Credentials

Biography

Through his tireless work, Sam continues to be committed to the betterment of communities.  In 2012 he received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and in 2006, he received the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award for leadership and community involvement.  His passion is to inspire and motivate others in their personal and professional development through his many adventures and reflections on life’s journey. 

Since 2004, Sam found his calling at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser in student engagement, recruitment, community relations, alumni engagement and teaching.  His leadership role has always been to enhance the business student/alumni experience personally and professionally so they complement their degree and develop their personal brand while representing the university throughout the community.  Either as a mentor/coach to a single student, case competition team or speaking to hundreds as a keynote speaker, he continues to share his experiences through storytelling and has helped thousands in the pursuit of their dreams.  Sam has been creative and innovative in his approach to teaching, student/alumni engagement and has created countless opportunities for his audiences.  Since 2009, Sam has been teaching an organizational behaviour course at Fraser International College at FIC and starting in spring 2015, he will be teaching at the Surrey campus on behalf of SFU.  He blends the academic theories with real situations and experiences to provide a rich and engaging lecture.

Prior to the university, Sam was part of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Bid Committee as the Community Consultation Manager and was responsible for providing public information about the bid and building relationships with the various communities.  Before the Bid, Sam was responsible for road safety at ICBC and community relations and was always out in the community speaking to audiences at various levels to reduce harm in his region. 

Combined with his professional and volunteer experiences, Sam has become an accomplished speaker/story teller and provided a TEDxSFU talk about ‘Discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary’.  In 2014, he published his first ever book about Personal storytelling.  With 30 + volunteer organizations that Sam has been involved with from the board, advisory to volunteer level, he has dedicated countless hours to his communities.  In 2002, Sam was awarded Leadership Vancouver’s Outstanding Grad award.  In 2007, he received the BC Sugar Achievement Award and more recently, in 2011, the Leaders of Tomorrow organization selected him as the Mentor of the Year. 

Sam completed his Masters in Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter in England and has a double major in Business Administration and Political Science from SFU.  He also completed a nine month leadership program through Leadership Vancouver, has his Human Resources certificate from BCIT, completed his adult education designation with the Vancouver Community College. 

Sam consistently strives to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary and his journey is documented at www.sam-thiara.com   His favourite saying and what he lives by: “Everyone’s life is an autobiography, but you have to make yours worth reading!”