Yásnaya Aguilar
Linguist, writer, translator, human rights activist (Ayuujk/Mexico)
Yásnaya Aguilar is from Ayutla Mixe in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico. She is a member of JEQO, an independent learning space for feminist community cinema of Abya Yala, as well as COLMIX, a collective of Mixe youth that carries out research and dissemination of the Mixe language, history and culture.

She studied Spanish language and literature and received a master’s degree in linguistics at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). She has collaborated in various projects on the dissemination of linguistic diversity, development of grammatical content for educational materials in Indigenous languages and documentation projects with an attention to languages at risk of disappearance.

Aguilar Gil has also developed written material in Mixe and created readers for Mixe speakers and speakers of other Indigenous languages. She actively defends the linguistic rights of Indigenous language speakers, as well as the use of Indigenous languages in the virtual world and in literary translation.

See Yásnaya Aguilar Gil at Mexico and Canada: An Indigenous perspective on inclusion.

The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson
26th Governor General of Canada, and Co-founder and Co-chair of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (Canada)
The Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson arrived in Canada from Hong Kong as a refugee in 1942 and made the astonishing journey from a penniless child to accomplished broadcaster, journalist, and distinguished public servant in a multi-faceted lifetime.

During Madame Clarkson’s mandate as Governor General, her energy, enthusiasm, and passion left an indelible mark on Canada’s history. A leading figure in Canada’s cultural life, she is the best-selling author of the 2014 CBC Massey Lecture Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship; Room for All of Us: Surprising Stories of Loss and Transformation; Heart Matters: A Memoir; and a biography of Dr. Norman Bethune.

Madame Clarkson has received numerous prestigious awards and honorary degrees in Canada and abroad. A Privy Councillor and Companion of the Order of Canada, she lives in Toronto.

Jennifer Clement
President of PEN International (Mexico/U.S.)
Jennifer Clement is the president of PEN International and the first woman to be elected since the organization was founded in 1921. Under her leadership, the groundbreaking PEN International Women’s Manifesto and The Democracy of the Imagination Manifesto were created.

Clement is the author of the novels A True Story Based on Lies, The Poison That Fascinates, Prayers for the Stolen, and Gun Love, as well as several poetry books. Clement also wrote the acclaimed memoir Widow Basquiat, set in New York City in the early 1980’s featuring the life of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Clement is the recipient of many awards including the Canongate Prize, Sara Curry Humanitarian Award, the Gran Prix des Lectrices Lyceenes de Elle, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, and her books have twice been on the New York Times Editor’s Choice list. Prayers for the Stolen was both a PEN/Faulkner Prize and Femina Prize finalist and a New Statesman Book of the Year, selected by Kazuo Ishiguro. Her recent novel Gun Love is an Oprah Book Club Selection and a New York Times Editor’s Choice Book. It was also a finalist for the National Book Award and Aspen Words Literary Prize. Time magazine, among other publications, named it one of the top 10 books of 2018.

Clement’s books have been translated into 30 languages.

See Jennifer Clement at Art, Activism and the Culture of Connection.

Deanna Del Vecchio
Researcher, educator, activist (Canada)

Deanna Del Vecchio is a researcher and educator interested in how the arts are used for social change. As a PhD candidate in social justice education at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, she explores the use of photography in social movements in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Her research has been supported by awards including a Jackman Humanities Institute Graduate Fellowship. Her publications include co-authored chapters in books on creative and critical qualitative research, and justice in education. A first-generation Canadian, she is currently based in Mexico City on a research scholarship at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas.

Beyond academia, Del Vecchio’s career in education has involved teaching and non-profit management. Her experience as an educator includes classroom teaching from primary to post-secondary, community arts, outdoor education, and professional development. In the non-profit sector, she has managed education programs with international reach, working with partners such as Canadian Heritage and UNESCO. She participated in Y Combinator’s educational technology accelerator in her role as head of partnerships in a non-profit tech startup.

See Deanna Del Vecchio in Arts, Activism and the Culture of Connection.

Max FineDay
Executive director, Canadian Roots Exchange (Sweetgrass First Nation)
Max FineDay is a nêhiyaw napew from the Sweetgrass First Nation in Saskatchewan, Treaty 6 Territory. He is currently serving as executive director of Canadian Roots Exchange, a recognized leader in delivering reconciliation programming to Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth across the country. FineDay is passionate about training the next generation of youth leaders, understanding how to make change, and increasing access to traditional ceremonies for Indigenous youth.

