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About Us
We help organizations close the gap between setting a new direction and the everyday work of getting there.
We help organizations close the gap between setting a new direction and the everyday work of getting there.
Blueprint began in 2012 with a simple conviction: the status quo doesn't have to dictate the future, and the best way to change it is to put people at the centre of every decision.
Over close to 20 years of working with public and private purpose-driven organizations across Manitoba, even before Blueprint was born, we keep seeing the same problem: organizations set a bold direction, then struggle to land it. The plan is approved, the retreat ends, and the day-to-day doesn't change. We built Blueprint around closing that gap.
We set up the rooms where complex, multi-party decisions get made, and we stay for what comes after, holding the continuity that keeps a multi-year file together, working alongside teams to turn strategy into how the work actually gets done, and helping leaders carry an issue forward with a clear, credible voice. Many of our client relationships have lasted nearly a decade, through leadership changes on both sides of the table. That kind of trust is something we don't take for granted.
We work as an extension of your team, not a consultancy holding the keys. We use technology where it genuinely helps so that the tools serve the strategy, never the other way around. We deliberately leave teams more capable than we found them, because the real measure of our work is what your team can do without us. That's how Blueprint was built, and it's how we're growing: a team of strategists, facilitators, and builders designed to be bigger than any one of us.
We're here to strengthen the organizations that Manitoba relies on across the public and private sectors.
The organizations we serve are carrying bigger mandates, tighter funding, thinner teams, and a future that keeps shifting. We're here so they don't have to carry it alone. That means being in the work with them, not advising from a distance, and it means leaving their teams stronger, their leaders more confident, and leaving the know-how firmly in their hands.
Whether you're a province-wide institution navigating a complex, multi-year file or a smaller organization planning its next chapter, we've built ways of working that put transformative strategies within reach.
Founder & Lead Strategist
Michelle Kuly is the founder and CEO of Blueprint. She has spent more than 20 years helping organizations navigate change through public engagement, strategic planning, and facilitation. She built Blueprint on a simple conviction: that the status quo doesn't have to dictate the future, and that by listening deeply, embracing technology responsibly, and putting people at the centre, we can create capacity and capability in the way we work. A past Chair of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce and founding president of the Prairies Chapter of IAP2, she has spent her career building the institutions she wants to see, not just advising them.
At Blueprint, Michelle makes sure the team is helping clients solve the problem that drove her to start this consultancy: organizations set a bold direction, then struggle to land it. As CEO, she sets Blueprint's direction, assembles a team whose depth runs from complex convening to embedded transformation, and shapes the methodology and tools the whole practice runs on. She still steps into the rooms where the stakes are highest and no one quite agrees yet, helping a group hear each other and find the path forward together. Michelle is known for sound judgment on complex decisions, for a steady focus on the people the work is really for, and for building a firm designed to be bigger than its founder.
Sector Development & Transformation
Andrea Aiello is a senior leader with nearly three decades of experience spanning industry relations, workforce development, and strategic transformation. She has built her career on moving large, complex groups from approved direction to operational reality, most recently designing a new industry relations function at Manitoba Innovates. While at Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (Manitoba), she led the implementation of the province's inaugural manufacturing sector council strategy, reaching 68,000 industry employees. She built the people systems at Palliser Furniture that operationalized strategic plans across three countries. Her training includes Innovation Engineering and the International Visitors Leadership Program, a U.S. State Department program.
At Blueprint, Andrea convenes the rooms where industry, government, and post-secondary partners have to move together and then stays for the structural work inside the organization: cascading strategy into team-level goals, building the performance and process discipline that turns a plan into how people actually work, and improving the systems where collaboration breaks down. She operates from a simple conviction that most problems are process problems, not people problems, so she fixes the structure, and lets teams find their footing inside it. Andrea is known for turning messy, ambiguous files into something concrete and actionable, and for building programs and ways of working that take hold and last.
Complex Engagement & Operations
Rose Regier is a senior engagement and project lead with more than 10 years of experience across government-funded organizations, small businesses, and post-secondary education. Her track record runs from managing the $2.1M marketing campaign for the 2017 Canada Summer Games to producing complex creative projects on tight budgets and timelines. She holds certifications in Public Participation from IAP2 Canada and Experience Management from Qualtrics and previously taught in the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytechnic, where she led the Public Relations specialization and trained emerging communicators in strategic planning, crisis and issues management, and leadership.
