Apitipi Anicinapek Nation
Developing strong and strategic leaders is an investment in the future of our communities. Queen’s Executive Education at Smith School of Business is proud to support the Apitipi Anicinapek Nation (AAN), a first nation in Northeastern Ontario, with leadership, strategic planning, and negotiations education.
Since 2023, the programs have equipped current and emerging AAN leaders with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to navigate complex challenges and seize new opportunities. In particular they have applied the learnings to their mining sector activities and negotiations with industry, government and others.
The Queen’s Executive Education team and faculty work closely with senior AAN leadership to customize the curricula to align with the community’s strategic initiatives and goals. The programs address the evolving needs of the community through practical, applied learning.
By combining evidence-based leadership practices with a collaborative approach to program design, Queen’s Executive Education is committed to helping AAN strengthen leadership capacity, build organizational resilience, and empower leaders to make informed decisions that benefit both current and future generations.
“Our experience has been absolutely great. It’s the reason why we came back for more programs.
This Queen’s Leadership Development Program was the perfect amount of time to get away, to really think about bigger picture ideas, and to really explore our ideas as leaders.
As Anicinapek people, we are deeply grounded in our identity, values, and community. The program challenged and strengthened the way we think about our mining business, our leadership, and our responsibility to build a prosperous future for our community. In a short period of time, we experienced tremendous growth and gained a greater sense of maturity, clarity, and purpose as leaders.”
Chief Negotiator, Apitipi Anicinapek Nation
“When I began my PhD in Mining Engineering, my hope was that I would be able to contribute to ensuring that environmental stewardship and community interests would be at the forefront of mining decisions. So I was honoured to be asked to participate in Queen’s Executive Education’s 2025 workshop for the Apitipi Anicinapek Nation, as it determines how best to negotiate partnerships with industry to ensure that development of its mineral resources respect their values and benefit the community. The experts who gathered to design this workshop share a vision of working together to learn from and support each other: enabling Anishnaabe communities to meaningfully shape projects on their lands and academics like me to bring foreground their concerns in my teaching and research. I hope more communities will take advantage of Queen’s Executive Education’s training expertise and its commitment to partnership.”
Assistant Professor, Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining, Queen's University
“I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to teach and learn from community leaders from Apitipi Anicinapek Nation over the years. Together, we explored a range of topics related to leadership, and I have rarely experienced the sense of community, welcome, and thoughtful engagement with one another and with the content that characterized this group. Many of the experiences shared by members of the community resonated with me at a deeper level and challenged me to rethink my view of leadership and community resilience. These seminars were truly experiences in two-way learning and provided an important counterpoint to the corporate perspectives that so often shape leadership discussions in business schools. Over my 20-year career as an educator, I have had few experiences that were as stimulating, warm, engaging, and thought-provoking as my interactions with these two wonderful groups of participants.”
Associate Professor & Distinguished Professor of Organizational Behaviour, Smith School of Business, Queen's University