Toronto, April 29, 2026 – R-LABS is pleased to welcome Mary W. Rowe, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) to the R-LABS Industry Issue + Transformation (I+T) Council.
R-LABS is a venture builder focused exclusively on the real estate and housing industry that partners with entrepreneurs and corporate innovators to identify specific problems in the sector and create industry innovation through technology-enabled business models. These models develop solutions that can be piloted locally and scaled globally to drive meaningful change in real estate.
Founded in 2023, following a landmark leadership convening, the I+T Council was established to advance R-LABS’ mission by assisting in the generation, dissemination, and absorption of much-needed housing and real estate Industry Innovation.
The I+T Council continues to advance Industry Innovation, bringing together leaders to set the annual Industry Innovation Agenda in the real estate sector and help drive action, with a focus in 2025 on the industrialization of housing. CUI joins the other esteemed organizations, including HICC, RESCON, BILD, REALPAC, TRREB, Infrastructure Ontario, York University Development Corporation, Great Vancouver Realtors (GVR), Nch’ḵay̓ Development Corporation, CAGBC, FRPO, CreateTO, and Toronto Region Board of Trade.
CUI is a national charity driving place-based solutions to make communities better places to live for everyone. CUI’s mission is to work collaboratively with partners to address urgent social, economic, environmental, and cultural challenges while supporting long-term resilience, vibrancy, and prosperity in communities across Canada. Through research and projects including Main Street Canada, CityTalk, and the Applied Solutions Lab, CUI works at the intersection of housing, infrastructure, local economies, and climate resilience, generating the evidence base and community-level intelligence that drives smarter, more equitable urban policy. This engagement with R-LABS will align efforts to bring innovative, community-grounded solutions to Canada’s most pressing real estate and housing challenges, strengthening the link between sector innovation and the communities those innovations are designed to serve.
“Canada is becoming a Global Cluster of Innovation in Real Estate and Housing,” said George Carras, CEO, R-LABS. “Mary’s unparalleled understanding of how cities work and for whom, brings a new dimension to our Council. Her ability to connect policy, community, and practice across Canada will expand the Council’s capabilities and help sharpen Industry Innovation’s focus to deliver a real difference in people’s lives. We are thrilled to welcome her and CUI to the I+T Council.”
“Canada’s housing system is failing Canadians, and private sector innovation is a big part of the equation for transformative change. R-LABS is an innovator and gets this part right: solutions to the Gordion knot of challenges in the housing and real estate industry cannot be developed in silos if we want to generate lasting and equitable outcomes across the country. We at CUI know first-hand the critical role that cross-industry collaboration plays in creating interventions that work, and I am excited to join the I+T Council as we face Canada’s housing crisis,” said Mary W. Rowe, President and CEO of CUI.
Mary is an impassioned civic leader with more than 30 years of diverse experience across the business, government, non-profit, and philanthropy sectors in Canada and the United States. Prior to joining CUI in 2019, she served as Executive Vice President of the Municipal Art Society of New York, one of America’s oldest civic advocacy organizations dedicated to the built environment. Earlier in her career, she led Ideas That Matter, a publishing program inspired by the work of urbanist Jane Jacobs and played a central role in community resilience initiatives following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita along the Gulf Coast. Under her leadership, CUI has grown into Canada’s foremost national platform for urbanism, with an expanded network spanning government, industry, community, and city-building professions.
Mary’s expertise at the intersection of urban policy, housing, infrastructure, and community resilience will be invaluable to the I+T Council as we advance innovation and tackle the critical industry challenges facing Canada’s cities and communities.
For more information about the Canadian Urban Institute, please visit www.canurb.org.
For more information about R-LABS, please visit https://rlabs.ca or contact [email protected].