John Restakis is the Executive Director of Community Evolution Foundation, a Vancouver-based organization that supports Community Economic Development internationally.  He was the  Executive Director of the BC Co-operative Association for almost 20 years.  His professional background includes community organizing, adult and popular education, and co-op development.  He actively researches and teaches on co-operative economies and the social economy, and lectures widely on the subject of globalization, regional development and alternative economics.

John is a founding member of the Advisory Committee for the MA Program in Community Development at the University of Victoria and was co-founder and Co-ordinator of the Bologna Summer Program for Co-operative Studies at the University of Bologna. John earned his BA at the University of Toronto with a Major degree in East Asian Studies and specialist studies in Sanskrit and Classical Greek. He holds a Masters Degree in Philosophy of Religion.

He has written many books, including:

• The Great Train Robbery, Tax Justice & Civil Economy, Between the Lines, 2013
• Humanizing the Economy – Co-operatives in the Age of Capital, New Society Publishers, 2010
• The Co-op Alternative: Civil Society and the Future of Public Services
  Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 2001
• Storylines: Oral Histories for Literacy Ontario Ministry of Education, 1987