In his spare time, FineDay can be found serving as an adviser to the president of the Economic Club of Canada and the Laidlaw Foundation and serving on the interim National Council for Reconciliation and the board of directors at the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.

See Max FineDay at Mexico and Canada: An Indigenous perspective on inclusion.

Luz Gomez
Director for Latin America, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth (U.S.)
Luz Gomez supports the Center’s strategy and programs across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). She has more than 15 years of experience working with the public and private sectors, including launching successful microfinance programs at Accion International’s U.S. affiliates and conducting research and evaluation of financial services programs and products with the Economic Opportunities Program at the Aspen Institute. Gomez has authored or co-authored several studies related to scale and job quality in the microenterprise field.

Most recently, Gomez worked as the research director for Knight Foundation, which involved research and evaluation design for the Foundation’s investment areas in journalism, communities, and the arts. She also initiated and led learning initiatives within the Foundation.

Gomez holds an MA in political science from Columbia University and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley. She loves exploring her adopted home city of Miami and finding new local businesses to enjoy with her husband, two kids, and adopted tabby cat.

See Luz Gomez at 360: Where We Go

Laura Grizzlypaws
Indigenous singer/songwriter, dancer, educator, and cultural advocate (Canada)
Laura Grizzlypaws was born and raised in Lillooet, British Columbia in Canada’s Interior Plateau region. Her St’át’imc name is “Stálhalamcen – Grizzly Paws”. She belongs to the people of Xwisten the Bear Clan. At the age of 16, following a difficult childhood, Grizzlypaws began to relearn the St’át’imc traditions including songs, storytelling, dance, and social interactions, and her passion to know more about the heritage of her people has become a way of life.

She is an award-winning singer/songwriter and her dancing is powerful and dramatic. Draped in the hide of a grizzly bear, she mimics the movements and gestures of a bear. The dance is equal parts ceremonial, celebratory, and healing. There is no other dance like it.

Grizzlypaws has a master of education in education foundation land based education (2011); bachelor of general studies (double minor linguistics and First Nation studies) (2007); bachelor of education in curriculum development and instruction (2007); professional development teaching certificate (2006); language proficiency certificate (2003); and counselling & wellness certificate (2003). Grizzlypaws was also granted a Language Heroes award for the British Columbia Salishan language family.

See Laura Grizzlypaws at Art, Activism and the Culture of Connection, and in a special 6 Degrees Presents performance after lunch.

Natalio Hernández
Writer, poet, educator (Mexico)
Natalio Hernández is an educator, poet, essayist, and a promoter of Indigenous rights, culture, education, and languages in Mexico. Born in Naranjo Dulce, Ixhuatlán de Madero, Veracruz, Hernández has worked most of his life as a bilingual teacher, first as a promoter of bilingual preschool education and later as the deputy director of bilingual-bicultural education in the General Directorate of Indigenous Education in the Secretariat of Public Education (1978-1989). He also worked as deputy director of the Indigenous Languages and Literatures Program in the General Directorate of Popular Cultures of the National Council for Culture and the Arts (1989-1993). As an activist, he was a founding member and the first president of the Organization of Indigenous Náhuatl Professionals (1973-1976) and of the National Alliance of Bilingual Indigenous Professionals (1977-1980). He was also a member of the Indigenous Initiative for Peace in Chiapas created by Rigoberta Menchú. As an author, Hernández writes in both Spanish and his native Náhuatl, publishing a number of essays and books of poetry.

Hernández has been a member of the Mexican Academy of Language since 2013. He was president of the organizing committee of the first world meeting of poetry of Indigenous Peoples: Colourful Voices for Mother Earth, held in Mexico in 2016. He is also a promoter of the 2019 Declaration of Writers in Indigenous Languages, whose aim is to overcome linguistic, literary and cultural subalternity in favour of a multiethnic, multilingual and multicultural Mexico.

See Natalio Hernández at Mexico and Canada: An Indigenous perspective on inclusion.

Javier López Casarín
President, Fundación Reinventando a México (Reinventing Mexico Foundation) (Mexico)
Javier López Casarín is a serial entrepreneur committed to redefining Mexico’s social policy agenda through innovation. He has a long-standing business career in the telecommunications and technology sectors. He is a writer, analyst, and lecturer on innovation issues.

