Matthew Grant

Executive leader with deep experience driving organizational success and fostering collaboration. Skilled in strategic planning, community and stakeholder engagement, and external affairs and brand experience. Known for adaptability, resilience, and delivering results in evolving environments. Successfully managed diverse teams, driving operational efficiency, and fostering collaborative environments. Strong interpersonal skills, effective communicator, and results-driven approach.

Matthew is a people, relationship, and outcome-focused strategic thinker and natural leader who excels within the management, administrative and work-flow complexities of a distributed organization. He honours the Stó:lō, Coast Salish and Halq'eméylem speaking people upon whose traditional territories he lives and calls home.

• Co-authored, stewarded, managed, and led SFU's Strategic Community Engagement Framework Strategy and Plan (2013 - 2025) - a plan that centered a vision for a practice of community engagement that rested on the following key foundational principles and values: inclusion and diversity; mutual trust, respect and accountability; sustainable approaches; healthy relationships; equity; knowledge exchange; and reciprocity and partnership. With this framework providing a foundation in approach for SFU community engagement, the university community endeavored to contribute to the public good by preparing educated, engaged citizens with innovative experiential and interdisciplinary engaged learning opportunities; by strengthening and growing community-based and community-engaged research, scholarship and creative activity; by enhancing curriculum, teaching and learning through engagement; by working to strengthen community capacity and civic responsibility through dialogue and engagement; and by seeking opportunities to have direct and meaningful impact with communities.
• Led, presented and participated in the Canadian Pilot Cohort (CPC) of the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification (2019 - 2023). This work subsequently resulted in the establishment of a Canadian joint venture to create the research and administrative home of the Canadian Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement (C4E) (2022 - 2025). Authored and brokered both the joint agreement between Canadian institutional hosts as well as the MOA between C4E and the American Council on Education (ACE) - the US organization that hosts all Carnegie Foundation Classifications (basic and elective). Was named as the executive lead from C4E to work with the American Council on Education (ACE) to advance C4E.
• Was instrumental in the establishment of SFU's campus in Surrey. Primary responsibility included campus enrollment management, marketing, and external relations, including growing the enrollment of SFU's Surrey campus from 300 students (2002) to 8,500 students (2010). Led many large community events, including 14 open houses and was SFU's Community Partnerships lead for SFU's 50th Anniversary Year.
• Established and provided executive and managerial oversight to SFU's Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) which resulted in a funding distribution of over $1.25M that supported 234 community engaged learning and community based research projects from 2014 - 2024.
• Secured $1.65M in funding from the TD Bank Group and through TD's Ready Commitment to establish and operate the SFU Surrey - TD Community Engagement Centre from 2012 - 2026. The initiatives of the SFU Surrey - TD CEC resulted in hundreds of community-university partnerships, hundreds of paid student placement and volunteer opportunities, thousands of community learning opportunities, tens of thousands of dollars in additional grant funding, and many community-based research opportunities.
• Established and provided executive and managerial oversight to SFU's Student-Community Engagement Competition which resulted in over 100 co-led student/community engagement projects from 2014 - 2024, a number of which have grown into full fledged non-profit organizations run by former SFU student social entrepreneurs which will contribute to the social fabric of BC communities for decades to come.
• Established and provided executive and managerial oversight to the Warren Gill Award for Community Impact. This award is SFU's pre-eminent award for engaged scholars and has recognized lifetime achievement in community engagement at SFU since 2017.
• Established and provided executive and managerial oversight of the Burnaby Festival of Learning (ConnectFest) - a knowledge exchange festival co-led by the City of Burnaby and SFU that resulted in over 500 events, workshops, and projects led by and with community, and which engaged tens of thousands of Burnaby residents over a ten year span.
• Nominated for SFU's staff achievement award in leadership in 2020-21 and consistently recognized formally for exemplary leadership contributions to SFU throughout my career.