Meet the Faculty

REDI Canada works with active industry professionals to develop and facilitate courses that meet industry and learner needs. Our instructors have expertise across a variety of industry areas and professional experience working across Canada.

Meet the Directors

Jason Hardy (he|him)

Director & Adjunct Instructor, REDI Canada

Co-Founder & CEO at Ownly

REDL: HSK 836 Proptech: The Future of Real Estate
REDP: Proptech

Jason Hardy is the Co-Founder & CEO of the leading real estate e-commerce software, Ownly. Jason has spent the previous 17 years serving the real estate development sector in both Canada and the United States. An industry thought leader and speaker, Jason previously held the position of President / Managing Partner at Chatterson, a boutique real estate marketing firm headquartered Calgary, Canada. Jason is an instructor of Real Estate Marketing at the Haskayne School of Business’ Real Estate MBA program at the University of Calgary and holds the role of Executive Director of the Real Estate Development Institute of Canada. Jason also sits on the Management Advisory Committee (MAC) and Proptech Advisory Committee at the Haskayne School of Business and serves as Committee Chair at the Westman Centre for Real Estate Studies.

READ MORE

John Fisher (he|him)

Director & Adjunct Instructor, REDI Canada

Executive Vice President, CBRE

REDL: HSK 830 Commercial Real Estate Development
REDP: Commercial Real Estate

John Fisher is an Executive Vice President, Advisory & Transaction Services at CBRE in Calgary, a Sessional Instructor at the Haskayne School of Business, a board member of NAIOP, North America’s largest commercial real estate development member-association, an instructor at the Real Estate Development Institute and an advisor to The City of Calgary, Calgary Economic Development, The Calgary Stampede, The Westman Centre for Real Estate Studies and a variety of private real estate firms, associations, and corporations. John has worked on a variety of notable projects across Canada and is frequently called upon for industry articles, speaking events and publications.

John has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University) /Schulich School of Business (York University) and a BA in Economics (University of Calgary).

READ MORE

Richard K. Parker (he|him)

Director, REDI Canada

Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners

Richard Parker is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners with over 50 years’ experience in Land Use Planning in the United Kingdom and Canada. Richard retired from the City of Calgary in October 2003 following a 29-year career that included 15 years as Head of the Planning Department.

During his time with the City, Richard was involved with a wide range of planning issues, including Calgary’s overall Land Use and Transportation Plans, Downtown Planning and innovative projects such as Garrison Woods and Mackenzie Town.
Since retiring from the City Richard has provided consulting services to Municipalities and non-profit groups in Alberta on a range of planning topics. Richard has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Kerby Centre in Calgary, since 2015 and is currently Chair of the Board.

Through his role as a Partner in the Real Estate Development Institute he has designed and delivered education programs related to real estate and planning to numerous groups including the University of Calgary Real Estate Leadership Program.

READ MORE

Meet the Faculty Members

Aaron Forbes (he|him)

Adjunct Instructor, REDI Canada

Senior Director, MCAP Financial Corp.

REDL: HSK 825 Real Estate Development and Finance 1; HSK 831 Real Estate Development and Finance 2
REDP: Real Estate Development Finance

Aaron Forbes Attended the University of Calgary, majoring in Economics and became a CFA Charter holder in 2013. He is a licensed member of the Real Estate Council of Alberta and has completed the Mortgage Associates Program and is currently a Senior Director with MCAP’s Development Finance Group. To date, he has been involved in the structuring of over $3.0 billion of real estate transactions throughout Western Canada, including 1st and 2nd mortgages and has completed syndications with most major Canadian Banks, Alberta based lending institutions, pension funds and life insurance companies. Aaron currently sits on the Board of Directors for KV Mortgage Fund Inc., a private Edmonton based lender, as an independent member and a member of the Lending Review Committee.

READ MORE

Candace Cooper (she|her)

Adjunct Instructor, REDI Canada

Partner, Daoust Vukovich LLP

REDL: HSK 827 Real Estate Law
REDP: Fundamentals of Real Estate Law

Candace is a partner and the practice lead of the Daoust Vukovich LLP commercial real estate department. Considered one of the best law firms in Canada for commercial property, leasing and development, Daoust Vukovich LLP has a team of highly qualified lawyers and ​paralegals serving the specialized needs of clients who acquire, develop and use commercial real estate. Candace’s practice encompasses all areas of commercial real estate law, including acquisitions, dispositions, financing and development of land involving commercial, retail and industrial properties. Her clients are diverse, and include entrepreneurial and institutional land developers, construction companies, commercial landlords, property managers, space users and commercial tenants. 
 
