Richard is co-president and a co-founder of GrantStream. His passion for corporate community involvement came out of his experience of running the corporate foundation and heading up the stakeholder relations role for a leading pharmaceutical company. Building on his years of sales, marketing and communications experience, Richard saw the power and potential that strategic community involvement can play in building a better society while adding value to a company’s reputation and brand.

He loves to work with clients who share his vision of how a committed company can bring about meaningful social change by contributing not only its money but its vision, drive and expertise to a chosen cause. In doing so, GrantStream’s clients differentiate themselves in the minds of their employees, customers and communities.

Richard is also a faculty member of The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, a global hub for research and education in corporate community involvement. Through the Center, Richard delivers executive education programs on corporate community signature programs to companies that want to make a genuine difference.

Richard lives in Oakville, Ontario with his wife and two teen-aged daughters. Inspired by his hockey-playing daughters, he took up goaltending at the tender age of 47 where his lack of skills and talent allows him to lead his E-tier team to the bottom of their league standings season after season.

Richard can be reached at (905) 339-3852 ext.224 or at .

 

Helen brings more than 10 years’ experience in marketing and communications to the GrantStream consulting team, 6 of which focused on corporate citizenship and community investment.  She has designed, developed and implemented community focused programs and partnerships here in Canada and on an international scale. 

 

Prior to joining GrantStream, Helen was Communications Director of the Imagine program, Canada’s 1% benchmark for excellence in corporate citizenship. While revitalizing and relaunching the Imagine 1% commitment, Helen worked with teams of senior executive stakeholders from across Canada to develop a value proposition that would speak to the more than 600 Canadian companies involved. With her committed guidance, Imagine successfully rebranded itself and launched a cross-Canada communications program that showcased examples of excellence in corporate citizenship and gave voice to the visionary, industry-leading CEOs who supported it.

 

Helen’s strength in corporate citizenship is focused on cross-sector partnerships and program management.  She is most proud of her work managing a worldwide Internet-based awards and grants program and developing partnerships with grant recipients from around the world, partnerships which developed creative solutions to societal challenges.   Here in Canada, Helen has identified and promoted examples of best practice Canadian community investment programs through her work for Imagine’s “New Spirit of Community” Partnership Awards.

 

A native of South Africa, Helen now lives in Mississauga, Ontario with her husband, daughter and son where she volunteers with the Mississauga Community Foundation. She enjoys travel, cooking, opera, and coming across kiddie gadgets that will in any way make her life with two youngins a little bit easier.

Helen can be reached at (905) 339-3852 ext.234 or at .

 

Claudia Garcia was drawn to the worlds of sustainable development and corporate citizenship while studying Business Administration at York University’s Schulich School of Business. In 2006 she worked in sustainability as a Market Researcher with the Sustainable Markets Intelligence Centre in Costa Rica, where she helped bring practical information on the global coffee market to Central and South America’s small coffee producers. She went on to work in marketing and communications before joining GrantStream’s consulting team in 2008 as an Account Executive.

 

Claudia is intrigued by everything to do with the mind-body connection and loves to read up on it whenever she gets the chance. She is working her way up to regularly taking yoga classes and meditating every morning. She also enjoys overpriced food, naps, Europe, and her cat.

 

She lives in Toronto, Ontario where she currently volunteers as a “KidCoach” with Future Possibilities for Kids, an organization that aims to build leadership in kids by pairing them with a mentor to help them achieve community-oriented goals close to their hearts.

Claudia can be reached at (905) 339-3852 ext.245 or at .