Dynamic Athletic & Community Leader.

After graduating from KCSS in 1989, Shawn Burt went on to Study at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he majored in Philosophy and played four years of varsity hockey. Upon graduation, Shawn learned his mother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer; she later succumbed to the disease in 1998. This staggering loss soon became compounded when his father was also diagnosed with cancer a mere eight months after his mom’s passing. Shawn’s father passed away in 2002. The cumulative impact of these losses transformed Shawn’s life, and galvanized him to move in a direction that has resulted in his distinction.

After several years in the world of sports marketing, specifically working with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment as well as IMG, Shawn directed his effort and ambition into pursuing the role of Chief Hockey Officer at The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. Princess Margaret is world renowned in the field of cancer research and sits among the top five cancer research centres in the world.  Successful in his bid to use his passion for hockey to ease the loss of his parents to cancer, he launched, oversaw, and grew Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer [roadhockeytoconquercancer.ca] into the world’s largest event of its kind having established (and broken), two Guinness World Records! Cumulatively, in the ten (10) years of the event’s existence it has raised over $25M to fund cancer research .

Moving on from this accomplishment, Shawn directed his passion for hockey into growing university sport.  He specifically leveraged his experience as a student – athlete at an American Ivy League school to transform two prominent university sports programmes in Canada.

In 2017, Shawn and his family moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where he assumed the role of Chief Athletics Officer for Huskie Athletics, one of Canada’s most storied university athletics programs — huskies.usask.ca.  While in this role, he established the first ever Husky Hockey Academy programme, opened a $51M multi sports training facility, and built teams into national contenders.

In 2019 Shawn was recruited by McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario where he assumed the role of Director of Athletics and Recreation. Currently in this position, he devotes his professional expertise and passion for sport into transforming the student-athlete experience for today’s student-athletes. Maintaining a focus on the “whole student” and delivering programming that supports people physically, mentally, academically, and spiritually will enable MAC to maintain its leadership position as the “Stanford of Canada” within the USPORTS community — marauders.ca.

An irrepressible warrior in the fight to defeat cancer, Shawn also supports various on-campus & community fundraising and leadership initiatives that include mental health, SafeSport, and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in sport.

In his private time, he devotes his attention and energies to the many athletic pursuits of his daughter, Mckenna, and son, Ayden.

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