The Possible Now

The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell is the 29th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. As the representative of Her Majesty The Queen, Ms. Dowdeswell carries out constitutional and ceremonial duties and facilitates healthy citizen and community engagement. Since taking office in late 2014, Ms. Dowdeswell has challenged Ontarians to think deeply about their role not just as residents of a province, but as global citizens. Building resilience and sustainability through inclusive economic prosperity, environmental stewardship, and social cohesion, as well as safeguarding democracy, has been the focus of her mandate.

Katherine has been spearheading systems innovation at the nexus of technology, policy, climate change and sustainable development for over 25 years. She served as a Canadian Diplomat, specializing in human security, the NAFTA Environmental Agreement and Climate Change, and as Innovation Lead Switzerland and Business Development Lead Europe for the EU’s Climate-KIC. Katherine has served as an advisor, coach and facilitator to many global impact initiatives, In her most recent roles as Chief Intelligence Officer of the Green Digital Finance Alliance and Strategy Officer of Open Earth Foundation, Katherine has been focusing on harnessing emerging technology, open innovation and collaborative platforms and tools for the systemic issues of climate change, energy and biodiversity loss.

Ben Sehl is the Co-Founder and Chief Digital Officer at Kotn, an eco-friendly clothing brand that started with a simple dream, perfecting the white tee. Now they offer a whole line of apparel, fund social impact projects and provide private subsidies for over 700 farms in Egypt. Ben primarily focuses on digital product strategy, but he has also worked in a bunch of other sectors within the functions of graphic design, brand strategy, data analysis, web development, and customer experience. Outside of Kotn, he advises a few early-stage companies on their digital strategy, and he's working on his building his own side project with his friend David.

Gonen is a venture capitalist, impact investor, startup executive, and former Naval Officer who is is passionate about driving positive environmental and social impact through business. As the Senior Associate at Amplify Capital, Gonen helps develop the investment theses, source deals, conduct due diligence and prepare investment recommendations prior to investment. Post-investment, he designs and implements the social and environmental impact diligence, measurement and reporting for the fund’s portfolio companies.

Jonathan Defoy is a veteran entrepreneur that is using his resources to solve one of the biggest problems facing our planet today, food waste. His company FoodHero works with local grocery chains to offer customers discounted produce to help minimize waste.

Hedvig Alexander is a Danish Army Captain, Yale graduate and the Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Powered By People. Powered By People, is a technology company that is creating a marketplace platform and various digital tools to push the retail industry into a more sustainable and ethical future. Her entrepreneurial background has always involved impacting underprivileged and underserved countries. Today, she is leading a startup to bring transparency to an industry where customers are starting to demand it.

Nuha Siddiqui is the Co-Founder and CEO or Eco-packers, are a start up based in Toronto that is looking to revolutionize how we manufacture single use plastic in a 100% eco-friendly and non-toxic way. Starting off as just a university project, Nuha and her team have been able to make significant advances in the space and also secure funding to hopefully scale the company in a global way. Nuha is someone who doesn't see problems, she sees solutions. No matter how big the obstacle, she's always ready to tackle it with a sense urgency.

Adrienne Rand is the VP of Strategy at Public Inc, an agency that specializes in helping brands create profits with purpose. As the VP of Strategy, Adrienne feels lucky to have made a career out of people “watching.” An anthropologist by training, years ago she became curious about how you could leverage cultural insights to accelerate positive behavior change. Today she develops strategies based on these insights to benefit both consumers, clients and the issues Public works on. A mom of four kids, her greatest societal contribution is doing her part to combat global underpopulation.

Ran is the CEO & Founder of Fresh City, a Toronto urban farm and organic retailer. Some of his formative childhood experiences include his grandmother’s stories about growing up on a Kibbutz, feeling democracy awaken in his childhood home of South Africa and his mom’s stuffed peppers. Ran has spoken on food issues before hundreds of audiences. He proudly leads a team of over 250-staff as they collectively create a better life through food. Before founding Fresh City, Ran practiced investment law in New York City for several years.

Salima grew up in Kenya and during her time at McGill, created The Soular Backpack - a backpack with a solar panel enabling children in East Africa to do their homework every night without the use of kerosene. Two years later, in December 2017, Salima started SAMARA with $500 and a production run of 25 bags, which sold out overnight. SAMARA is a cruelty free fashion house focusing on sustainable materials like apple leather and recycled ocean plastics, more efficient supply chains, and creating impact in the world through fashion. SAMARA is female run and led, with every purchase supporting The Soular Backpack, and in the past year, is close to selling their 100,000th bag.