Business leaders today are facing unprecedented disruptions. To provide fresh perspectives and actionable solutions for navigating these complex challenges, Innovation North brought together more than 120 attendees at Innovating Systems – An Idea Exchange on October 29 at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
The event featured keynotes from Chris Marquis, Rob Wesseling, and Peter Senge; a series of Disruption Duos who spoke on the topics of Artificial Intelligence, the Nature of Work, Climate Change, and Socio-Political Whiplashes; remarks from Ivey's new Dean Julian Birkinshaw; and was hosted by Nadine de Gannes. Full bios for each of these speakers can be found below.
Throughout the day, attendees enjoyed performances from Abby Litchfield, a singer-songwriter who aims to weave her music and sustainability work together. You can listen to more of her work on Spotify. Emma Richard did a fabulous job capturing takeaways from the event in real-time. Her graphic recordings can be viewed below:
Keynotes
Christopher Marquis
Christopher Marquis is the Sinyi Professor of Management at the University of Cambridge and author of The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Costs. His research examines business sustainability and social entrepreneurship, and he has written two prior award-winning books, including Better Business: How the B Corp Movement Is Remaking Capitalism and Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise, the latter was a Financial Times Best Book of 2022. Marquis is passionate about how academic research can help people around the world address some of the biggest crises of our day — including climate change, inequality, and discrimination. Before Cambridge Marquis worked at Cornell for 6 years, and Harvard for 11 years. He has a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan and previously worked for six years in the financial services industry, most recently as a Vice President at JP Morgan Chase.
Rob Wesseling
Rob Wesseling is President and Chief Executive Officer of Co-operators, a leading all-Canadian financial services co-operative committed to building a sustainable, resilient and financially secure society for Canadians and their communities. Delivering on the organization’s strategy, he directs its ongoing evolution from an insurance-focused company to a holistic financial services provider – one that offers multi-line insurance and investment products, and personalized advice. As a strong advocate of co-operative values, Rob believes that the way to foster Canadians’ financial strength is to invest in communities, so they can better withstand and recover from social, economic and environmental challenges. That’s why he has guided the company’s investment of more than $2.69 billion – 23.6% of its total portfolio – into impact investments. And, as a founding director and member of the Partners for Action Advisory Board, and as a board member of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, he leads flood-resiliency efforts across the country.
Peter Senge
Peter Senge is the founding chair of the Society of Organizational Learning, Senior Lecturer, Sloan School of Management MIT, and cofounder of the Academy for Systemic Change, which seeks to accelerate the growth of the field of systemic change worldwide. His work centers on promoting shared understanding of complex issues and shared leadership for healthier human systems. Peter has been at the forefront of organizational learning since publishing his classic text, The Fifth Discipline, in 1990, which provides the theories and methods to foster aspiration, develop reflective conversation, and understand complexity in order to build a learning organization. Since the publication of The Fifth Discipline, Peter has shared the driving principles of organizational learning with business, education, health care, and government. Through his work, Peter strives to foster learning communities around the globe in order to improve our world.
Tima Bansal
Tima Bansal is a Professor of Sustainability and Strategy at the Ivey Business School and the founder of Innovation North, the Network for Business Sustainability, and Ivey’s Centre for Building Sustainable Value. Tima is currently the Chair of the Board of the United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Education and is the Chair of the Impact Committee for venture capitalist, Shift4Good. Tima has received significant accolades for her scholarship, which investigates the interplay between business strategy and sustainability. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Business Sustainability; she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Fellow of the Academy of Management; she holds the Hellmuth Prize from Western University, the Distinguished Scholar Award by the Organizations and Natural Environment; and, was the first Canadian to be named a Faculty Pioneer for Academic Leadership by the Aspen Institute.
Julian Birkinshaw
Dean,
Ivey Business School
Speaker
Julian Birkinshaw is Dean of Ivey Business School, a recent appointment which began on August 1, 2024. An Ivey graduate (MBA ’91, PhD ’95), Birkinshaw is an internationally renowned scholar in business research and education with expertise on innovation, digital transformation, and the agility of large multinational firms. Prior to joining Ivey, Birkinshaw was at London Business School (LBS) for 25 years, most recently serving as Vice Dean from 2022 to 2024. While at LBS, he also served as Deputy Dean, Executive Education, Head of Learning Innovation, Director of the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Deputy Dean of Programs. With a passion for innovation and continuous improvement, Birkinshaw was instrumental in launching new graduate programs, initiating online asynchronous programs, and significantly growing executive education.
