Resilient Group Principals
The Resilient Group leadership team has a complementary skill set of resource and environmental management, policy analysis, behaviour change, and stakeholder engagement.
Our client list is diverse, and includes organizations such as the Water Research Foundation; Metro Vancouver; the Cities of Albuquerque, San Diego, Seattle, Tucson, Phoenix, Jacksonville, and Colorado Springs; the Canada Green Building Council; BC Hydro; BC Ministry of Agriculture; Capital Power Corporation; Pacific Salmon Foundation; HP Canada; Coca-Cola; IBM; Natural Resources Canada; and Cloudworks Energy;
Resilient Group's principals are backed by a talented group of associates, with experience in governance, decision management, ecology, economics, community investment and corporate responsibility strategies.
Steve Conrad, M.Sc, C.PhD
Steve is one of the founding members of Resilient Group and has close to 20 years experience in the design, development, and delivery of environmental solutions with a focus on the diffusion of innovation strategies to promote effective resource management policy. Steve has extensive experience in decision making theory, environmental program management and evaluation, water and energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, water governance, ecological and economic analysis of food systems, and environmental behaviour.
Steve combines a unique skill set in engineering, science/policy research, and behaviour theory and his consulting work has included a diverse range of activities assisting organizations, municipalities, and community governments in North America, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Steve is also active in research, focusing on behavioural factors of energy and water efficiency programs, decision making, energy and greenhouse management, and innovation diffusion. Steve is a Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions research fellow. Steve also currently chairs the REM Water Research Working group, the BCWWA committee on climate change, and co-chairs the IWA Water and Energy working group. Steve also routinely volunteers as a project advisory committee member for the Water Research Foundation. He has published several articles and books on energy water quality management, energy efficiency, water sustainability, water-energy decision making, utility operations.
Steve holds BSc degrees in Engineering and Psychology, an MSc in International Environmental Technology Management, and is a doctoral candidate in the school of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. He has received numerous awards, fellowships, and research grants including currently serving as principal investigator for the Water Research Foundation project "Decision Support System for Sustainable Energy Management".
Mary Sturgeon
Mary has provided counsel and strategic planning services at the executive level for more than 13 years of her 20-year career. With a background in communications strategy, media relations and stakeholder outreach and engagement, Mary has worked with scores of commercial organizations, regional and federal governments, industry associations and non-profit groups.
She uses the power of communications to foster reciprocal understanding and mutual respect, inspire action and facilitate change.
An insightful strategist, Mary has an ability to bring a fresh viewpoint to clients, uncovering new opportunities and creative approaches that meet their goals. She is also a detailed project manager, identifying project needs, anticipating roadblocks and filling resource gaps to ensure projects move forward seamlessly.
Prior to founding Resilient Group, Mary provided communications strategy consulting to a variety of non-profit and commercial clients, whose goals focused on improving environmental and social outcomes, deepening stakeholder relationships and enhancing corporate citizenship. Previously, she spent 13 years at Porter Novelli Canada, where she helped to establish its roots as a small independent public relations firm, and as part of the executive team, grow it into one of Canada's leading full-service communications agencies. During that period, she conceived and led the spin-off of a complementary agency, Alchemy PR, and as president, steered its growth for more than three years.
