Ryan Beedie biography
Ryan & Keith Beedie: Contact Mat Wilcox, 604.828.7007; mwilcox@wilcoxgroup.com
Andrew Petter, SFU President, 778.782.4641; petter@sfu.ca
Daniel Shapiro, Dean of SFU Business, 778.782.4183; daniel_shapiro@sfu.ca
Derek Moscato, Director, Marketing and Communications, SFU Business, 604.671.4567; derek_moscato@sfu.ca
Don MacLachlan, PAMR, 604.763.3929; donmac@sfu.ca
As President of The Beedie Group, Ryan Beedie is building one of the largest and most successful industrial property development companies in Canada. Born and raised in Burnaby B.C., he joined the company in 1993 and became President in 2001.
Since 1995, Ryan has overseen the construction of more than 13 million square feet of industrial space. Today, The Beedie Group owns and manages more than 7.5 million square feet of industrial space, the largest portfolio of properties in British Columbia. Recently, the Beedie Group has expanded their commercial presence into Southern Alberta, residential homes, and into Beedie Capital Partners.
Ryan holds an undergraduate business degree in accounting and finance from Simon Fraser University and an MBA in real estate from the University of British Columbia.
Ryan’s passion for The Beedie Group was ignited early on, learning about the family business at the dinner table from his father Keith, who founded the company in 1954. Ryan remembers being immersed in the business from a very young age, driving around with his father as a teenager visiting project sites and learning about industrial real estate development.
Ryan’s interest and hard work has paid off - under his leadership, the company has become a dominant force in the industrial real estate market. Always focused on the long-term success of the company, Ryan has made calculated risk-taking a hallmark of his leadership style. In 2009 Ryan was declared Ernst & Young’s Pacific Region Entrepreneur of the Year.
Ryan has always believed that everyone has a responsibility to give back to the community in which they live and work. Ryan helped raise more than $750,000 for the Lion’s Gate Hospice and donated $100,000 to the BC Children’s Hospital. Working with Arts Umbrella, Ryan has committed more than $5,000 to help provide music education to children in inner-city schools. He recently donated $25,000 to the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver. An SFU alumnus, he created the Ryan Beedie Annual Community Service Award – a $5,000 bursary granted on the basis academic performance and leadership and/or service at Simon Fraser University to a Faculty of Business Administration student.
Today, Ryan and his father Keith have donated $22 million to Simon Fraser University to establish the Beedie School of Business. The donation is the largest gift that SFU has ever received and is being used as an endowment for students, professorships and research chairs with the goal to making the Beedie School of Business a global thought leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, Asia Pacific business studies, risk management and sustainability.
Away from his office and outside of his charitable work, Ryan spends much of his free time with his wife Cindy and their three children.