Building a Universe Where Childhood Can Reach the Stars
Nanaimo's 2025 CEO of the Year on imagination, resilience, and why caring for families means shaping the future of the world.
Matthew Boudot
Founder & CEO
The Guide Behind the Mission
Matthew Joshua Parsons Boudot spent more than 17 years working alongside children and families before he ever called himself a founder. As a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Vancouver Island and through years with the City of Nanaimo Parks & Recreation, he watched the moments that quietly shape a young life — a first friendship, a first discovery, a first spark of confidence. He also kept asking a harder question: what if the rooms our children grow up in could inspire them the way the night sky inspires explorers?
Childcare, Matthew came to believe, could be more than supervision. It could be the place where curiosity ignites, where imagination is taken seriously, where children feel empowered to wonder who they might become. He drew inspiration from Apple, Tesla, and Disney — minimalism, design thinking, and storytelling — and asked what would happen if those same standards were applied to early childhood. Not a daycare. A destination.
That thinking became In Space Childcare Inc. Uniforms became flight suits. Classrooms became missions. Educators became a Flight Crew guiding young explorers through chapters of an adventure that maps to each stage of their growth. The branding wasn't decoration — it was the whole pedagogy. When children see themselves as explorers rather than students, they ask better questions, take more creative risks, and start to believe, deeply, that anything is possible.
From that single centre grew a multi-dimensional vision: In Space Universe — an integrated family experience platform spanning childcare, academy education, aquatics and wellness, and immersive family entertainment. The bet is that families don't want their child's world fragmented across five disconnected providers. They want one coherent story their child can grow up inside. In Space Universe is being built to be that story.
Today the ecosystem is taking shape across Nanaimo: In Space Childcare has licensed capacity serving 150+ children across multiple age programs. In Space Academy is opening capacity for 150+ more. In Space Aquatics will serve over 1,000 when its 22,000 sq ft flagship opens in 2027. The recognition has followed — Community Votes Nanaimo Gold 2025, the Vancouver Island Commercial Building Award 2024, Consumer Choice Award 2024, and Matthew's selection as Nanaimo's CEO of the Year (2025) by CEO Rankings.
Because when you care for families, you shape the future of the world.
— Matthew Boudot, Founder & CEO
The Aquatics Division was struck by a devastating fire in 2023, forcing an immediate closure and displacing dozens of families. It could have been a company-ending event. Instead, Matthew refused to simply rebuild. He paused — asked what the world's most inspiring family pool experience would actually look like — and partnered with architects, staff, and families to reimagine it from the studs out. The new facility, opening in 2027, integrates immersive lighting, sensory design, and a re-engineered training program for the Flight Crew. What burned down cleared the way for something that was always meant to rise.
Matthew leads with the discipline of a builder and the instincts of a creative. Outside of his role as CEO he is a photographer, actor, and writer — he founded Another Perspective Photography, appeared in national campaigns for Toyota Canada, and is often found at a piano playing Elton John's Your Song. That creative streak shapes how In Space operates. Every decision, from the lighting in a room to the tone of the background music, begins with one question: how does it make people feel? Innovation, he insists, should always orbit humanity.
Community sits at the centre of the work. Through the Green Bin Program, an ongoing bottle-drive at the centre, families learn that one dollar of bottles becomes five dollars of food for neighbours through Loaves & Fishes Food Bank — children helping parents place bottles in the bin, learning that small actions create real ripples. When children are given the right environment and the right example, their potential is limitless. Every child carries curiosity. Every family deserves support. Every dream deserves space to grow.
Welcome to In Space Universe — where the journey begins.