Speakers / Topics: Social Change | Humanitarian Issues
Diversity, access to clean water, the refugee crisis and war are just some of the critical issues our social change and humanitarian speakers address. Speaking from experience on the front lines of battle or the front lines of education and health care, our speakers use their voice to make a difference.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Leadership & Diversity Expert | Social Advocate
Yassmin Abdel-Magied is an engineer, author, broadcaster, and award-winning social advocate. Her powerful TED talk, “What does my headscarf mean to you” has more than 1.8 million views, and she has become an internationally renowned speaker on the topics o...
Sally Armstrong
Human Rights Activist | Journalist | Author
Sally Armstrong has covered stories in zones of conflict all over the world. From Bosnia and Somalia to Congo and Afghanistan, her eyewitness reports have earned her the Amnesty International Media Award four times over, as well as acclaim all over the world. ...
Afdhel Aziz
Expert on Purpose, Conscious Capitalism, and Social Entrepreneurship | Bestselling Author
Afdhel Aziz is one of the most inspiring leaders in the global movement of business as a force for good. After a 20-year career as a visionary marketer at Procter & Gamble, Nokia, Heineken, and Absolut Vodka, Aziz quit corporate life to tackle one of the b...
Michael Bach
Founder, Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion | Bestselling Author
If diversity is our strength, inclusion is our superpower. Michael Bach is recognized nationally and internationally as a thought leader and subject matter expert in the fields of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility. As the founder of the Canadian ...
Perry Bellegarde
Former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations
Chief Perry Bellegarde has dedicated his life to championing the rights and well-being of First Nations. For 35 years, he has held various First Nations leadership roles, including two terms served as the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN). ...
Michel Chikwanine
Former Child Soldier | Inspirational Speaker on the Ability to Create Change
Michel Chikwanine has overcome unimaginable pain and struggle. Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Michel grew up amid the terror of the Great War of Africa. Much of his childhood was ravaged by the death and decay of a war that claimed the lives of 5.8 ...
The Rt. Hon. Joe Clark
Former Canadian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister
Canada’s 16th Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Joe Clark is one of the most widely respected Canadians in history. Clark reaches across divides — from chairing the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers campaign against apartheid, to winning unanimous agre...
Jessi Cruickshank
Television Personality
As the host of many of television’s most popular programs, Jessi Cruickshank knows how to capture eyes and ears. Acclaimed for her hilarious humour and friendly demeanour, Cruickshank showcases her unique abilities as an emcee, moderator, or on-stage intervi...
Severn Cullis-Suzuki
Environmental Activist
At just 12 years old, Severn Cullis-Suzuki gained international attention when she delivered her famous speech at the Rio Earth Summit, pleading for the delegates to preserve the planet. Since then, Cullis-Suzuki has continued to advocate for intergenerational...
Ilona Dougherty
Leading Expert on Millennials and Generation Z | Social Entrepreneur
For businesses, organizations, and governments striving to succeed in the innovation economy, and anyone who hopes for a bright future, Ilona Dougherty’s perspective is what you have been waiting for. Ilona Dougherty is an award winning social innovator and ...
Mike Downie
Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker | Co-Founder, Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund
Mike Downie is a multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker and the co-founder of the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund. A celebrated and inspirational storyteller, Downie takes his audiences on a ride that explores how our stories define us, remind us of o...
Shane Feldman
Connection | Community | Leadership
Shane Feldman believes community is the answer to every question and the solution to every problem. Recognized by The White House, The Prime Minister of Canada, and The United Nations for his achievements in community leadership, he helps leading brands optimi...
Sarah Ferguson
The Duchess of York
Internationally recognized for her inspiring story, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, is an acclaimed author, humanitarian, broadcaster, and spokesperson who has spent much of her life in the glare of the public spotlight. Speaking candidly about her person...
Michael J. Fox
Parkinson's Activist | Celebrated Actor
Michael J. Fox has one of the best-known faces in Hollywood. In addition to being recognized as a star in dozens of blockbuster films and highly rated television series, Fox is also recognized worldwide as the face of Parkinson’s disease, a condition he has ...
Sir Bob Geldof
Influential Global Visionary | Pop Icon
Rock musician, songwriter, and political activist, Sir Bob Geldof is the rare combination of musical talent and successful businessman. He created the Live Aid concerts, built a media empire, called urgent attention to the world’s most vulnerable people,...
Swish Goswami
CEO, Surf | Startup Canada's Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Swish Goswami has built a multi-hyphenate career at just the age of 24. He is the CEO of Surf, a social intelligence platform that helps brands of all sizes make smarter marketing decisions. His company, which acquired SocialRank in late 2019, works with clien...
Rick Hansen
Man in Motion | Champion for Accessibility and Inclusion
Rick Hansen, C.C., O.B.C., is a Canadian icon who has dedicated his life to awakening the world to the potential of people with disabilities. He is best known as the “Man In Motion” for undertaking an epic 26-month, 40,000 km journey around the world in hi...
Scott Harrison
Founder and CEO of charity: water | World Economic Forum Young Global Leader
Scott Harrison has helped to bring clean drinking water to millions of people around the world. The founder and CEO of charity: water, one of the most well-known philanthropic organizations in the world, shares how his approach to running a non-profit — from...
Sandy Hudson
Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter, Canada | Political Activist | Podcaster
The founder of the Black Lives Matter movement presence in Canada and Black Lives Matter – Toronto, Sandy Hudson is an activist, public intellectual, and an award-winning writer. She has a unique ability to distill complex ideas into manageable concepts and ...
