Gary Gerbrandt

2023 STATUS:
LIBERATION SABBATICAL

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More about what I: LOVE • MAKE • DO

Short biography

My name is Gary D.J. Gerbrandt. My aim is to help make the world a better place, by building equal, decarbonized systems that reject the legacies of white supremacy and colonialism. I live in so-called Vancouver, S’ólh Téméxw, with my husband Hampton Neal and our dog Tegan. I am a genderfluid queer person with they/any pronouns, an ecosocialist, and a vegetarian. Email me: [email protected].

I was born in Kingston on October 24, 1992, to my loving parents Rob Gerbrandt and Bonnie North. I like to say that I grew up in Barrie, where we moved in 1999. From 2000 to 2010, I was a child actor in Toronto. In 2010, I was student council president and graduating class valedictorian at Innisdale Secondary School. In 2014, I graduated cum laude in history and ethnic studies from Harvard College.

From 2014-2018, I worked at Bain & Company in Toronto, and across North America; in 2016, I spent five months working in Johannesburg. After Bain, I lived in Oakland for UC Berkeley’s Master of City Planning program from 2018-2019, researching innovative home finance at the Terner Center. In September 2019, I dropped out, and me, Hampton, and Tegan spent six months on a 20,000-mile all-electric road-t.rip.

As COVID began in March 2020, we moved to Vancouver and I joined Rivian‘s Strategy team. I helped co-found Rainbow Rivianites and our Vancouver office, and lead work from product strategy to deep tech.
In 2021, I served as Vice Chair of Vancouver’s 2SLGBTQ+ Advisory Committee, with a radical queer perspective that centres Indigenous context, oppressed communities, climate truth, and queer futurism.

In 2023, I was laid off by Rivian, and began pursuing new paths to make a difference in the world through climate tech. I supported my close friend Rami Karabibar, CEO of EvenUp, through their Series B fundraise and announcement. Burnt out, I am currently on sabbatical.

Territorial acknowledgment

Per @Khelsilem‘s 2021 Territorial Acknowledgment Resolution:
I recognize these as xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories. I am committed to seeing their territories, including lands and waters, returned or compensated for. #LandBack

I have lived my entire life as a white settler on colonized land in what are now called Canada, America, and South Africa. I support restoring traditional resources, title, and stewardship to Indigenous peoples worldwide, who have built incredible cultural richness and protected our planet’s ecosystems, lands and waters since time immemorial.

From/to	Territories of	Colonial name	Context
1992-1999	Huron-Wendat & Haudenosaunee	Kingston, ON	Upper Canada Treaties
1999-2004, 2005-2010	Haudenosaunee, Ojibway/Chippewa, & Anishnabek	Barrie, ON	Upper Canada Treaties
2004	Anishnabek, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, & Ojibway/Chippewa	Brampton, ON	Upper Canada Treaties
2010-2014	Massachusett	Cambridge, MA	HUNAP website
2014-2016, 2017-2018	Ojibway, Anishnabek, & Mississaugas of the New Credit	Toronto, ON	Dish with One Spoon
2016	Khoisan	Johannesburg	Khoisan story
2018-2019	Chochenyo Ohlone	Oakland, CA	Ohlone land
2020-	xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, & səlilwətaɬ	Vancouver, BC	Land Back