David Hughes is the President and CEO of Generate Canada, a not-for-profit organization that for 30 years has been bringing together leaders from government, business, academia and civil society to drive change aimed at strengthening Canada’s economy, and the natural and social systems on which it depends.
Under David’s leadership the organization has experienced seven-fold growth, significantly expanded it’s partnership base, and scaled impact by developing a national platform of pre-competitive innovation labs called ‘Solution Spaces’. This ever-evolving portfolio of systems-change initiatives now include CANZA (the Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agri-food, the Canada Plastics Pact, Circular Construction Canada, the Energy Futures Lab, the Nature Investment Hub, and a soon-to-be launched platform for catalyzing blended sustainable finance solutions for regenerative oceans initiatives.
David previously served as President & CEO of Habitat for Humanity Canada and Pathways to Education Canada during periods of unprecedented growth and impact. Prior to that he spent 10 years working for the Secretary General of the SOS Children’s Villages International which included senior postings to Africa, Asia, Europe, USA and the United Nations (New York and Vienna).
David is a Senior Fellow of the Smart Prosperity Institute and has previously served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Stem Cell Foundation, AIESEC Canada, and the Canadian branch of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project.
He holds a degree from the University of Western Ontario in economics, a postgraduate degree from the London School of Economics (LSE) in social policy and social impact, an executive leadership certificate from Harvard University, and has been recognized as a Clean50 Honouree for “outstanding contribution to clean capitalism”.