Nadine de Gannes
Assistant Professor,
Ivey Business School
Event Host
Nadine de Gannes is Faculty Director of the HBA Program and an Assistant Professor in Managerial Accounting and Control, and Sustainability. Nadine is also member of Ivey’s EDI Advisory Council. She holds a Masters and PhD in Accounting from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an HBA from Ivey Business School. In taking a sociological perspective in both her research and teaching, Nadine explores the interrelationships between accounting, power, and perceptions of worth. For her doctoral research, Nadine studied executive compensation, the rise of executive pay consultants and pay benchmarking practices. Her research interests now encompass the integration of ESG metrics into executive compensation, internal control systems and organizational culture.
Disruption Duos
Artificial Intelligence
Mark Daley
Chief AI Officer & Professor,
Western University
Mark Daley is the Chief AI Officer at Western University and a Professor in the Department of Computer Science with cross- appointments in five other departments, The Rotman Institute of Philosophy, and The Western Institute for Neuroscience. He is also a faculty affiliate of Toronto's Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Mark was named in the Maclean's magazine "Power List 2024" of the top 100 Canadians shaping the country. Mark has previously served as the Vice-President (Research) at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), and Chief Digital Information Officer, Special Advisor to the President, and Associate Vice-President (Research) at Western. Mark is the past chair of Compute Ontario and serves on a number of other boards.
Salim Teja
Partner,
Radical Ventures
Salim Teja is a Partner with Radical Ventures where he leads the firm’s Velocity Team. Salim is a board member for Aspect Biosystems and Promise Robotics. Salim brings over 25 years of experience in the technology sector as an entrepreneur, venture investor, corporate innovator and innovation ecosystem builder. Prior to Radical Ventures, Salim served as President, Venture Services for Toronto-based MaRS Discovery District, one of the world’s largest urban innovation centres. Salim has held leadership roles with Indigo Books & Music, CX Digital and was a Partner with early-stage VC firm Brightspark Ventures. Salim was also a Co-founder of San Francisco-based MobShop Inc, a pioneering e-commerce venture funded by GE Capital, Visa International, Mayfield Fund and Marc Andreessen. Salim is a graduate of the Ivey Business School at Western University.
Socio-Political Whiplashes
Romel Mostafa
Assistant Professor & Director, Lawrence National Centre for Policy & Management, Ivey Business School
Romel Mostafa is an Assistant Professor of Business, Economics and Public Policy at the Ivey Business School. As the Director of Ivey’s Lawrence National Centre for Policy & Management, Romel spearheads the Centre’s research, outreach and teaching initiatives. The Centre advocates for sound policy and corporate action towards unlocking national competitive advantage, by focusing on critical challenges and opportunities around digital, trade and social infrastructural pillars. Romel’s areas of research and expertise include strategy & capability development in new firms, innovation & competitive dynamics, industrial evolution & policy, as well as behavioural decision-making. He has published in a number of leading academic journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, Journal of Risk & Uncertainty, Organization Science and Management Science.
Rachel Guthrie
Vice President, Corporate Sustainability Group, Export Development Canada
Rachel Guthrie is Vice-President of ESG Integration at Export Development Canada. She is responsible for ensuring environmental, social and governance considerations are integrated into EDC’s strategy and culture. In this capacity, she has oversight of EDC’s path to net zero, sustainable finance offerings, ESG policies and governance, as well as data and reporting. Rachel brings over a decade of experience in ESG strategy and reporting in the Canadian financial industry. As the Head of TD’s ESG Reporting and Impact Measurement team, she navigated TD’s strategy through materiality assessments, the adoption of GRI standards, SASB and TCFD reporting. TD’s reporting won national acclaim, winning “Best ESG Reporting” in Canada from IR Magazine for three years in a row.
Nature of Work
Rob Austin
Professor & Evolution of Work Chair, Ivey Business School
Rob Austin is a Professor of Information Systems and the Evolution of Work Chair at Ivey Business School, and an affiliated faculty member at Harvard Medical School. Before his appointment at Ivey, he was a professor of Innovation and Digital Transformation at Copenhagen Business School, and, before that, a professor of Technology and Operations Management at the Harvard Business School. Rob has published widely, in both academic and professional venues, such as Harvard Business Review, Information Systems Research, MIT Sloan Management Review, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and the Wall Street Journal. He also is the author of ten books, more than 100 published cases and notes, three Harvard online products, and two popular Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) running on the Coursera platform. His “Cyberattack!" Simulation won the 2019 International Serious Play Gold Medal. His research on neurodiversity employment programs is funded by SSHRC.
