Gary Stairs, founder/CEO is responsible for Stellar's vision, finance, partnerships and sales/revenue. His prior success was recognized as a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal recipient for outstanding contributions to Canada's IT community and he is experienced in governance, sectoral development and business startups in several provinces and nationally. Gary is a visionary who continually positions the province of New Brunswick and has raised our profile in areas of e-learning, mobile technologies, crowdfunding, and social media. He is an innovator in supporting social causes, with the development of ground-breaking “apps” for the New Brunswick Nature Trust, and leading a crowd-funding financial drive for homeless in the wake of the Isaac’s Way fire. He has been successful, through many iterations, putting Atlantic Canada on the map in a national or international context, bringing key players here, and reaching out as a keynote speaker for conferences and national meetings.

On the business development side, Gary is proven in acquiring prestigious global clients such as United Nations Peacekeeping, Mercedes-Benz Nordics, Mercedes Trucks Asia, Daimler AG, the LA Times, Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation, the Children’s Hospital of LA, the USC Game Innovation Lab, DFO Canada and the Home Office of the United Kingdom and is a recognized innovator. Gary led Stellar’s win of the NB Premier's Innovation Challenge and the national Connected to the Community Award from the Canadian Telecommunications Association. From its inception in 2002 (as Red Hot Learning), the company has produced innovative products that have reached 600,000+ online learners in 23 languages including Mi’kmaq. Most recently, the company has been developing a new economic development and digital transformation initiative featuring Software as a Service (SaaS) since March 2023.

At the heart of it, Stellar Futures sees economic and community development in terms of equitability, regeneration, and community resilience – here in Atlantic Canada. For a number of years, Gary also served on the National Education Marketing Roundtable of Canada - giving both export and domestic market insights that help our emerging Impact-based Warning and Forecast Service.

Most importantly, he has decades of regional and national experience in natural disaster response, nuclear emergency management, fire marshal's office, NB911 and (national) homeland security. Added to that, in 2023, his family was directly impacted by flooding and wildfires here on the South Shore. They were (ineffectively) notified and evacuated.  Thus, Gary speaks with commitment and authority for helping communities anticipate disasters, adapt to climate change and 'bounce back, better' with resilience. It is a field where relationships and solid reputation will always matter. He holds an MA in Communication Studies (Summa Cum Laude) with a minor in environmental law from Simon Fraser University where he received the President’s Research Award for his thesis on Fundy Tidal Power.

Gary believes you cannot protect the oceans without solving climate change, and you cannot solve climate change without protecting the oceans. Likewise, you cannot protect the people without addressing both oceans protection and solving climate change.  Ultimately, these overarching themes each have immediate and long-term dimensions; they demand both the ‘long lens’ and ‘bifocal’ perspectives.