Eric (Ric) Young

Founder and President of EYE

Founder and President of E-Y-E | The Social Projects Studio.  Architect of numerous social change initiatives addressing a broad spectrum of societal challenges. Creator, in 2000, of the Social Innovation Initiative with DuPont Canada which gave rise to one of the world’s first social innovation think tanks, in partnership with McGill University, and to the best-selling book, Getting To Maybe. 
 

 
Failed filmmaker. (“I learned three important things, however: 1. I was no Bertolucci. 2. Story is everything. 3. On the day, nothing is impossible.”) 
 

 
Social marketing apostate. Though a pioneer in the field and co-founder of Canada’s first dedicated social marketing agency, became increasingly frustrated by the discipline’s inability to respond effectively to the real challenges of change in our time.  The shift from social marketing to social innovation was “fundamentally about recognizing the link between change and complexity and opening a space for a larger set of possibilities”.