Rashid Wasti
EVP & Chief Talent Officer, Weston Group of Companies
Rashid Wasti is Chair of Ivey’s EDI Advisory Council and EVP & Chief Talent Officer of the Weston Group of Companies. In this role, he is focused on helping all the businesses in the group develop their current and future senior talent through effective succession planning, recruiting, learning & development, diversity & inclusion, culture-building and mentorship. The Weston Group is Canada’s largest private employer with over 200,000 employees and $50 billion in revenues, Prior to joining George Weston in 2013, Rashid had a 25-year career in Marketing, Strategy Consulting, Recruiting and Talent Management at Procter & Gamble, Boston Consulting Group and Egon Zehnder International, at various points based in Europe, Middle East, the U.S, and Canada. He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Economics from Cambridge University in England, and an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at Western University.
Climate Change
Oana Branzei
Professor & Paul MacPherson Chair in Strategic Leadership, Ivey Business School
Oana Branzei is Paul MacPherson Chair in Strategic Leadership and Professor of Strategy and Sustainability at the Ivey Business School. Oana is currently cross-appointed with Western University’s Centre for Climate Change, Sustainable Livelihoods and Health and an Advisory Board member for the Africa Institute. Oana is also the founding Director of the HBA Sustainability Certificate program and the Master of Science Graduate Diploma in Sustainability; the founder, convener and host of PhD Sustainability Academy, an annual event of the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability; and co-founder of the Spring Institute. Oana leads rapid-response research teams collaborating on prosocial, circular, place-based, regenerative, and restorative organizing on five continents. She has convened communities of inquiry that actively promote positive social change through social innovation, social enterprise, sustainable communities, and cross-sector partnerships.
Melissa Lecznar
Senior Director, Climate Impact, JLL Canada
Melissa Lecznar is a passionate sustainability leader and decarbonization strategist with over a decade of experience in the infrastructure consulting industry. In her role as Senior Director of Climate Impact within JLL's Corporate Sustainability team, she leads the development of emission reduction-focused programs and initiatives globally. Previously, Melissa held positions as Director of Decarbonization Strategy at JLL and Buildings Energy & Carbon Expert at WSP Canada. Her expertise includes impact-focused strategy development, building portfolio investment advisory, and operationalizing large-scale emission reduction projects. She is committed to driving innovative solutions that balance environmental impact with business growth, focusing on accelerating emission reduction in the built environment.
Artists
Emma Richard
Emma Richard is an illustrator, graphic recorder, and creative facilitator based in London, Ontario. Emma once studied to be an engineer, and after realizing that was not the career for her, the arts slowly reeled her back in. As a graphic recorder, Emma aims to create visuals that look appealing, but that also lead to better communication and deeper understanding of the matters at hand, both within individuals and across larger groups. She describes this as, “an endlessly interesting and deeply human practice of listening and creating.”
Abby Litchfield
Abby Litchfield is the Community Manager for the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS), a nonprofit dedicated to sharing evidence-based knowledge from global sustainability researchers with an audience of 200,000 users per year. In addition to her sustainability work at NBS, Abby is a musician – a singer/songwriter, pianist, and recording artist. She has been singing and playing piano for over 15 years and releasing music the last 4. Increasingly, Abby aims to weave her music and sustainability work together, especially by writing music inspired by the collective and difficult emotions surrounding climate change. Abby has performed her original climate-themed music at multiple sustainability conferences and events, including the 2023 UN PRME Global Forum and UNGC Network Canada event in 2024.
About Innovation North
Innovation North is a community of researchers at Ivey Business School that works with practitioners to tackle complex systems challenges. We are fuelled by the belief that we can create a future where businesses and society thrive together.
Over the past five years, Innovation North embarked on a journey to innovate the innovation process. At quarterly sessions, The Lab brought together the most experienced corporate innovators in Canada with several motivated management researchers to learn from world leaders in systems thinking. This report recaps the 21 sessions that took place from its launch in October 2019 to its final session, which took place at Innovating Systems.
Learn more at: innovationnorth.ca.
Contact
For questions or inquiries about Innovation North, please reach out to Tima Bansal at tbansal@ivey.ca.