Steve DeRoy, MSc

Experience

Steve (he/him) is from the buffalo clan, is Anishinaabe/Saulteaux, and is from the Ebb and Flow First Nation and Lake Manitoba First Nation, both in Manitoba. He is the Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Director, and past President of The Firelight Group. Steve founded the annual Indigenous Mapping Workshop and Indigenous Mapping Collective.

Steve is an award-winning Anishinaabe professional and entrepreneur with expertise in mapping and geographic information sciences, business development, natural resources management, and project management. He has applied his expertise to lead Indigenous Knowledge Research for numerous Indigenous groups affected by large-scale energy developments. Since 1998, Steve has mentored Indigenous practitioners, conducted risk assessments, built decision-support systems and monitoring tools, supported land claims, developed best practices, established consultation processes, facilitated community engagement and planning approaches, and supported negotiations between Indigenous communities, governments and industries. Steve is an international speaker and presents at numerous conferences, university lectures and events. Steve has supported both Google and Apple to ensure Indigenous lands are represented on their maps.

Steve is a board member of the Canadian Urban Institute, an advisory board member of the Institute for Integrative Conservation at William & Mary, a moderator of the Open Forum on Participatory Geographic Information Systems and Technologies, and a trainer of the Google Earth Outreach Trainers Network.