Our team
Geneviève Leclerc
CEO & Co-Founder
Genevieve Leclerc, our visionary co-founder, and CEO, brings over 25 years of expertise in the business events and tourism sectors. She is a catalyst for innovation, applying design thinking and impact management practices to drive transformative change.
Genevieve has trained numerous destination teams in implementing frameworks for managing a more impactful visitor economy. Her extensive network and deep understanding of community and business tourism sectors position her as a leading force for social impact.
Julia Tremblay
Operations Manager
Julia supports organizations in their strategic and innovation ambitions. As she is specialized in project management and strategy, she has participated in developing several strategies and innovation projects.
During her master’s degree, she became passionate about positive societal impact and the ability of this concept to improve the sustainability path of organizations.
Julia aspires to actively participate in the changes leading to a sustainable ecological and social transition.
Samuel Miron
Research and Data Coordinator
Samuel is a researcher in urban studies who received his bachelor's degree in urban planning and a master’s degree in urban studies from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) with a focus on 'Temporary Urbanism'. Samuel's research is centered on social impact assessment and social innovation.
During his studies, he created a support kit to measure, increase, and sustain the impact of transitional occupation projects. This experience provided him with valuable insights to contribute to data management and achieving impact assessment goals.
Beatriz Ibáñez
Senoir Social Impact Consultant
Beatriz is an entrepreneur and intrapreneur with 20 years of management experience in the MICE sector (corporate tourism, congresses & events). She has founded many organizations supporting her passion for the event sector’s sustainability, social and environmental positive impact such as SITevents, working with companies and organizations from around the world in designing and producing events and corporate experiences that are unique and memorable, but also environmentally and socially responsible.
She is actively working to boost and grow the event sector’s impact community by leading projects that connect entrepreneurs, destinations, and organizations, to generate change.
Leila Salazar
Communications Coordiantor and Research Assistant
Leila, an Anthropology specialist and member of Concordia University's Institute of Cooperative Education, explores sustainability in social, environmental, and economic systems globally and locally. Integrating multimedia art into coursework, Leila addresses social issues and volunteers with non-profits to promote sustainability awareness
. As our communications coordinator and content writer, Leila amplifies #MEET4IMPACT's innovation through diverse media, enhancing team communication methods. Empowering and connecting communities through accessible and educational content is Leila's core mission.
Fathma Khalid
Social Impact Consultant
Fathma is a Social Impact Measurement Consultant, working with businesses and organisations to track and measure the social impact they create. Experienced with methods including Social Return on Investment, Logical Frameworks and Theory of Change, Fathma prioritises understanding the key indicators needed to determine success and building them into a compelling story.
She founded Social Impact Reporting, a consultancy that provides practical impact measurement and reporting services.
​​​
Jessica Vandy
Senoir Social Impact Consultant
For the past two decades, Jessica has worked extensively in convention centres, hotels, events, catering, and tourism across Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia. Notably, she spent five years on the international bid team at Tourism New Zealand, securing international conferences. In 2020, she launched her consultancy, The Tenth Letter, to help the tourism and events sector create strategies for social change. Jessica is a crucial team member to our international consultant team and teaches in their 'Impact Strategy and Management Masterclass' at GDS-Academy. Additionally Jessica is a changemaker at the GDS-Movement supporting and growing their presence in the Asia Pacific region.
Our collaborators
Alexis Kereluk
ConnectSeven Group
As an innovative sustainable destination strategist, Alexis has been bringing forth unique and impactful tourism projects for over 10 years.
​
With strengths in project management, research, stakeholder engagement and environmental analysis, Alexis has led the development and/or analysis of numerous tourism impact and development projects around the world.
​​​
Guy Bigwood
CEO, GDS-Movement
For the last 15 years, Guy has been delivering award-winning consulting
services focused on helping cities, governments, corporations and
associations step up, scale up and speed up their sustainability
programmes and regenerative practices. Guy’s pioneering work has been recognised with 22 sustainability awards including the Events Industry
Council Pacesetter Award, and recognition as a Fellow of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment.
Nelson Jean-Francois
NelsonJF Consulting
Credentialed Evaluator (CE) and member of the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES), Nelson has over 10 years of experience working with multiple stakeholders to develop monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems (logic model, PMF, ToC) and undertake process, outcome, and impact evaluations. Prioritizing results-based management (RBM) and community-based evaluation approaches, he has already conducted over 50 evaluations and developed more than 100 M&E systems for organizations in the public, private and non-profit sectors.
Martin Sirk
Sirk Serendipity
Martin Sirk, from Sirk Serendipity, is the International Advisor to the Global Association Hubs Partnership, working with partner cities like Brussels, Dubai, Singapore, and Washington DC to help associations achieve global development goals. He also advises Wordly, Inc., and Kubify, focusing on meeting interactivity.
With a rich background as the former CEO of ICCA, Martin specializes in meeting design, association strategy, the societal and economic impact of meetings, destination marketing, and the future of the meetings industry. Based in Amsterdam and the USA, he divides his time between these locations for project work.
Meeting Change
Sustainability and social impact consultant, author and speaker focused on high-impact initiatives for the business events industry. Events industry professional with specialisations in sustainability and pricing. Executive Editor, Events Industry Council Manual, 9th Edition, Co-author, Meet Better: 167 Easy Ways to Make Your Events More Environmentally and Socially Responsible, Co-author, Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Meetings Industry.
Our research collaborators
Mohamed Reda Khomsi
Researcher
Mohamed Reda Khomsi is a professor of Tourism Governance, event management and E-Tourism at the Department of Urban Studies and Tourism in the School of Management at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada.
​
Holder of a Phd.D in urban studies, his research focuses on the impact of major events, analysis of the event framework, history of events, smart destinations and governance models.
Corinne Gendron
Researcher
Corrine is a professor at the Department of social and environmental responsibility at the UQAM’s School of Sciences of management. She is a lawyer, a sociologist and holds an MBA. Among other things, her work addresses the new regulations, social acceptability and the governance systems in the context of globalization. She is a member of the Academy of Technology and received the Legion of Honour (France).
Reseacher
Mike is an Associate Professor of Events at the University of Surrey, previously heading the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management. He directs the 'Observatory for Human Rights and Major Events' (HaRM), recognized as the UK's official Olympic Studies Centre by the International Olympic Committee. As Editor-in-Chief of Event Management since November 2021, he specialises in optimising the impact of events and festivals, offering strategic and tactical solutions for diverse event types.
Our partners
