Women's City
Alliance and as political staff to Dr. Carolyn Bennett, MP, St. Paul's.
She also serves on the board of the Canadian Women's Health Network.
A recipient of the 2004 Governor General's Award in Commemoration of
the Persons Case, Chi holds an MSc from the London School of Economics
in Health, Community and Development. chi[at]masslbp.com
Chris Ellis, Director, Business Development
Chris Ellis is the former Director of Circulation and Marketing for
The Walrus magazine, Canada's premiere magazine of ideas and culture.
He holds a Masters degree in Publishing from Simon Fraser University,
and an Honours degree in History and General Economics from Wilfrid
Laurier University. He writes regularly on the future of publishing
and reading and sits on the Magazines Canada Consumer Marketing Board.
He is a longtime volunteer in Toronto, serving several local organizations.
chris[at]masslbp.com
Morwenna Marwah, Director, Communications and Planning
Morwenna Marwah graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree
in French Literature before moving to Paris, France, where she lived
and worked for three years. She developed a strong background in bilingual
communications and event management working for IBM and Starbucks and
smaller non-profit agencies including the Historica
Foundation of Canada. She has executed local and national media
campaigns, worked closely with Canadian dignitaries from Newfoundland
to Nunavut and is the features editor for an online design publication.
Most recently, Morwenna has taken up fencing, led an anti-packaging
campaign, hiked through Corsica and celebrated her twenty-third year
as a member of Guiding. morwenna[at]masslbp.com
Joslyn Trowbridge, Director, Research and Learning
Joslyn Trowbridge studied Democratic Theory and Innovation and received her Master of Public Policy at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, Germany. Her research interests include deliberative democracy as a method of public decision-making, citizen engagement, and opinion-shift through learning and dialogue. She has garnered significant experience in large-scale citizen dialogue with AmericaSpeaks in Washington, D.C., and collaborated on several projects on global governance, public space, and the social determinants of health at the Hertie School. At MASS LBP, Joslyn works with municipalities and organizations in the health care and climate change sectors. Prior to her MPP, she founded and directed a Montreal-based youth program, managed violence-prevention programs for young women at the Girls Action Foundation and assisted her Member of Parliament in his constituency office. She has consulted on youth engagement strategies for Canadian Policy Research Networks, UN Habitat, and the McGill Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies. joslyn[at]masslbp.com
Dana Granofsky, CSO
Dana Granofsky has extensive experience in event and office management, community development, and small-business entrepreneurship. She has great interest in adult education and literacy, and has worked with the YWCA to develop Words for Women, an adult literacy program. She also co-founded the St Henri Community Language Exchange, a free community service where adults in this low-income Montreal neighbourhood come together to improve their French and English language skills. In 2003 she founded the telecommunications company Univocal Communications Inc., sold in 2006. holds degrees in history and political science from Concordia University, and a Masters degree in political science from the University of British Columbia, where she wrote on the potential of deliberative democracy to resolve conflicts in multicultural societies. dana[at]masslbp.com
Aaron Ettinger, Project Coordinator
Aaron Ettinger joined MASS LBP as an intern in November 2008 and joined the staff as project coordinator in February 2009. He has worked with Elections Canada, Elections Ontario and the Centre for Elections Studies at the University of Waterloo. Aaron holds a MA in political studies from Queen's University.
aaron[at]masslbp.com
John Grant, Director, Research and Learning
John Grant has a PhD in political theory from the University of London.
He has a special interest in participative research methodologies and
has recently begun to explore how political principles affect social
order and transformation. His research on theories of public action
has been presented at international conferences in Canada, the United
States and Britain. He also lectures regularly on ideology and democracy.
john[at]masslbp.com
Caitlin Hayward, Participation and Process
Caitlin Hayward has spent the last several years developing skills in
the fields of facilitation, civic engagement and conflict resolution.
