John Patterson is a long-time supporter of ICA Canada who has been recognized by many for his valuable contributions to society. Needless to say, it was truly an hounour that he was able to join us to share his experiences on how he utilized the power of participation (Technology of Participation methodologies) to create thriving and sustainable enterprises such as Kanbay, a global IT firm that operated in India and Abbey Gardens, a not-for-profit charity whose mission is to enhance sustainable living in Haliburton, Ontario. While there were numerous takeaways from John’s talk, one comment worth highlighting that spurred a great discussion in the room, was the idea around values-based businesses. According to John, building companies that are rooted in a culture of care and community has been the key to his success. John’s talk will be posted soon, so please do look out for that!

We would also like to take this opportunity to recognize our outgoing board members, Hodan Ahmed, Christine Pinto and Virginia Kanyogonya for their service and on-going contributions to ICA. We are grateful for their incredible leadership over the last couple of years and look forward to our continued relationship and work together. We would also like to welcome our new board member, Nancy Richardson, who was unanimously voted in by our membership at this year’s AGM. We are very excited to work with Nancy who joins the board with a strong background in business development, performance and sustainability.

2017 was a year of growth, lots of great learnings that have set the tone for 2018. We look forward to sharing regular updates with you. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about our work including how you can get involved, please contact us at: ica@icacan.org.