Ronald Schlegel is an academic, innovator, entrepreneur, visionary, and philanthropist. After a 24 year academic career, he turned his focus to business and philanthropy. He founded the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging, focused on seniors’ care, and the Homewood Research Institute, focused on mental health/addictions. Through deep collaborations with academia and with practice sites, and by earmarking revenue from his businesses into building research capacity, Ron currently supports the academic careers of over 20 applied researchers, the Living Classroom model, and Living Research Environments. His model of incubation-acceleration-mobilization ensures that the work of his enterprises is grounded in evidence, spurs innovation, and spreads widely to benefit Canadians everywhere.