Meet Your Team
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CFIS's group of professionals facilitates relationships between donors and our researchers and students. Our team members work with individual donors, government agencies, corporations, and foundations that have interests in advancing our common concerns. We convene conversations, prepare communications materials, and match strategic priorities between donors and CFIS projects. We can answer specific questions about existing priority projects or develop a plan of giving based on your interests. Please see below for information about us. |
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Larry Sproul As Director of Development, Larry manages all development efforts in CFIS and personally raises major gifts in support of CFIS’s funding priorities. Larry was raised in Alberta, Canada, and he began his career as an English teacher at secondary and university levels in Thailand. He later studied Mandarin and modern history in China for two years on a Canadian government scholarship. He returned to Canada and taught modern Chinese history to upper-level students in UBC's Department of History and worked for UBC’s Institute of Asian Research. His work brought him to Ottawa where he established the China Desk for the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC). He then returned to UBC as founding director of UBC International, which was attached to the President’s Office, and played a leading role in advancing UBC’s global profile, strategic planning and policy development, and international exchanges and joint academic programs. He spent three years as Vice-President External Affairs and Planning at Quest University Canada, where he played a key role in all aspects of planning a new liberal arts and sciences university. Larry serves on several boards, including the Canada-Japan Society of British Columbia and the Ethnocultural Advisory Association. He is Chair of the Burnaby North Secondary School Parents Advisory Council. |
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Ryan Smith Ryan facilitates gifts in support of CFIS’s priority projects, with specific focuses on global policy and governance, and environmental sustainability. He has a passion for building collaborative teams and systems, and his work has brought him to the German Center for Cancer Research as a researcher of treatment plans, and to Stanford University’s Linear Accelerator Center as a software engineer. He returned to Vancouver to work in communications with UBC’s Sauder School of Business and moved into development and fundraising with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. He returned to UBC in 2009 to work with CFIS. Ryan holds a bachelor of science in physics from the University of Victoria and trained in the marketing management program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. His voluntary work includes several years as Chair of YogaBC’s board of directors, advisor to Langara College’s Yoga Teaching Training Program, and advisor to CPS Carbon Project Solutions Inc., a Vancouver-based carbon management and project development company. |
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Laura Vaughan Laura facilitates gifts in support of CFIS’s priority projects, with specific focuses on women’s and gender studies, and applied ethics. After finishing her studies, Laura joined the diplomatic corps of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office where she was involved with the sustainable environment and climate change & energy programmes. She then moved into the private sector to work with travel companies that were committed to responsible tourism and to philanthropy in developing countries. She moved to Canada and began her career at UBC as a procurement officer before joining CFIS Development. Laura holds a bachelor of arts in modern history from the University of Oxford and a master’s degree in international security studies (international relations) from the University of St. Andrew’s. |
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Sabrina Yan Sabrina manages the administrative functions of the team, including the coordination and stewardship of donations. She provides direct support to the Director and officers. She earned a bachelor of commerce in finance from UBC and began her career at UBC’s Institute of Asian Research, first as Administrative Officer, then as Information and Program Development Officer. She later joined UBC’s International Liaison Office as Information Officer. She developed and cultivated fundraising documents during UBC’s World of Opportunity Campaign, which led to the creation of the C. K. Choi Building—the current home of CFIS. |
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Jeffrey Hsu Jeffrey prepares, designs, and edits collateral materials—including proposals, reports, and case statements—on CFIS’s priority projects. He also supports the administrative functions of the team. His work in communications and campaign planning began in Ottawa, where he was Assistant Director of Public Affairs in the spoken-word programming division of CKCU-FM and Campaigns Coordinator for the Canadian Federation of Students. He moved to Vancouver and apprenticed in stage management with the Vancouver Playhouse, the Arts Club, and Bard on the Beach. He has worked for several years at UBC in different administrative roles. He joined CFIS in 2007 as Faculty Appointments Coordinator before moving to development. He holds a bachelor of arts in psychology from Carleton University, a diploma in theatre from Studio 58 at Langara College, and studies creative writing in the bachelor of fine arts program at UBC. |
