Natalie Voland represents Canadian Social Innovation at Obama’s Distinguished 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit
President Barack Obama highlights his commitment to building bridges that help us tackle global challenges together by hosting the 7th annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES2016) in Silicon Valley June 22-24. GES2016 states: “When we connect global entrepreneurs with the access and exchange needed to create and innovate, we unleash their power to change the world.”
“GES 2016 aims to showcase inspiring entrepreneurs and investors from around the world creating new opportunities for investment, partnership, and collaboration; connect American entrepreneurs and investors with international counterparts to form lasting relationships; and highlight entrepreneurship as means to address some of the most intractable global challenges.” – GES 2016
Natalie Voland was nominated to attend this exclusive conference by Vicki Heyman, the wife and partner of US Ambassador to Canada, Bruce Heyman. Vicki Heyman is working on fostering Social Innovation opportunities as part of her mandate in Canada and to connect entrepreneurs across the border providing opportunities for exchange on using business as a force for good.
Extremely interested in social innovation, Vicki learned about the Gestion Immobilière Quo Vadis development Le Salon 1861. Originally built by the Sulpicians, with the help of local volunteers as a staple for the community of Little Burgundy in 1861, St. Joseph’s Church was an inclusive place to meet, celebrate and find support. Overtime, the church fell into economic hardship and the community was faced with a challenge to save this breathtaking building before losing another part of its history. Reconstructed in 2015 by GI Quo Vadis, Le Salon 1861, a Je Fais MTL initiative, was built to reconnect people to collective space and break the silos between sectors of our society. Earlier this year, Vicki Heyman asked Natalie Voland to gather 12 additional local social innovators for a think tank afternoon at Le Salon 1861. Vicki Heyman’s office later nominated Natalie Voland to attend the prestigious 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit.
“One day we will no longer have to speak about social innovation in business, it will just be the way business is done.’ says Natalie Voland, president and owner of GI Quo Vadis. “Social innovation is about the fact that you look beyond shareholders to stakeholders and make decisions applying long term sustainable practices. Entrepreneurs have the highest prospect for innovation and job creation and that is why I support them.”
GI Quo Vadis is an award winning, multidisciplinary, mission-based real estate developer, specializing in retrofitting historically relevant buildings into entrepreneurial ecosystems. As a Quebec leader in the B Corporation movement, using business as a force for good with a triple bottom line model: Profit, People, Planet, GI Quo Vadis manages over 1.5 million square feet of property.
