Kevin Cougler

Kevin Cougler is the CEO of STEM Camp, a program he founded in 2013. With a long history of working in the education management and nonprofit industries, his vision for STEM Camp is to inspire young people to consider career choices in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

As of 2020, Kevin and his team have expanded STEM Camp to include 70 sites (some of which offer bilingual), which has directly impacted the lives of over 20,000 Canadian youth and has inspired young females to become interested in technology.

In 2019, Kevin founded Sports Discovery Camp (SDC), a program which he launched to solve the social problem of children quitting sports by the time they are 12 years of age. As the leader of SDC, Kevin and his team help to design activities that focus on soft skills first (building confidence, respect, teamwork, leadership) and technical skills second.

Previously, as the Executive Director of Partners In Research, Kevin expanded the Virtual Researcher On Call (VROC) program by developing and implementing the first videoconferencing network in Canada that connected K-12 schools to post-secondary institutions. He was also a founding partner of an initiative called Connected North which connected northern Inuit schools through videoconferencing. In 2008-2009, Kevin was presented with an Outstanding Achievement Award from Contact North for the VROC program.

Passionate about youth sports, Kevin has volunteered as a Level Two Certified badminton coach at 17 elementary and secondary schools in Canada and at the Woodstock Badminton Club since 2014. He has served at the board level with the Woodstock Badminton Club, including three terms as President and as Youth Director. He currently serves as the High Performance Director with Badminton Ontario. Kevin has also volunteered for many years in his community as a basketball coach.

Some of Kevin’s professional roles have included a partner at Girard Engineering, where he is responsible for evaluating business practices and providing strategic direction for the organization and as the founding member of Click, a software and computer hardware solutions company.

As a proud father and husband, Kevin enjoys spending time with his family. He is a 1993 graduate of McMaster University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities, and attended Western University in 2017, where he studied marketing and earned a Professional Certificate in Leadership.