Work at CSI for the day with our new Lounge Pass!

CSI welcomes Rahul Raj to its Board of Directors

CSI

CSI

The Centre for Social Innovation is thrilled to announce that Rahul Raj, a social entrepreneur and corporate transformation strategist, has joined CSI’s Board of Directors.

Rahul Raj“As a social entrepreneur who has innovated in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors, in big and small organizations, we know that Rahul’s strategic insight and creativity will be critical to helping CSI take our work to the next level,” says Tonya Surman, Co-Founder and CEO of CSI.

Rahul founded and developed Meal Exchange, mobilizing students to achieve a more secure and sustainable food system on campuses and in communities across the country. The nonprofit has since expanded across Canada and to the United States and Australia, raised over $3M to feed those in need, and been recognized by TIME magazine as “revolutionary.”

As the VP of Marketing & E-Commerce at Ecobee, Rahul helped design and launch ecobee3 as the smarter wi-fi thermostat for homes with more than one room, helping people save money and energy – a win for people and the planet. Since stewarding the consumer launch in September 2014, and forging a path into retail, he’s helped propel ecobee to the #2 smart thermostat brand in the US, the highest rated smart thermostat by consumers and media, and the exclusive smart thermostat sold in Apple stores.

As the Director of Sustainability + Merchandising Innovation at Walmart.com, he incubated new revenue streams to deliver economic and social impact. Most notably he developed a multi-channel trade-in program to help Walmart’s customers turn high-quality gadgets into gift cards. He then built out a refurbishing infrastructure to bring these electronics to like-new condition for resale and keep them out of landfill. For these efforts, he was honored with Walmart’s Innovation Champion Award, a fellowship with the Aspen Institute, and by GOOD magazine as 1 of 100 people pushing the world forward in 2013.

Rahul will help guide CSI’s work as we build out our acceleration work and scale our operations.

Welcome to the team Rahul!

Keep Reading
CSI Spadina in the ground floor kitchen, looking out towards the lounge and meeting rooms. In the foreground is a kitchen counter, with waffles, toppings, and glasses of coffees and teas. In the background, CSI CEO Tonya Surman is speaking into a microphone on the left. In the middle and on the right, a variety of people stand and sit, listening to her speak.
One of the keys to CSI's magic is our Community Animator Program (CAP) and, specifically, the Community Animators themselves! Through this program, we've worked with more than 1,000 exceptional individuals who have each brought a little something different, and a little sparkle, to our spaces. And we're so glad to have had them in our community, because we've learned that each and every one of them has some exceptional talents, skills, and experiences to offer the world!  
Third floor lounge of CSI Spadina. In the foreground is a light blue loveseat sofa. In the background, we see two people working separately at coworking desks and tables. On the ceiling is a chandelier; to the right, a progress Pride flag.
The CSI staff team includes Pride veterans, newcomers, and everywhere in between! This year, as we celebrated Pride in our spaces and with our member community, we turned to our staff team to learn what Pride means to them. Some experienced it for the first time this year and were awash in the joy; others delighted in the fact that Pride remains such a fun celebration decades later. Others noted the increasing corporatization, which draws our attention away from the central premise of Pride - a protest.
whai header
CSI is many things - a coworking space, a non-profit organization, and a launchpad - but, first and foremost, we are a community. A community of innovators, of changemakers, of neighbours, of people putting people and planet first. And the awesome work that our members do, each and every day, never ceases to amaze us! So of course, we do our best to highlight our members whenever possible. Recently, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Molly Bannerman, Director of Women HIV/Aids Initiative (WHAI), a community-based response to HIV and AIDS among cis and trans women in Ontario. Below is an edited summary of our chat, where we discussed the work of WHAI and their latest Collective Action Community Change report.
Become A Member