André Darmanin (MPA), Founder & Managing Partner at Cultural Nexus Group, brings nearly two decades of public sector experience spanning municipal government, provincial policy, and independent consulting to engagements requiring strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and organizational transformation. Now based in Toronto, he has held roles with the City of Brampton, the City of Edmonton, and the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, where he contributed to Official Plan reviews, provincial planning policy development, implementation of the Ministry’s Anti-Racism Action Plan, and intergovernmental relations efforts supporting municipalities across Ontario.
As founder of Cultural Nexus Group, André led the Ottawa Community Housing Tenant Engagement and Inclusion Plan, designing culturally responsive consultation processes for newcomer, francophone, Indigenous, and racialized populations across diverse community settings. That engagement employed mixed-methods research — including multilingual focus groups with community members and staff, gap analysis against established benchmarks — and produced a phased implementation roadmap with ten recommendations and defined accountability structures. He has served as EDI subject matter expert on multiple health sector strategic plans, writing environmental scan components, facilitating planning sessions, and reviewing draft deliverables. Additional SME engagements include the Roots Community Health and Social Services Hub for Black, African, and Caribbean communities in Peel Region and Ontario Creates' organizational review.
André's consulting practice applies the Cultural Nexus Transformation Framework, a proprietary methodology grounded in Cultural Intelligence that structures engagement and strategy development through three phases: Decode (contextual and cultural analysis), Design (evidence-informed strategy formulation), and Deliver (implementation planning with defined accountability).
A frequent partner with ATN, André holds a Master of Public Administration and Cultural Intelligence facilitation certification.
