VIO Volunteers began as a public Facebook group and volunteer initiative founded on March 21, 2020. After locating 22.9 million masks for Ontario hospitals by cold-calling businesses and directing a public offer of 2000 ventilators from Tesla to the Ministry of Health, the decision to register as a non-profit organization came easily.
MEET THE BOARD
An entrepreneur for the past six years, Matt has had a long and winding career. His work experience includes everything from epidemiological research to retail management, hospitality to RV and B2B sales, as well as project coordination, marketing and event planning. Matt founded the Facebook group Volunteers in Ontario Finding PPE for Hospitals on March 21, 2020, which quickly grew into VIO Volunteers.
Claudine studied in England and Kingston, ON at Queen's University, earning degrees in politics and Spanish literature as well as a certificate of international studies. She also has a background in law. She's had a circuitous career path to becoming director of parliamentary affairs to Nunavut Senator Dennis Patterson, having worked as the general manager and corporate trainer for Prime Restaurant, social media manager for TheINNERface.com, and run her own company Family Industries, to name a few. She lives in Barrhaven, ON with her husband and young son.
Cate has spent many years designing people’s dream kitchens. She has a long history of volunteerism, including spending 8 years fundraising for Bluefest’s Blues in the Schools charity, a non-profit focused on music education in Ottawa schools. Cate is an entrepreneur and runs a blog in her spare time.
Graduate from Carleton University and Founder and CTO of an Ottawa based IT Managed Service Provider - Stega Networks, Anthony leads the technology aspect of VIO Volunteers as the Director of Technology, helping to navigate and manage the ever growing and more complex IT environments we rely on.
William graduated from the Electrical Engineering program at Carleton University and has worked in information technology, industrial automation, and embedded systems. New technical challenges are always enticing, especially when coupled with a chance to do some good deeds. Unplugging entirely may be rare, but the occasional switch to more analog pursuits with a guitar in hand or standing at a table saw have been known to happen.