López Casarín chairs Fundación Reinventando a México (FRaM), a non-profit organization with the mission to foster social capital in Mexico through initiatives aimed at improving the lives of its citizens. These initiatives include discussion and research-based forums, programs to improve labour qualifications, as well as programs that provide a wide range of support mechanisms for vulnerable and marginalized communities. FRaM actively engages in research and the dissemination of its results in the realm of innovation.

See Javier López Casarín at the Opening Circle and What’s Next.

Dorian Ulises López Macías
Photographer, creative director, creator of Mexicano Mx (Mexico)
Dorian Ulises López Macías graduated from the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes. He has extensive experience in the publishing world, having served as art director of Elle México, Life & Style and Eminente magazines, in addition to having published important fashion editorials in Vogue Italia, Atmos Magazine, Pin-Up Magazine, King Kong Magazine, Office Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar Mexico and L’Officiel Mexico.

He is also the creator of Mexicano Mx, which seeks to celebrate Mexican identity in all its many facets. The photographic project has spanned more than 10 years and been reviewed in the New York Times, El País, and other Mexican and international media. His photographs have been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the Whitney Biennial 2017, as well as the Vogue Photo Festival 2018, the Poplar Museum (Divine Comedy, 2018), and the Institute of Contemporary Art of Los Angeles. He has collaborated with other artists, including Rafael Esparza (de la Calle / a la Calle, 2018), and Bárbara Sánchez Kane and Mariana Palacios with the “Cuca Project” in 2019.

See Dorian Ulises López Macías at Art, Activism and the Culture of Connection.

Genaro Lozano
Analyst, academic, and activist (Mexico)
Genaro Lozano is a political scientist for The New School for Social Research and also an internationalist for the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). He is a professor in the departments of political science and international relations of the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, and has been a professor at ITAM and Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE). He was also director of the Foreign Affairs Latin America Magazine.

Lozano writes weekly in the newspapers of the Reforma Group. He has published essays and opinion pieces in various international publications, such as Americas Quarterly, Monocle, Domus, El Diario de New York, La Nación de Argentina, Comercio de Perú, and Gulf News of Dubai. He is co-author of a dozen academic and popular books on a range of topics including Twitter and political change in Mexico, Mexican foreign policy, and same sex marriage in Latin America.

In 2013 and 2016, Lozano was named by Forbes magazine as one of the 10 most influential opinion leaders in Mexico. He is a political analyst at the Mexican Institute of Radio, Radio Formula, among others. In 2012, he moderated the presidential debate of the #Yosoy132 movement. He has also contributed to the television programs Foro Global, Sin Filter, and Punto y Contrapunto at ForoTV.

See Genaro Lozano at 360: Where We Stand and 360: Where We Go.

Abdul-Rehman Malik
Lecturer, Yale Divinity School; journalist and cultural organizer (Canada)
Abdul-Rehman Malik is an award-winning journalist, educator, and cultural organizer. In June 2019, he was appointed lecturer and associate research scholar at the Yale Divinity School. He also serves as the program coordinator at Yale University’s Council on Middle East Studies, and is responsible for developing curricula and partnerships with public schools to promote better cultural, language, and religious literacy about the Middle East to educators and students alike.

Malik also serves as director of the Muslim Leadership Lab, an innovative student leadership program being incubated at the Dwight Hall Center of Social Justice at Yale. He is also the programs manager at the Radical Middle Way, which offers powerful, faith-inspired guidance and tools to enable change, combat exclusion and violence, and promote social justice for all. His work has spanned the United Kingdom, United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sudan, Mali, Morocco, Singapore, Canada, and Malaysia.

Malik is a frequent journalist for BBC Radio, offering contemporary perspectives on contemporary spirituality. Until 2018, he regularly presented the popular Pause for Thought segment on Radio 2 and Something Understood on Radio 4.

In addition to providing curation and content guidance to a variety of cultural and literary institutions, Malik works to create platforms at the intersection of arts and social change. In January 2015, he became director — a voluntary position — of the Insight Film Festival, a unique year-round festival that celebrates the intersection between faith and film.

See Abdul-Rehman Malik at the Opening Circle, Coffeehouse and What’s Next.

