Michael Van Pelt continues as chief executive officer of Cardus

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

8 January, 2024

HAMILTON, ON – Cardus is pleased to announce the appointment of Brian Dijkema as its Canadian President effective January 1, 2024. In this newly created role, Dijkema will oversee and grow Cardus’ external activity, including stakeholder relations, policy advancement, communication, and marketing.

Brian will continue to serve as a member of the Cardus executive team, engage the Cardus community of patrons, and act as senior editor for Comment, Cardus’ flagship journal of public theology for the common good.

Dijkema’s expanded role will require his full suite of skills, including his deep understanding of Cardus’ mission and intellectual direction and the ability to embed good scholarship into the very practical reality of day-to-day public life and policy debates.

“This is another strategic appointment for Cardus and represents a bold, new step toward building the common good across North America,” said Cardus CEO Michael Van Pelt. “We are thrilled to have Brian take on this new role.  He represents the hospitable posture and tenacity required to position Cardus in the public square. Further, he brings the right mix of expertise to help us expand Cardus’ creative policy perspectives and cultural engagement in an increasingly complicated and diverse public square.”

Cardus Executive Vice-President and Co-Founder Ray Pennings also welcomed Dijkema to his new role.

“Brian’s appointment represents the breadth of leadership capacity at Cardus,” said Pennings. “Michael and I are delighted to see a new generation of leadership stepping up and charting the growth and flourishing of a think tank that’s as vitally needed today as it was at its inception 24 years ago.”

Dijkema started working at Cardus in 2011, taking responsibility for Cardus’ research in work and economics as well as serving as an editor of Comment. It wasn’t long before his energetic and effusive personality led him toward a greater role as a thought leader in Canadian media through numerous op-ed articles and interviews. He has enthusiastically appeared before Parliamentary committees and city councils, as well as industry and professional associations.

Prior to joining Cardus, Dijkema worked for almost a decade in labour relations in Canada after completing his master’s degree. He has also done work on international human rights, with a focus on labour, economic, and social rights in Latin America and China.

Dijkema is an active participant in civil society, serving on a variety of university and local school boards, including a recent classical/Charlotte Mason start-up in Hamilton. He is very involved in his local church and in various roles in his neighbourhood and city, Hamilton, where he lives with wife and four children.

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MEDIA INQUIRIES
Daniel Proussalidis
Cardus – Director of Communications
613-899-5174
media@cardus.ca

Cardus – Imagination toward a thriving society

Cardus is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to clarifying and strengthening, through research and dialogue, the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good.