Mary Stuart is a management consultant with more than 35 years of management experience in the Canadian and International non-profit sector. Strengths include: organizational development and transformation; change management; strategic planning; board governance; coalition building; policy, financial and resource development. Special areas of interest include organizational transformation and governance issues at both the board and international organizational levels.

Drawing from her experience of building coalitions and relationships with a variety of governments and non-governmental organizations, Ms. Stuart is adept at finding creative strategies to ensure the continuation of programs and projects in an era of shrinking financial resources. She has played leadership roles in international development, employment training, youth, women and environmental education programs, and has extensive experience with membership organizations and volunteer non-profit boards. Her exceptional negotiation skills create and promote cooperative working and funding relationships among diverse stakeholder groups, including government, corporate and volunteer sectors.

Her most recent employment was as Executive Director of   VSO Canada, providing leadership in the merger process between VSO Canada, the VSO Federation, and CUSO. This merger resulted in the formation of CUSO-VSO, the largest non-governmental, volunteer-sending agency in North America; efficiency was increased through the sharing of best practices, streamlining operational procedures and reducing overhead costs. The new organization sends 250-300 volunteers annually to more than 40 country programs around the globe. In addition to extensive negotiations to achieve a legal agreement to merge, this process required a further stage of organizational development around the formation of a new governance structure, harmonization of the practices and policies of the two founding organizations, and membership in the VSO International federation.