Our People

Sean Geobey

Visiting Fellow

Associate Professor

BA (Economics and Political Science), Wilfrid Laurier University. MA (Economics), Queen’s University (Canada). PhD (Environment and Resource Studies), University of Waterloo

Sean Geobey is an Associate Professor in the University of Waterloo’s School of Environment, Enterprise and Development. He brings applied expertise in social innovation theory, sustainable finance, planning, governance, and decision-theory to his research and teaching. As Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI – https://uwaterloo.ca/complexity-innovation/) and Co-Director of the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR – https://uwaterloo.ca/waterloo-institute-for-social-innovation-and-resilience/) his teaching includes cutting edge work in social entrepreneurship and social innovation, with a pedagogical approach that uses problem-based, community-engaged learning. His work uses complex adaptive systems theory and community-based research to explore governance and design issues in collective action, often using large-scale co-design processes such as social innovation labs. Much of this work has been in the social finance sector, where he has led the Legacy Leadership Lab (https://uwaterloo.ca/legacy-leadership-lab/legacy-leadership-lab-cultivating-social-acquisition) and the systems mapping and principles focused evaluation of the Investment Readiness Program (https://uwaterloo.ca/waterloo-institute-for-social-innovation-and-resilience/projects/investment-readiness-program-20). He has been a Fellow at the Filene Research Institute and is currently Social Capital Partners Fellow at the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing.