Grace Quan

for City Council

Gastown resident with keen interest in the DTES – analysis & solutions

Grace has a range of experience with corporate governance, negotiation, leadership, team building and marketing. Her childhood connection to Chinatown inspires her commitment to making a difference in one of Vancouver’s earliest neighbourhoods.

What Grace will bring to City Council:

Experience with high levels of bureaucracy and an understanding of how to achieve change.
On-the-ground knowledge of Chinatown where she stayed in an SRO with her grandmother as a child.
As a Gastown resident, a keen interest in finding solutions to the problems facing the DTES.

Career-wise

Grace has an undergrad degree in political science and an MBA.
She spent ten years in the federal government working in foreign aid at the Canadian International Development Agency and in the Foreign Service, and was the Senior Advisor to the CFO of the Treasury Board of Canada, responsible for managing Canada's $250B dollar annual budget.
She is Co-founder, President and CEO of Hydrogen in Motion, Ltd.
She was recognized by 2018 BC Business magazine as one of the 50 Most Influential Women In STEM.
She has managed many large and small private enterprises including in the hotel and service sector.
Her volunteer activities include Vancouver Economic Commission (Advisory board), Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association (Chair of Governance Board), Sustainable Energy Council UK (Hydrogen Advisory Board).

Passions

Revitalization of Chinatown and preservation of culture and history, as well as economic development.
Self guided tours of Gastown, Chinatown and downtown to promote historic sites, give cultural history and context and provide economic returns from tourism for the local small businesses.

There’s More to Life

Grace was a marathon runner and used to run from her brother’s place in Surrey 40 kilometres to downtown to meet a friend for lunch and then run back.
Her family was the typical Chinese restaurant in a small town story (in Unity, Saskatchewan)
“My mother used to send my brother (9) and me (7) on a 24-hour train trip alone to Vancouver where we would be picked up by my grandmother. We spent many happy summers in Vancouver in the DTES fishing off the docks, shopping in Army and Navy and visiting the sites like Stanley Park. The arrival of the PNE was always bittersweet as it meant it was time to go home.”
Nowadays her favourite Vancouver spots are Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden, Stanley Park, and False Creek.

View all Candidates