At Blueprint, Rose leads complex, cross-sector client projects with structure, clarity, and the kind of thoughtful coordination that keeps ambitious work on track. She steers complex, multi-party engagements from behind the scenes, building the systems and relationships that turn a plan into how a team operates day to day, and shaping the clear, credible communications that carry an issue forward. She has a rare gift for taking a tangle of competing pressures and naming the through-line, so a team knows what matters and feels it's in good hands. Rose is known for her ability to understand people and synthesize complex information by turning the complicated into the clear.
Execution & Transformation
Pam Grahame is a professional facilitator, coach, and leadership trainer with more than 25 years of commercial and operations experience. She came to facilitation after two decades leading teams in the steel industry, including a lead role on large scale multi-disciplinary enterprise system implementation, so she understands the operational reality a plan has to survive, not just the room it's made in. She is accredited through the ICA Associates Professional Facilitator Program, is a certified coach through Destination Leadership, holds Lean process-improvement and PROSCI change management credentials, and has led strategic planning and engagement work for organizations across Manitoba.
At Blueprint, Pam designs and leads the sessions where groups with very different starting points find their way to a decision they can all stand behind — and then does the deeper work that makes the decision stick. She embeds with client teams to map and improve the processes where work breaks down, translates strategy into the goals and habits of the teams who have to deliver it, and builds leaders along the way through coaching and training. Pam is known for building rooms where people say what they really think, and for turning that candour into ways of working a team will still stand behind months later.
Policy & Government Relations
Anne Janes is a bilingual senior executive with more than 20 years of experience across provincial and federal governments, specializing in policy, regulation, and public engagement. She has led high-profile public issues, crisis communications, and complex multi-jurisdictional initiatives, with deep strength in strategic policy development, legislative and governance reform, and inter-governmental negotiation. With a Master of Public Administration, Anne holds certifications in Transformational Leadership and Senior Leadership Excellence from the Schulich School of Business. Anne has served as a sessional lecturer at the University of Manitoba in both the Master of Public Administration and Master of Health Administration programs.
At Blueprint, Anne anchors the work that moves an issue from analysis to action. She shapes the policy and government-relations strategy that gets an agenda heard, guiding the multi-year initiatives and high-stakes public consultations where many interests have to be reconciled, and helping organizations align their governance and decision-making with the direction they've set. She reads the machinery of government the way few people can, and pairs it with the judgment to steer politically sensitive files without losing the people at their centre. Anne is known for building high-performing teams and for navigating politically sensitive files with sound judgment, emotional intelligence, and strong political acumen.
Engagement & Communications
Abiola Agbayewa is a communications and engagement professional with more than 10 years of experience spanning strategic communications, digital media, storytelling, and community engagement. She has led integrated strategies that promoted programs, deepened public engagement, and expanded visibility with underrepresented communities across Canada. An award-winning writer, podcaster, and editor — with grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Winnipeg Arts Council — she pairs a sharp editorial eye with a Master of Arts in developmental psychology, a combination that makes her unusually good at understanding what people mean, not just what they say.
At Blueprint, Abiola works alongside leaders at the front end of strategy, drawing out what's really going on through interviews and discovery, finding and naming the underlying question in a room full of competing ideas, and mapping the moves that follow. She has a strategist's habit of zooming out to see the whole board, and a writer's discipline for making the direction clear enough that people can act on it. She is as comfortable navigating a high-tension conversation as she is shaping the messaging that carries a decision out into the world. Abiola is known for turning complex, sensitive material into strategy and writing that land as clear, human, and true to the people behind them.
Governance & Advocacy
Etoile Stewart is a senior advisor and communications leader with more than 20 years of experience as a trusted advisor to decision-makers in private and public sectors, including cabinet members at every level of government. She holds a Master of Arts in communication and public policy and holds the ICD.D designation granted by the ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program. She is a past Organization of the Year honouree through IAP2 Canada and is the current Vice-Chair of the Telefilm Canada Board of Directors. She is that rare person who is equally at home with community leaders and executives, with a track record managing key projects for the Province of Manitoba, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and other innovative local and national organizations.
