Meet the talented staff and associates who make it all possible:
Staff
Michael Murr
Executive Director
Michael is a versatile and client-focused leader with broad experience in governance, strategy and operations in not-for-profit and municipal government settings. As part of his role, Michael regularly coaches and consults with social enterprise practitioners to help them navigate complex business problems, solve strategic challenges and build capacity within their organization. He is collaborative and thoughtful by nature and is inspired by the power of social enterprise as a force for good.
You can reach Michael at michael@csedottawa.ca.
Hai Doan
Manager, Social Enterprise Consulting
Hai has served as a consultant for social enterprises and a program manager for non-profit organizations for ten years after shifting her career from a marketing manager for companies. She is passionate about the social enterprise model, which brings the best of both worlds (nonprofit and for-profit) to create sustainable impact. Hai regularly coaches social business start-ups through the incubation process and provides acceleration services for social enterprises in marketing & sales, social impact measurement, business modeling, etc. She also has experience facilitating experiential learning in higher education and community context.
You can reach Hai at hai@csedottawa.ca.
Len Fardella
Coordinator, Social Procurement
Len excels at making things happen based on an innate sense of curiosity and drive. In the end, it is all about focus and execution. With extensive experience in Ottawa’s high-tech industry, almost two decades of running his own business along with work in the nonprofit world, he brings a unique perspective to social enterprise business challenges and opportunities. He is most excited when he’s in the middle of a project, driving operational and marketing change and measuring impact. He readily admits to owning many successes and some equally painful failures. Spoiler Alert: While you do learn more from the failures, the successes are always a lot more fun.
You can reach Len at len@csedottawa.ca.
Associates
John Petitti
Strategic Advisor
John works with organizations to raise the value of their marketing and communications strategies, to make their message more compelling and, ultimately, to change their audience’s behaviour.
Over the past 40 years John has also developed strategic expertise in not-for-profit leadership, change management, issues management, crisis communications and public affairs – skills that he enjoys applying as a volunteer consultant with not-for-profit organizations focused in the areas of public and mental health, youth resiliency and community development.
Manu Sharma
Strategic Advisor
Manu Sharma is the Director of Social Enterprise Development with Ottawa Community Foundation (OCF). Manu works with social purpose organizations seeking to employ human-centred design to shift their business strategy to improve their bottom line, generate innovation, increase their social impact and/or launch new products and services. Manu has been with CSED in a strategic advisory role since 2017.