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Jennifer Keesmaat
CEO at The Keesmaat Group
Professional Background
Jennifer Keesmaat is a renowned urban planner whose career spans over 15 years, made impactful contributions to city-building initiatives in both public and private sectors. A thought leader and advocate for transformative urban change, she has earned prestigious accolades including recognition by Macleans as one of the 'most powerful people in Canada' and being named one of Toronto Life's 'most influential' individuals. A testament to her extensive expertise and innovative approaches, Jennifer served as Toronto’s Chief City Planner, where she garnered praise for her collaborative strategies that exemplified a forward-thinking approach to urban development.
In addition to her pivotal role in municipal planning, Jennifer Keesmaat has taken on a notable academic position as a Distinguished Visitor in Residence Emeritus at the University of Toronto. Her commitment to sculpting the future of cities continues through her involvement with various advisory and expert panels, including the Urban Land Institute of Toronto and the International Panel of Experts for the Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority. Furthermore, she contributes to the President’s Advisory Council at Ohio State University, demonstrating her influence and dedication to advancing urban studies both nationally and globally.
In her capacity as CEO of The Keesmaat Group, she leads a diverse team of urban experts who share her vision for creating sustainable and inclusive urban spaces. She is also a co-founder of Markee Developments, where she and her partner Jason Marks are actively engaged in the development of more than 2,000 rental homes, aiming to address pressing housing challenges in urban settings.
Education and Achievements
Jennifer's educational background includes a Combined Honours degree in English and Philosophy from Western University and a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies, specializing in Planning, Politics, and Planning from York University. This strong academic foundation has significantly contributed to her deep understanding of urban issues, a key asset in her professional journey as an urban planner.
Throughout her illustrious career, Jennifer has made substantial inroads into diverse areas of urban planning. Her expertise is particularly recognized in transit planning, sustainable economic development, housing development, heritage preservation, communications, and the formulation of strategies that foster complete communities. During her tenure with municipalities across Canada and internationally, she has led the development of urban design guidelines and comprehensive city strategies that advocate for dense and walkable communities.
In 2018, Jennifer made headlines as she ran for Mayor of Toronto, championing a progressive platform aimed at mitigating the city’s housing crisis through innovative solutions, including a Rent-to-Own program and constructing community-oriented spaces. Her vision also encompassed launching Cultural Hubs to enhance neighborhood renewal, enhancing city street designs to prioritize the needs of vulnerable populations such as children, seniors, pedestrians, and cyclists, and creating a transit-friendly, vibrant waterfront community by dismantling the Gardiner Expressway. Such initiatives illustrate her unwavering commitment to creating inclusive urban environments that uplift all residents.
Jennifer's insight into urban development is further amplified through her popular podcast, “Invisible City,” where she discusses pressing urban issues and engages listeners in conversations about the future of cities. The podcast serves as a valuable resource for anyone interested in urbanism and city planning, showcasing her depth of knowledge and passion for community engagement.
Achievements
- Recognized as a leading urban planner in Canada.
- Awarded honors from Macleans as one of the 'most powerful people in Canada'.
- Named as one of the 'most influential' by Toronto Life.
- Honored among the top Women of Influence in Canada.
- Ran a progressive campaign for Mayor of Toronto in 2018 focused on housing and community wellbeing.
- Led transformative planning initiatives while serving as Chief City Planner for Toronto.
Community Engagement and Podcasting
In her pursuit of elevating urban discussions, Jennifer Keesmaat is also known for her involvement in grassroots and community-driven planning initiatives. She believes in engaging with residents to ensure that their voices are heard in the planning process, thus empowering them to partake in the conversation about their neighborhoods. Her acclaimed podcast, Invisible City, allows her to bridge the gap between planners and the public, making complex urban concepts accessible and relatable to everyday citizens.
In summary, Jennifer Keesmaat embodies the spirit of progressive urban leadership. With her forward-thinking vision, extensive professional experience, and deep academic grounding, she continues to forge paths toward creating sustainable, livable, and equitable urban communities across Canada and beyond.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
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Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.