Allyson Hewitt: Social Entrepreneur; Social Innovator; Educator; Vice-President Impact, MaRS Discovery District

This week, Stephen Ibaraki has an exclusive interview with Allyson Hewitt.

As the Senior Fellow, Social Innovation at MaRS, Allyson assisted hundreds of social ventures to become economically sustainable and increase their social impact. She led Social Innovation Generation (SiG) at MaRS which helped create a culture of social innovation in Canada. She developed and now supports the Centre for Impact Investing; Solutions Lab; and (formerly) Studio Y.

Currently Allyson is working with the McConnell Foundation to engage corporate Canada in solving our most complex challenges through the creation of the Business for Purpose Network.

She was one of 17 members of a federal government steering group to co-create a social innovation and social finance strategy for Canada. One of the recommendations from that group resulted in a $805M contribution to social finance over ten years from the federal government.

Allyson just wrapped up her tenure as the Thinker in Residence for the Social Capital Residency in South Australia; she was most recently the Social Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Waterloo where she was a lecturer in social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility; she advised the Dean of the Business School at Ryerson University on these issues as well and she is a member of the Social Impact Faculty at SingularityU Canada.

Allyson's social innovation is 211 which has just been made available across the country. Her academic background is in Criminology, Law, Public Affairs, Voluntary Sector Management and coaching.

TO WATCH THE VIDEO INTERVIEW, CLICK ON THIS MP4 file link