Candace is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and seminars including the Law Society of Ontario, the Land and Development Conference, the Canadian Apartment Investment Conference, and the International Council of Shopping Centres Law Conference. 
 
Candace joined Daoust Vukovich in July 2012 after practicing for several years at a full service Bay Street firm. Following her graduation from the J.D./L.L.B. joint degree law program at the University of Detroit in 2006, she was called to the bar in Ontario in 2007 and admitted to the New York State Bar in 2008. Prior to law school, Candace obtained her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.   

READ MORE

Emma MacKenzie (she|her)

Adjunct Instructor, REDI Canada

Director, Creative & Strategy at Chatterson

REDL: HSK 826 Real Estate Marketing
REDP: Marketing

Emma MacKenzie is Director, Creative & Strategy at Chatterson, a Calgary-based performance marketing agency. Emma has spent the last 12 years at Chatterson, planning and executing strategic marketing for a multitude of real estate development clients across Western Canada. Emma specializes in strategy development, project visioning, creative execution and the important connections between buyer motivations and marketing success.

READ MORE

Iain G. McCorkindale (he|him)

Adjunct Instructor, REDI Canada

Director, M3 Development Management Ltd.

REDL: HSK 835 Real Estate Development Management
REDP: Development Management

Iain G. McCorkindale has over two decades of experience in the real estate development sector and carries the professional accreditations of MRICS, PQS, and LEED AP©. Following an apprenticeship with Rolls Royce plc. where he earned his Sheet Metal Worker Journeyman papers, Iain enrolled at Glasgow’s Caledonian University and graduated in 1998 with a First Class B.Sc. (Hons.) Quantity Surveying Degree. Iain was then recruited by Helyar & Associates (now Altus Group) where he spent eight years in their Toronto Office, before moving with his family to Calgary in 2006 to start their construction cost management practice where he led a very successful team that serviced the Prairies. In terms of projects, Iain has worked on over 200 projects across the full asset class spectrum and provided advisory services for project lenders, developers, owners, and tenants across Canada and in select US locations. In 2011, Iain joined a prominent local real estate Owner / Developer where he built and led an in-house team focused on developing mixed-use projects. In mid-2016, Iain formed M3 Development Management Ltd. which is actively providing turnkey development and project management services on many prominent and large-scale projects in Calgary and throughout the Province of Alberta.

READ MORE

Mark Seasons (he|him)

Adjunct Instructor, REDI Canada

Professor at School of Planning, University of Waterloo

REDL: HSK 824 Real Estate Development and the Planning Process
REDP: Planning

Mark Seasons is a Professor and the Director of the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo, which he joined in 1998 following almost 20 years in planning practice. He is a Fellow, Canadian Institute of Planners and a Registered Professional Planner (Ontario). Mark’s education includes a BA (Honours Geography – Queen’s); MEnvDes (Planning – Calgary); and PhD (Regional Planning – Waterloo). Mark has practiced as an urban planner with the City of Calgary, the New Zealand federal government, the Province of Ontario, and the Canadian federal government’s National Capital Commission. Throughout his professional career, he has worked in the areas of urban renewal, long-range planning, neighbourhood revitalization, regional planning, and non-profit housing. Mark’s research interests include plan evaluation, planning for climate change, strategic planning, and planning for slow-growth or declining cities. He has designed and delivered courses in land use planning, research methods, planning theory, program evaluation and regional planning. As a researcher, Mark has written and had published numerous articles in a variety of peer-reviewed journals. He’s also a member of the editorial boards of several academic journals for which he regularly reviews and evaluates articles that are submitted for publication. Mark was editor-in-chief of Plan Canada, the Canadian Institute of Planning’s practice-oriented journal, from 2005-10. In 2021, he published a sole-authored and peer-reviewed text on plan monitoring and evaluation (Evaluating Urban and Regional Plans: From Theory to Practice, UBC Press).

READ MORE

Robert Spanier (he|him)

Adjunct Instructor, REDI Canada

President, Spanier Group

REDL: HSK 828 Mixed-Use Real Estate Development
REDP: Mixed-Use

Rob Spanier is an international real estate development expert with two decades of experience dedicated to creating innovative, next-generation destinations and places. By playing an integral role on multi-disciplinary project teams, Rob commits his extensive knowledge in large-scale mixed-use development, master planning, specialty leasing and deal making as well as programming and activation in order to create vibrant and prosperous communities. Most notably, Rob has helped to develop Lakeview Village on Mississauga’s waterfront, the Woodbine Districts in Toronto, and the Canary District, the 2015 PanAm Games Athletes Village. Rob is an active member and leader with the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

READ MORE