PERREAULT Magazine JULY | AUGUST 2016 | Page 56

Perreault Magazine - 56 -

My return to graduate school was totally driven by the Great Recession of 2008. Sid and I own and operate a successful international real estate company and our business literally came to a complete stop overnight. Like everyone in the world, the economic shock wave took its toll. My anti-depressant was to go back to school and study housing for the poor. The events that occurred were serendipitous, meeting great social entrepreneurs like Blake and Scott to studying abject poverty was a contrast I couldn’t ignore. My thesis became the business plan for World Housing.

Today my academic journey continues as a PhD student at UBC studying social change and slum formation. It’s kind of crazy where life will lead you if you allow it.

Would you recommend graduate school for other inspiring social entrepreneurs?

It depends on your learning goals. My biggest recommendation is to keep learning and build a network of like-minded social entrepreneurs. A Masters degree is an excellent way to immerse oneself in the domain of social entrepreneurship and build expertise.

Another great option are short intensive programs like Stanford University’s Executive Program in Social Entrepreneurship. I attended this program in February and was blown away by the course content and my fellow students. There were social entrepreneurs from around the world that came together to learn and celebrate social change. Sarah Soule the program director has done an amazing job of inspiring new and experienced change agents to build their businesses.

Your thesis seemed to be great research for starting World Housing. How much time did you invest in your thesis and has it been the blueprint you still follow today for World Housing?

A research-based Master's degree is a fairly solitary, deep dive into a topic. In my case, the research and writing portion of my program was three years of gathering data, analyzing and writing my thesis. I was very fortunate because my supervisor encouraged me to become a “pracademic” and apply my learning to a business. So my thesis turned into the business plan for World Housing. In the first two years it was the blueprint for how we set-up World Housing and a valuable guide for our team.

Can you explain how the “One-for-One Real Estate Gifting Model” works?

Our initial business model was fashioned after Blake’s one-for-one gifting model. shoeless child in need.