Mexico City Gay Chorus

The Mexico City Gay Chorus is a choir founded by Mexicans who are committed to an international movement made up of members of the LGBT population, producing high-quality shows for engaged audiences around the world.

The Mexico City Gay Chorus comprises more than 80 members. It is a movement that brings together characteristics that are not easy to find: a cultural activity that is representative of the LGBT population, a social cause that is in great demand, with a positive image, a large group of people involved in the activity, and professionals belonging to different fields. The chorus organizes shows based on choral music, according to the place, the event, the commemoration of a representative date for the LGBT+ population and the general population.

See the Mexico City Gay Chorus after What’s Next?

Yasir Naqvi
Chief executive officer, Institute for Canadian Citizenship (Canada)
Yasir Naqvi is the chief executive officer of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), Canada’s leading voice on citizenship and inclusion. Prior to joining the ICC, Naqvi served as a Member of Provincial Parliament for almost 11 years, representing a downtown, urban and diverse community in Ottawa, Ontario. In that time, he served as the attorney general of Ontario, Government House Leader, the minister of labour, and the minister of community safety and correctional services. Naqvi was also a member of the Treasury Board and Management Board of Cabinet.

Before being elected, Naqvi was the associate director and international trade counsel at the Centre for Trade Policy and Law (CTPL), a non-profit think-tank affiliated with Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. He also practiced international trade, competition, regulatory and administrative law with major law firms in Ottawa. In addition, he has served as a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, and a guest lecturer at Carleton University.

Naqvi is recognized by his peers as a strong community leader and involved resident of Ottawa. He has been cited as a “Community Builder” by United Way Ottawa and listed as one of the “Top 50 People in the Capital” by Ottawa Life magazine. In 2018, he was named on Canadian Lawyer’s “Top 25 Most Influential” list for advancing technological modernization in Ontario’s justice system. Most recently, Naqvi received the Lincoln Alexander Award by the Law Society of Ontario.

See Yasir Naqvi at the Opening Circle and What’s Next.

The Hon. Ratna Omidvar, C.M., O.Ont,
Independent senator, Ontario, Senate of Canada (Canada/India/Iran)
Ratna Omidvar is an internationally recognized voice on migration, diversity, and inclusion. In April 2016, she was appointed to the Senate of Canada as an independent senator representing Ontario. As a member of the Senate’s Independent Senators Group, she holds a leadership position as the scroll manager. Senator Omidvar also served as deputy chair of the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector.

Senator Omidvar is a councillor on the World Refugee Council, a director at the Samara Centre for Democracy, and Chair Emerita for the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council.

Previously at Ryerson University, Senator Omidvar was a distinguished visiting professor and founded the Global Diversity Exchange

Senator Omidvar was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2005 and became a Member of the Order of Canada in 2011, with both honours recognizing her advocacy work on behalf of immigrants and devotion to reducing inequality in Canada. In 2014, Senator Omidvar received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of her contribution to the advancement of German-Canadian relations. She is the co-author of the book Flight and Freedom: Stories of Escape to Canada (2015).

See Ratna Omidvar at Where We Stand.

Pambo
Musician and activist (Mexico)
Pambo is one of Mexico’s most beloved and multifaceted artists and activists. She has an outstanding capacity to transmit emotions as a composer and singer.

In her album La Princesa Caballero, Pambo shows a new side, collaborating with award-winning Mexican musicians such as Alejandro Sanz and Kinky. She has also composed for artists such as Reik, Alek Syntek, Eiza Gonzalez, and Danna Paola.

Pambo’s track “Perdón” was named the most played track in Mexico by SACM (Sociedad de Autores y compositores de México) in 2007, as was “Ya Me Enteré”, performed by Reik, in 2017. In 2018, “Ya Me Enteré” was awarded the BMI Latin Award in Los Angeles for most played Spanish song in the U.S.

Pambo is also a former ambassador for AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Mexico and is the current spokesperson and operator of #LoveArmyMexico, a humanitarian project with the purpose of rebuilding communities affected by the 2017 earthquake in central and southern Mexico.

Pambo has composed over 200 songs and is one of the first openly queer female singers in the country. She is increasingly becoming one of the leading voices on diversity in Mexico.

See Pambo at Art, Activism and the Culture of Connection.

