Joseph (Joe) Roberts (born November 25, 1966) also known as the "Skidrow CEO" is a Canadian motivational speaker, author, youth homelessness advocate and co-founder of The Push for Change Foundation.
At 19, Roberts relocated to British Columbia and found himself homeless on the streets of Vancouver's Downtown East-side, pushing a shopping cart and collecting recyclables to support his drug dependency.
He graduated on the Dean’s list and won the Laurie H. Cameron Memorial Award for academic excellence [2] with a combined GPA of 3.94.
[4] After graduating college, Joe Roberts moved back to Vancouver in 1996 and began a career in B2B sales for Minolta Canada selling business equipment.
Joe quickly advanced and was able to leverage experience that he acquired while homeless[5] "I transferred a lot of the skills I learned from hustling on the street and applied them to business," Roberts said in an interview with the Vancouver Province newspaper.
Mindware Design Communications was an early adopting content developer shortly after the internet gained traction and popularity.
Joe is an expert on resiliency and managing change and often speaks on issues related to mental health, addiction and homelessness.
At these events, students, families, police officers, government officials, and youth focused agencies raised money, heard Roberts speak and felt inspired to make change in their communities.