George Roter

As an emerging leader in Canada's non-profit sector, George Roter strongly believes that Canadians are passionate about driving social change both within our country's borders and abroad. He has dedicated the past seven years of his life to building organizations that engage a broad cross-section of Canadians, and specifically foster the involvement of our country’s next generation of leaders.

 

Most of that dedication and effort has been focused on building Engineers Without Borders (EWB), an organization that he co-founded with Parker Mitchell and where he continues to serve as Co-CEO. George initially became interested in international development while completing his Bachelor’s degree in engineering at the University of Waterloo. He quickly learned that technology could drive extraordinary change in the lives of the poorest people in the world, and that the engineering community had not been tapped into as a resource.

 

Since its inception in January 2000, EWB has sent almost 150 volunteers on projects in 25 countries around the world. In Canada, the organization engages 10,000 members across the country who strive to help Canada and Canadians become model global citizens. EWB’s work has enabled thousands to gain access to appropriate technology that has made their journey out of poverty easier. They have been recognized with six major international awards in the past 18 months.

 

George is a frequent speaker at conferences and events across North America and has recently been named as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 (2005). In 2004 he was awarded a prestigious Action Canada Fellowship (2004) on public policy, which added to previous awards for his work with Engineers Without Borders (Canadian Bureau for International Education, 2002; University of Waterloo, 2000). He has been featured by Time magazine as one of Canada’s next generation of social leaders (2001), and has appeared on television, radio and in numerous print publications across the country.

 

George joined Volunteer Canada as a board member in May, 2005.