10th Annual Responsible Leadership Summit

For a large group of future responsible leaders, the 10th Annual Responsible Leadership Summit was the place to be! Queen’s School of Business Centre for Social Impact hosted over 25 speakers who spoke to our future leaders about their passion and purpose in building social enterprises, the future of sustainability and building trust between corporations and communities.

The Summit began Friday evening with an exciting announcement regarding a name change for the Centre for Responsible Leadership. The new name, which provides a more accurate reflection of the commitment and work of the Centre, is now Centre for Social Impact. This news was brought to our audience by the Dean of Queen’s School of Business, David Saunders and the Centre’s Director, Tina Dacin.

Friday evening began with Jim Leech, Queen’s Chancellor introducing Johann Koss, Founder of Right To Play and Olympian. Johann delivered an inspirational opening address and today over 1 million children in over 20 countries are provided the right to play.

A series of plenary sessions took place on Saturday morning. Geoff Cape, Founder of Evergreen kicked the sessions off with a discussion on revitalizing communities. For Geoff, changing cities is about bringing nature into the fabric of a city.

Next, Susie Pan, Entrepreneur; Anil Patel, GrantBook; and Dave Wilkin, Ten Thousand Coffees, each articulated their own story. The session was facilitated by Heather Evans, a Student Ambassador from the Certificate in Responsible Leadership Program.

Closing the morning sessions, delegates were inspired to go on an artic expedition with Geoff Green, Founder of Students on Ice which is a platform for polar education for students. Geoff wowed the group with his passion for artic exploration over the past 14 years.

In the afternoon, delegates attended to a selection of knowledge building sessions on social finance, social innovation, community leadership and the future of sustainability. Live cases were presented by OLG, Coca-Cola Company, Idea Couture, Suncor Energy and Urban Matters.

At the conclusion of the Summit, participants were provided with an opportunity to pause and reflect as Mikael Meir, founder of Mikael Meir Inc., shared his personal story of greed and personal transformation.