Simon Palamar

Background

About Simon Palamar

Since a young age, I’ve been fascinated with puzzles, mysteries, and understanding the “why” behind every decision. I’ve put this curiosity to work throughout my life: it led me to learn how to restore heritage homes in southern Ontario, to graduate school in Ottawa, to working with governments around the world, and to government relations work in Calgary. The common thread through my working life is a desire to build relationships – whether they’re between people, companies, charities, or governments – so we can tackle big challenges together. When you have a business relationship built on a solid foundation of trust, it becomes easier to dig into messy, complex problems. Disagreements become trivial and surmountable, because you can have frank, honest discussions. Managing risks becomes much simpler, since trusted partners don’t shy away from admitting what’s worrying them and what’s standing in the way of success. This desire to build durable, lasting, win-win relationships has given me the privilege to work on projects that have brought governments together and that have brought millions of dollars of funding to innovation initiatives in Calgary, Alberta. Outside of work, scrambling up the Canadian Rockies’ shorter peaks is my guilty pleasure. I love that what appears to be a simple task (climb the mountain!) always throws the unexpected my way, be it washed out trails, curious wildlife, or a friendly little snow squall. Today, my most important task is raising my daughter. I’m teaching her to grow her own food and we’re working on the world’s worst daddy-daughter heavy metal band.