Julie Sommerfreund

Julie is a Principal, Innovation at SHS. Julie is a passionate and experienced innovation designer. Prior to joining SHS, Julie worked at The Moment for 10 years, in various roles, and most recently as Principal, Innovation Design / Vulnerable Challenges where she led high performing teams of senior practitioners working with organizations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors to address complex challenges. Julie started her career as an environmental scientist and program developer working at Pollution Probe and Toronto Public Health. After confronting the limitations of the status quo approaches to problem solving, she went back to school for a Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation and hasn’t looked back.

She has over a decade of innovation experience working with organizations such as Evergreen, Toronto International Film Festival, World Vision International, Toronto Public Health, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Access Copyright, The Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario, Hamilton Health Sciences, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, Findhelp, Ontario 211, and Public Mobile (Telus). .Julie’s accomplishments include designing new programs to increase charitable giving for a global charity, changing how veteran benefits are processed, and implementing Canada’s first municipal environmental reporting bylaw. Julie also led a collaborative process with senior leadership and staff of a national publishing organization to build a strategic plan for innovation to remain relevant and create a viable business model. Most recently she led the shift of the senior leadership teams of one of Canada’s leading non-profit organizations into their clearest and most aligned organization vision and Big Audacious Goal that has their board and staff excited and committed to the future.