Vice President, The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation
Stephen is responsible for the Foundation’s granting program and is the Director of SiG@McConnell. His career includes leadership positions in the private, public and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining the Foundation, he worked with children’s singer Raffi as Executive Director of Troubadour Music Inc. and the non-profit Troubadour Institute. He co-founded and operated the Alma Street Café, a triple bottom line business that was Vancouver’s jazz café of record. He also held several executive positions with the BC SPCA, where he worked on innovations in humane education; animal-assisted therapy; and humane food labeling. Stephen has served on the boards of several post-secondary organizations, including Langara College, the BC Centre for International Education, and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. He is currently on the boards of the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network and ArtsSmarts. He has a Masters of Management degree from McGill, and is the recipient of awards in several fields, including for social documentary (Festival dei Popoli, Florence); humane education (Latham Foundation, California) and Business Person of the Year (Vancouver, Kitsilano Chamber of Commerce).
