Matt Rasmussen
Who he is. Matt is a Red Seal carpenter who started his apprenticeship as a teenager and co-founded Rolling Tides Construction in 2012 with his wife, Lea. What began as renovations and military carpentry contracts is now a builder-developer working on residential, commercial and multi-unit projects across Vancouver Island. He's moved from swinging the hammer to leading the company, and he coaches his kids' sports teams in whatever time is left.
What he's working on. Running a growing company while staying present for his family, and figuring out, year by year, how to hold real ambition and a real home life at the same time rather than trading one for the other.
What he brings to the room. The operator's view. Matt is the one pushing on the plan itself: the numbers, the assumptions underneath them, the two or three bets that actually move a business, and the ninety-day priorities that make it real. If your strategy has a soft spot, he'll find it, kindly.
Mike Shaw
Who he is. Mike was a professional skier until a training accident left him with a spinal cord injury and a very different life than the one he'd planned. He's now a clinical counsellor in Victoria, the author of Never Part of the Plan, and a keynote speaker who has talked to more than fifty thousand people about courage, gratitude and resilience. His TEDx talk is called "Grief Happens." Red Bull made a film about him.
What he's working on. Building a speaking and counselling practice that reaches people at the moments their plans fall apart, and doing it without letting the work crowd out the life it's supposed to be about.
What he brings to the room. Perspective. Mike is the one who zooms the room out when it's gotten too close to the problem: what's already working that you take for granted, what this year is actually costing you, and what the older version of you would say about how you're spending it. It's not positive thinking. It's accurate accounting, and it changes what people decide to do next.
Shane Cyr
Who he is. Shane is an entrepreneur on the South Island and the person behind the Victoria Founders hikes, where a lot of the people in this room first met. He's the one who kept asking the question that turned into FOUND: what's the point of building the business if the rest of your life is running on default?
What he's working on. Whole-life intentionality and personal growth, and in particular the connection between performance and being regulated and present: how you actually show up when the pressure's on. He'd be the first to say he's learning this alongside everyone else, which is the point.
What he brings to the room. The whole-life lens, and the discipline to keep it in the plan. Shane hosts the weekend and the room through the year, and runs the sessions that come before anyone opens a business plan: where you actually are, what matters, and what you've been avoiding.