Alden E. Habacon (he/him/his)
Principal, Diversity & Inclusion Strategist, Facilitator, Consultant

In a nutshell…

I'm a dad of two amazing young boys. Married into a Chinese Canadian family. Moved to Canada from Manila at the age of two. Lived in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Regina. Joined the Canadian Army Reserve at seventeen. Oldest of three boys. Was once the youngest senior manager at CBC. Led intercultural commitment at UBC and currently, Senior Advisor. Recently co-produced a reality real estate show. Publisher of an online magazine and mentor to young writers. Was mentored by businessperson/philanthropist Milton Wong and architect Bing Thom. Co-produced/authored Milton's autobiography. Learned to change the world at SFU. Consultant, strategist, facilitator, and public speaker. Interculturalist and passionate about Canada.

For over seventeen years I have been helping organizations increase diversity and achieve real culture change towards inclusive excellence. I help executive and senior leadership, professionals, and educators meet the demands of a rapidly diversifying workplace, community or classroom.

Biography

Alden E. Habacon (he/him/his) is one of Canada’s leading diversity and inclusion strategists and facilitators. He is well known in this field and highly regarded for his fourteen years of impact, and his innovative work around inclusive leadership, unconscious bias and intercultural training.

He works with leadership in a wide range of professions and sectors throughout Canada, including the legal community, social services, the public sector, municipalities, first responders, and large private corporations.

Over the last few years he has delivered professional development to faculty and staff in almost every university in British Columbia and currently works with many universities across Canada, the US and Hong Kong. He is currently a Visiting Diversity & Inclusion Fellow at the University of Delaware.

In 2010 he was appointed by UBC’s President, Stephen Toope, to lead the University's commitment to intercultural understanding, where he was the Director, Intercultural Understanding until the end of 2015, and Senior Advisor, Intercultural Understanding from 2016 to 2017.

At UBC, he has provided intercultural skills development for the UBC Okanagan School of Nursing, the College of Health Sciences, the Masters of Public Policy and Global Affairs Program, the Graduate Program of the Peter A. Allard School of Law, and the Masters of Management and MBA Programs of the Sauder School of Business. He has also provided intercultural skills training to students in the CPA program at the SFU Beedie School of Business.

I deliver non-threatening, yet powerful, training that is both inspiring and practical. I am a thought leader in the area of inclusive leadership, disrupting implicit bias, removing systemic bias in recruitment and advancement, intercultural skills, managing multicultural teams and allyship.

Prior to UBC, he led the national diversity strategy for the CBC Television Network, and has been lecturing at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism on diversity in media for the last ten years.

He is the recipient of the 2010 Power of Peace Award of the YMCA of Greater Vancouver, and the 2011 Leadership Honouree, in the area of Arts and Media, of the North American Association of Asian Professionals (NAAAP) of Vancouver. In 2012 Alden was the recipient of the Maharlika Award in Leadership, and is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal Award for his work in multiculturalism and intercultural understanding.

As a fierce advocate for inclusion, Alden has served two terms on the Board of S.U.C.C.E.S.S., one of Canada’s largest immigrant settlement agencies, and donates his time at various men’s prisons in British Columbia.

Alden has lived in Manila, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Regina and Burnaby (in that order), and currently resides in Vancouver with his wife and three sons.

I specialize in leading men and male leaders through difficult conversations about equity, privilege and the implications and expectations of a more inclusive and diverse workplace. 

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