At Blueprint, Etoile advises leaders and boards at the moment direction has to become action. She brings the governance experience to make decision-making work, and the political fluency to know how a file will land before it does. A strategic thinker, a direct communicator, and a natural connector of people, she moves many-sided files forward without losing the relationships that make them work. Etoile is known for managing competing interests with candour and care, and for turning politically complex situations into momentum.
Advocacy & Stakeholder Relations
Liz Cron is a marketing and communications leader with more than 10 years of experience across non-profit, government, and private-sector organizations. She spent nine years at the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, rising to Vice-President, where she led programs, marketing, and corporate development — securing $1.3M in sponsorships and grants for an award-winning DEI initiative, leading a $1.5M fundraising campaign, and building the member and partner relationships that an association's influence depends on. She holds a joint Communications degree and diploma from the University of Winnipeg and Red River College.
At Blueprint, Liz works with organizations on the question behind every communications challenge: does what we say, and how we work, actually match what we stand for? She helps associations and member-driven organizations sharpen their message and mobilize the people behind it, and she coaches teams through modernizing how they work. A proud daughter of Filipinx immigrants and a longtime community builder in Winnipeg, Liz is known for connecting strategy to the people it's meant to serve, and for moving good plans from the page into the daily work of a team.
To reduce our environmental footprint, we’ve transitioned our office to a shared co-working space with other small businesses, minimizing resource use and energy consumption.
We subscribe to a corporate car share, encourage active transportation, source environmentally sustainable suppliers, and continuously seek new ways to reduce our carbon footprint.
We also actively seek partnerships with non-profits that support sustainability initiatives in communities, ensuring our work aligns with organizations making a tangible environmental impact.
When meeting in person, we prioritize physical and mental well-being—whether through outdoor walking meetings or choosing venues that align with our sustainability values.
Blueprint operates on Treaty 1 Territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. We recognize that Winnipeg’s water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, a community deeply impacted by colonial infrastructure decisions.
Reconciliation is a continuous journey. We acknowledge the harm Indigenous communities have faced and commit to Call to Action #92, integrating reconciliation into our business practices. This means ongoing education, building relationships, and actively seeking Indigenous suppliers, contractors, and collaborators.
We are committed to consulting Indigenous peoples, ensuring their voices shape decisions that impact them. As members of the Indigenous Chamber of Commerce and The Winnipeg Chamber’s Truth and Reconciliation Advisory Council, we take action to create meaningful change.
At Blueprint, we put people at the heart of every decision. We believe the best strategies are shaped by human insight, lived experience, and inclusive conversation—not algorithms.
We use generative AI to support (not replace) our work with teams. These tools help us reduce time spent on repetitive tasks—so we can spend more time on what matters most: guiding teams through meaningful decision-making, building alignment, and unlocking strategic clarity.
We handle all data with care. Our use of AI is grounded in clear protocols that protect privacy and confidentiality. We’re transparent with our clients about when and how we use these tools, and we continually review our practices to ensure they’re responsible, ethical, and human-first.
We also believe in sharing what we learn. That’s why we co-developed Neralake.com, a new platform that makes AI-powered planning tools more accessible to nonprofits and social impact teams. Neralake helps small but mighty teams turn ideas into action—combining strategic learning with flexible, cost-effective tools designed to grow with you.
If you’re curious how AI can support your work (without compromising your values), we’d love to talk.
✔️ Human-first, always: AI never leads. Our team drives every project.
✔️ Oversight every step: All outputs are reviewed by real people.
✔️ Time savings = more value for you: Less admin = more strategy.
✔️ We meet you where you're at: If you’re unsure about AI, we’ll talk it through together.
To learn more about our 8 Ethical Commitments to AI Use, visit our free resource guide Crafting Your Organization's Ethical AI Policy.
We are committed to complying with the Accessibility Standard for Customer Service under The Accessibility for Manitobans Act.
Our policies, practices and measures reflect the principles of dignity, independence, integration, and equal opportunity for people with disabilities.
If a barrier to accessing our services cannot be removed, we seek to provide alternate ways to access the services.
Blueprint is committed to the dignity and worth of every person and to create a climate of understanding and mutual respect in our office and the wider communities we work with.
Our organization is committed to promoting respectful conduct, tolerance and diversity at all times. We are committed to doing the work required to be accountable to our community and providing an inclusive, welcoming environment for all.