Irma Pineda
Professor and Zapotec poet (Mexico)
Born in Juchitán, Oaxaca, Mexico, Irma Pineda Santiago is a professor at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional and an adviser to the National Congress. She has published several books of bilingual poetry, including most recently: Naxiña’ Rului’ladxe’-Rojo Deseo (Pluralia, 2018) and Chupa Ladxidua’- Dos es mi Corazón (Secretaría de Cultura, 2018). Her essays have been published by the University of Siena, Italy; the Unistmo, DGCP and Colegio de Guerrero A.C.

She has been president of Escritores en Lenguas Indígenas A.C., and held grants from FONCA and the National System of Art Creators of Mexico. Her work has been translated into English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Serbian and Russian and appears in a number of anthologies published in the United States and Europe.

Pineda Santiago has undertaken artistic residencies at the Banff International Literary Translation Centre in Alberta, Canada; at the Helen Riaboff Whiteley Center of Washington University in the U.S.; and at the Casa de Arte Calles y Sueños in Chicago, U.S.

This year, she was named representative of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean before the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, for the period 2020-2022.

See Irma Pineda Santiago at Where We Stand.

Plaqueta (Tamara De Anda)
Journalist, feminist, author (Mexico)
Plaqueta was born and raised in Mexico City, and she is a proud Chilanga, avid walker, feminist, big eater, and “adultescent”. She studied Communications at UNAM, was one of the most widely read bloggers in Mexico, and began working in media in 2005. Among other things, she was an editor at the Ogilvy advertising agency, editor at Gatopardo magazine, author of the blog Crisis de los 30 in El Universal newspaper, and hosted the radio talk show Macho en rehabilitación at Radio Fórmula. She collaborates on Chilango magazine, is one of the hosts of the show Itinerario on Channel 11, and participates in the Standuperras feminist comedy collective. She is co-author of the book #AmigaDateCuenta, published by Planeta.

See Plaqueta at the Opening Circle, Coffeehouse and What’s Next?

Zoey Roy
Community-based educator, poet, performing artist (Canada)
Zoey “Pricelys” Roy is a leader, educator, activist, advocate, and multidisciplinary performance artist. Currently a PhD candidate at York University, she completed her master of public policy, and bachelor of education through SUNTEP, at the University of Saskatchewan. She is of Cree/Déne/Métis heritage from northern Saskatchewan.

Roy is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Indigenous Graduate Leadership Award, CBC Saskatchewan’s Top 40 under 40 in 2018, the 3M National Student Fellowship, and the National Indspire Métis Youth Award in 2016. She received the YWCA Women of Distinction Award and National Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award in 2013, as well as the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

A published author, musician/educator, and community engagement consultant, Roy specializes in youth engagement and community-based solutions to deep-rooted colonial issues in Canada, including suicide prevention and life celebration, Indigenous creation and creativity, and sex trafficking. Under the stage name Pricelys, she has performed storytelling, music, rap, and spoken word across North America. Working frequently as an artist in residence, most recently at Uganda’s Kibale National Park, she co-developed an Indigenous Artist in Residency at the University of Saskatchewan, and was an adviser to the Ministry of Justice in 2019. Facilitating many workshops on diverse issues in various genres, she has also directed, mentored, and produced videos, campaigns, film and film camps, plays, and creation processes.

See Zoey at Mexico and Canada: An Indigenous perspective on inclusion.

Lidia San José
Actress and equal rights advocate (Spain/Mexico)
Lidia San José Segura was born in Madrid. At age six, she began studying painting and acting. When she was 11, she started working as an actress, starring in her first film a year later. From a young age, San José combined acting with academics, and she graduated with a degree in history and a specialty in American anthropology from the Complutense University of Madrid.

She divides her life between acting and social causes, having traveled to several conflict zones such as Palestine, Ciudad Juarez and Guatemala, with an organization that combats gender violence.

See Lidia San José in 360: Where We Stand.

Gladys Sanmiguel Bejarano
Secretary of Social Integration, Mayor’s Office of Bogotá (Colombia)
Gladys Sanmiguel Bejarano is a lawyer with 15 years of experience working in the field of social responsibility. She graduated from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, with a specialization in communications from the Universidad de los Andes and studies in Defense and National Security at the Escuela Superior de Guerra.

She was formerly director of the Corporación General Gustavo Matamoros and deputy chief of mission at the Colombian Embassy in Washington, responsible for the planning, development and implementation of actions and processes in cultural, educational, social and sports issues, disseminating the country’s success stories.

