Encompass Co-op

Courses: Social Entrepreneurship: Creating Social Value

Emcompass Co-op is a Manitoba-based social enterprise that supports the start-up of social enterprises and creates the space for the problem solving sector to grow. Shaun Loney and Lucas Stewart, two partners from Encompass, share their experience and learnings together in the social enterprise course.

Shaun Loney

Shaun is a widely sought-after speaker. He is an Ashoka Fellow (first on the Canadian Prairies) and Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the year. Shaun has experience in government both as political staff and as a senior civil servant. He has also co-founded and mentored the establishment of 12 different social enterprises including www.buildinc.ca, www.purposeconstruction.ca, www.socialenterprisecentrewpg.org, and www.akienergy.com Shaun is also the author of three books including An Army of Problem Solverswhich has sold over 8000 copies. His third book, The Beautiful Bailout: How Social Innovation Will Solve Government’s Priciest Issues, is now available.

Lucas Stewart

Lucas is a co-founder of Purpose Construction (www.purposeconstruction.ca) and Winnipeg’s Social Enterprise Centre.  He was elected a fellow of Business Alliance of Local Living Economies in 2016, the first in the Canadian prairies (https://bealocalist.org/lucas-stewart/).  Previous to making the jump to start Purpose Construction, Lucas was a project manager at BUILD, a social enterprise that delivers training in insulation training to low-income workers. Over the past nine years, Lucas has helped to launch a new social enterprise every two years and several new divisions to MGR’s portfolio and is known for his expertise around social procurement and setting up systems to make running social enterprises easier.  He is also Board Chair with Community Ownership Solutions - a registered charity with mandate to support social enterprises across Canada. With formal training in project management and conflict resolution Lucas has been able to translate this into the business world of delivering marketable services and sustainable solutions.  Lucas and his partner are enjoying being new parents.