She was most recently a facilitator for the Ontario
Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform and an adviser to the Ontario
Students' Assembly on Electoral Reform. She has also worked for the
Canadian House of Commons and Privy Council Office, Ottawa-based NGO
Citizens for Public Justice and the Glencree Centre for Reconcilation
in Ireland. Caitlin is currently working on her doctorate in political
science at the University of Western Ontario, and received an MA from
the Queen's University of Belfast. caitlin[at]masslbp.com
Amy Lang, Policy and Process
Amy Lang works to strengthen public participation in governance, with
the goal of increasing citizen empowerment and improving public policy.
An expert on the Citizens' Assembly process, Amy advised the organizers
of the Ontario
Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform and is writing a book outlining
the strengths of this model for citizen engagement. She has a PhD in
political sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is
currently a Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia's
Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Amy speaks regularly
about citizen participation processes to academic and general audiences.
She has appeared on CBC Radio and the St. Lawrence Centre Forum and
participates actively in several academic and practitioner networks
concerned with citizen engagement. amy[at]masslbp.com
Michael MacKenzie, Policy and Planning
Michael MacKenzie is a doctoral candidate in political science at the
University of British Columbia and recently served as a policy analyst
for the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform. He brings this
first-hand experience and a keen interest in participatory politics
to MASS LBP. He also holds an MA in politics from McGill University.
michael[at]masslbp.com
David Hume, Online Engagement
David Hume has been working to reinvent public engagement around the
world. Recently returned from New Zealand, where he helped lead development
of the national government's handbook for online citizen engagement,
the Guide
to Online Participation, he has worked with the United Nations,
the OECD, and all levels of Canadian government, business, and not-for-profits
on issues related to technology, governance and citizen-centred design
of policy and services. An experienced leader of engagement processes,
he spent five years working with the Crossing
Boundaries National Council and the KTA
Centre for Collaborative Governance on multi-stakeholder and citizen-based
policy development projects. Now based in Ottawa, Canada, David works
with MASS on web-strategy and business development, and blogs at www.democracyspot.net.
david[at]masslbp.com
Pär Hultgren, Participation and Process
Pär joins MASS LBP from Sweden, where he represents the company in Scandinavia.
A graduate of Denmark's acclaimed Kaospilots
School for Business Design and Social Innovation, he was a key member
of the process team that produced the Ontario Students' Assembly on
Electoral Reform. He currently manages a portfolio of projects, including
a branding initiative for Skellefteå, Sweden. He has a keen interest
in group dynamics and works regularly as a trained facilitator. He is
also the proud father of a litte girl named Alicia.
Interns: The interns are a real source of energy and ideas at MASS LBP. Our principal and directors got their start as interns in different organizations -- it helped them begin to make sense of their careers and plug some of the gaps that their degrees never filled. Unfortunately, interesting public policy placements are pretty rare in Canada and so they decided early on to create and invest in their own internship program, making it central to how MASS operates as a business. Yes, we joke around and call them digits. According to MASS lore they have numbers first and names second, but this only serves to highlight a silly distinction, and strangely it's become a matter of pride. Interns or digits, they are in every way an invaluable part of our team.
016: Andrew Phillips (Summer 2010)
015: Dana Granofsky (Winter 2010)
014: Louise Dalsgaard (Autumn 2009)
013: Joslyn Trowbridge (Autumn 2009)
012: Brandon Thao (Autumn 2009)
011: Mahmood Mustafa (Late Summer 2009)
010: Jennifer Sacco (Summer 2009)
009: Erene Stergiopoulos (Summer 2009)
008: Justyna Werbel (Spring 2009)
007: Aaron Ettinger (Winter 2008-2009)
006: Janette Yuen (Winter 2008-2009)
005: Jean-Sebastian Blais (Autumn 2008)
004: Jordan Benadiba (Autumn 2008)
003: Michelle Granatstein (Summer 2008)
002: Alex Way (Summer 2008)
001: Patrick Baud (Autumn 2007 & Summer 2008)