She served as director of the Migrant Support Plan of the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá, making significant progress in providing humanitarian assistance to the Venezuelan population living in the capital. Currently, she is the district Secretary for Social Integration at the Mayor’s Office, the body in charge of supporting vulnerable populations in the city of Bogotá. From this position, she leads the public policy of inclusion and the programs providing support for children, youth, LGBTI, homeless people, families, people in old age, migrants and people with disabilities.

See Gladys Sanmiguel Bejarano at 360: Where We Go

John Ralston Saul
Essayist, novelist, and co-founder and co-chair of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (Canada)
John Ralston Saul proposes a new humanism through what he calls responsible individualism. His 14 works have been translated into 29 languages in 38 countries. His philosophical trilogy and its conclusion — Voltaire’s Bastards, The Doubter’s Companion, The Unconscious Civilization and On Equilibrium: Six Qualities of the New Humanism — has impacted political thought in many countries.

In A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada, he argues that modern Canada is profoundly shaped by Indigenous ideas. He is general editor of the Extraordinary Canadians biographical series and contributed his own biography of Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin. The Comeback, his latest release, explores how Indigenous Peoples are empowering themselves for a grand return to a position of power and influence.

Saul is president emeritus of PEN International, and founder and honorary chair of French for the Future. He also founded the LaFontaine-Baldwin Lecture. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario and a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (an Order of France). His many literary awards include Chile’s Pablo Neruda International Presidential Medal of Honour, the Governor General’s Award, and the inaugural Gutenberg Galaxy Award.

Gabrielle Scrimshaw
CEO, Indvest (Treaty 10 Territory, Canada)
Gabrielle Scrimshaw is the CEO of Indvest, a consulting and investing firm creating Indigenous social and economic impact. She has an MBA from Stanford and is a Gleitsman Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University. A regular contributor to Canada’s largest national media outlets, Gabrielle has been profiled by the New York Times, Forbes, and the Globe and Mail, among others.

Growing up in a town of 800 people in Canada’s north, Scrimshaw was raised in a single-parent household and is a proud citizen of the Hatchet Lake First Nation. A first-generation student, she was named “One of 3 Young Aboriginal Canadians to Watch” by the Huffington Post.

Over the past decade, she has studied international business and policy across six continents. Scrimshaw is the co-founder and past president of the Aboriginal Professional Association of Canada, a non-profit considered a global thought leader in Indigenous leadership.

Sopitas (Francisco Alanís)
Entrepreneur and journalist (Mexico)
As an avid follower of music and sports, Sopitas got his first start in media in 1997, at Mexico City’s most popular radio station for young audiences, Radioactivo 98.5 FM, where he worked with the promotion and marketing team. Two years later, he joined El Mañanero along with Julio, Rulo and El Cha, and the show became an essential reference for young people in the city.

Later, he moved to Reactor 105.7 FM, and in 2002, began to write a sports column for Mexico’s Record newspaper. During this time, he covered several World Cup soccer finals, two Super Bowls and several final matches in the UEFA Champions League.

In addition to radio and print, Sopitas started a blog in 2006 at Sopitas.com which is now a leader in social networks. The site registers more than 18 million visits a month and has 3.1 million Twitter followers.

In 2011, the Academic Court of Public Image Consultants Association awarded Sopitas the National Public Image Award. In 2014 and 2015, he was named among the 300 most influential leaders in Mexico by the magazine Lideres Mexicanos.

See Sopitas at 360: Where We Stand.

Hannah Töpler
Founder and director of INTRARE (Germany)
Hannah Töpler is the founder and director of INTRARE, a social enterprise kickstarting public and private sector companies, along with society in general, to facilitate the economic and social integration of refugees. Currently based in Mexico, INTRARE provides human-centered services for both newcomers and the host communities. Töpler is also the executive director and governance coordinator at Oxfam Mexico, an organization focused on fighting inequality. There, as part of the management team, she is responsible for developing the organization’s influence strategy with a focus on improving efficiency for impact. She is also a consultant guiding the organization in its new program on migration.

Prior to this, Töpler worked with the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, and with the German representation to the United Nations in Geneva. She has a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, and a certificate in international labor migration from Oxford University.

See Hannah Töpler in 360: Where We Go.