Simon Jackson
Movement Builder | Founder of the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition
Simon Jackson is a storyteller and movement builder who has dedicated his life to finding a better balance between the needs of people and nature. At just 13 years old, Jackson founded the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition, leading a network of six million people in...
Jamil Jivani
Award-Winning Activist | Lawyer
Jamil Jivani tackles some of the biggest challenges in the world as a lawyer, community organizer, and teacher. With research and teaching appointments at Yale Law School and Osgoode Hall Law School, Jivani focuses on issues that impact youth, immigrants, and ...
Bobby Jones
Marketing for Social Change
Bobby Jones is one of the most influential voices in the worldwide movement of conscious capitalism. As the founding partner of the purpose consultancy, Conspiracy of Love, Jones seeks to connect and serve a global community of purpose-driven organizations and...
Sheldon Kennedy
Former NHL Player | Author of Why I Didn't Say Anything
Sheldon Kennedy skated for three teams in his eight-year NHL career, but he is likely best known for his courageous decision to charge his Major Junior Hockey League coach with sexual assault for the abuse he suffered while a teenager under his care. Since the...
Martin Luther King III
Global Human Rights Activist
As the oldest son of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King III serves as an ambassador of his parents’ legacy of non-violent social change. Motivating audiences with his message of hope and responsibility for...
Nilofer Merchant
Former Tech Executive | Bestselling Author
Nilofer Merchant is a renowned business strategist and innovator on a mission to reinvent work so that it actually works. A bestselling author, TED mainstage speaker, and recipient of the “Future Thinker” Award from Thinkers 50, Merchant says few companies...
Dr. Samantha Nutt
Physician | Global Affairs | Founder, War Child Canada and War Child USA
For more than 20 years, Dr. Samantha Nutt has been on the frontlines of many of the world’s major crises. A medical doctor and founder of the internationally renowned non-profit War Child, she is one of the most recognized voices in the humanitarian arena an...
Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa
Physician | Changemaker | Transformative Leadership | Advocate for Diversity and Inclusion
One of Time magazine’s “2021 Next Generational Leaders”, Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa is a medical trailblazer spearheading change in healthcare and beyond. She is an accomplished physician, spoken word poet, and advocate for racialized and marginalized popula...
Quinn
Olympic Champion | Transgender Trailblazer and Advocate
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Quinn made headlines as not only the first openly transgender athlete to compete, but also the first to win an Olympic medal of any kind when the Canadian Women’s National Soccer Team won their historic gold medal. As a keynot...
Jade Simmons
Transformative Leadership Expert | Motivational Pianist
Jade Simmons is a creator of transformational experiences designed to activate audiences into becoming the biggest, boldest version of themselves possible. The world-class concert artist has been called a “musical force of nature” with an “un...
Barb Stegemann
Bestselling Author | CEO of Award-Winning Social Enterprise, The 7 Virtues Peace Perfumes
Barb Stegemann disrupted an entire industry from her garage, armed with only a personal Visa card and a dream to help people rebuild in war-ridden countries. Today, The 7 Virtues is an award-winning social enterprise and a leader in the clean and conscious bea...
Tanya Talaga
Award-winning Journalist | Author of Seven Fallen Feathers
Tanya Talaga is an award-winning Anishinaabe journalist and author. An acclaimed storyteller, she is the author of the national bestselling book, Seven Fallen Feathers, which introduced us to seven Indigenous high school students who mysteriously died in Thund...
Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci
Co-Founders of Optimist | Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers
From living in a Syrian refugee camp to surviving on $1 a day in Guatemala and spending 10 years documenting the journey of an undocumented boy living in New York City, Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci are award-winning humanitarians, activists, and filmmakers. ...
Alexandre Trudeau
Documentary Filmmaker | Journalist
Documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist, Alexandre Trudeau shares his bold views on the political, social, and economic forces of our times. Having gained widespread recognition for his edgy and insightful humanism and for his brave iconoclasm and fierc...
Masai Ujiri
President and Vice-Chairman, Toronto Raptors | Founder, Giants of Africa
As president and vice-chairman of the Toronto Raptors, Masai Ujiri has led the team through its most successful period in franchise history, including an NBA Championship. In June 2019, the Raptors won their first NBA title with a six-game victory over Golden ...
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Environmental, Cultural, and Human Rights Advocate
Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier is in the business of transforming public opinion into public policy. Experienced in working with global decision-makers for more than a decade, Watt-Cloutier offers a new model for 21st century leadership. She sp...
Spencer West
Double Amputee | Motivational Speaker for Social Change
The life of visionary and activist Spencer West has been marked by both obstacles and triumphs. After losing both legs from the pelvis down at the age of five, he entered a world that might have easily defeated him. Instead, he tackled challenge after challeng...
The Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould
Former Member of Parliament | Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, P.C., Q.C., was raised to be a leader. The daughter of a hereditary chief and Indigenous leader, she always knew that she would seek leadership roles and responsibilities. As a lawyer, an advocate, and a leader among Canada...
Samra Zafar
Human Rights Activist | Social Entrepreneur | Bestselling Author
After escaping a decade of abuse living as a child bride in Canada, Samra Zafar has became a beacon of hope for many people facing exclusion, abuse, and gender-based violence. Now an award-winning international speaker, bestselling author, and social entrepren...
Ray Zahab
Inspirational Ultra-Marathon Runner and Adventurer
Ray Zahab wants people to know they are extraordinary. A former sedentary “pack a day smoker”, Ray turned his life around in 1999 when he decided to get in shape and enter the world of ultra-marathons. Since then, he’s gone on to inspire mill...