A new path forward

Dear Friends,

After more than a decade of working on some of the most meaningful work of my life, I have come to the decision to leave Cause+Affect. Starting October 1, I have accepted a new position as Head of Creative at Rize Alliance Properties. 

For many of you, this might come as quite a surprise, one, that I would leave Cause+Affect, and two, that I would move to a real estate developer. Let me tell you a little about this significant decision. 

For the last 12 years, Jane and I were able to find a market position that put our passion and our expertise to work helping companies and organizations and most recently governments, better align their internal staff and membership and at the same time better engage the people that matter most to them.

Much of that work has focused on creating better cities, with issues like transportation, culture, health, housing, and social justice being paramount. This provided us with endless interesting projects to involve ourselves in, and as many of you know, create some of our own events and initiatives along the way. 

Well, over the last 15 months or so, we have been heavily focused on housing, with the rebrand of BC Housing, the reset of the City of Vancouver’s Housing Strategy and most recently the rebrand of HFBC Housing Foundation into Brightside Community Homes Foundation. 

Throughout this time, I have come to learn more about housing issues across the spectrum than I ever thought possible and could not help but feel that I had a larger role to play in this critical issue. 

So, when Rize approached me to take a leadership position in their next phase of growth, it was just too enticing to turn down. For those who do not know Rize, they are a boutique real estate developer who have operated exclusively in Metro Vancouver for the last 25 years. They were actually one of our first clients back in 2005 and we have worked with their CEO, Will Lin and his team on numerous projects ever since. 

Will has a bold vision for the future of Rize and I look forward to bringing my experience and expertise in architecture and design, brand and communications, and community engagement and dialogue to help them deliver more meaningful communities and if I am being truly honest, potentially try to shift an industry in need of change. 

"Cause+Affect will be in good hands of course, continuing to build on its success, with Jane providing her leadership to a current roster of clients that embody a mix of culturally influential, socially innovative and community focussed agendas.

I cannot tell you how much of a very big deal this is for Jane and I, one that I did not take lightly. We have worked side by side for over a decade now. Having a partner in life and work allows/forces everything to blend together somewhat seamlessly. We are therefore quite nervous, but also excited about the development of separate paths, and at the very least, look forward to more interesting dinner conversations. 

I take great pride in having built a company like Cause+Affect and really struggle to leave it. I would like to thank all of those staff, clients and colleagues that were part of that significant time in my life. I cannot say enough about how much you all mean to me. 

Jane will continue to grow the organization in amazing directions, I have no doubt. 

Warmly,

Steven