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LEADING THE CHARGE

True pioneers don’t wait for change; they ignite it. In an era marked by unprecedented transformation, the world of business increasingly looks to leaders who challenge the status quo, architect new possibilities, and carve out pathways others have yet to imagine. These are the individuals who turn bold ideas into tangible impact and set the direction for entire industries.

In this special edition, “The 5 Most Pioneering Business Leaders to Follow in 2025,” we spotlight the forward-thinkers redefining what modern leadership looks like. These trailblazers combine vision with execution, innovation with purpose, and strategy with courage. They are reshaping business models, reimagining customer experiences, and inspiring cultures where creativity, agility, and progress thrive.

On our cover, we proudly feature Madeleine Jarl, the founder of ZAZA&LILI. Madeleine specializes in bringing a unique perspective to the design, infusing each piece with balance, movement, and strength. Passionate about creating meaningful connections with her community, Madeleine values authenticity, kindness, and trust in all her endeavors.

This edition celebrates leaders like Madeleine who are rewriting the rules of business through ingenuity, resilience, and relentless forward motion.

As you explore Madeleine’s story, we invite you to dive deeper into additional leadership features and expertly curated articles crafted by our in-house editorial team.

Happy Reading ....!

Note

Founder | Zaza&Lili

Madeleine JARL

Aylin Alpay: An Afﬂuent Business Woman with an Indomitable Spirit

How Can You Improve Your Business Reputation Without Costing Yourself A Fortune? C O N T E N T S Article

Nan Morrison: A Dynamic Businesswoman and Catalyst for the Digital Transformation of the Council for Economic Education

Keith Jansa: A Prominent Corporate Leader and Key Executive of the Digital Governance Council

Matt Gardner: Helping Entrepreneurs Accelerate Growth

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Nan Morrison

A Dynamic Businesswoman and Catalyst for the Digital Transformation of the Council for Economic Education

From a search amongst women leaders in business who are flourishing as changemakers, we are excited to introduce a seasoned leader, builder, problem-solver, and change agent who brings a special blend of strategic and operational expertise to efforts in the private and non-profit sectors.

Nan J. Morrison, President and CEO of the Council for Economic Education (CEE), is acknowledged as a thought leader in the field and has been sought after and quoted by numerous publications, including the New York Times, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg; she has also spoken at the Milken Global Conference. Nan holds a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Yale University (magna cum laude) and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, with second-year honors. She has completed seven triathlons.

Nan is a critical thinker who is skilled at cutting through complexity, assessing risk, making decisions and - most importantly - knowing how to get things done. She enjoys helping organizations grow and improve. Being a CEO combines these capabilities and passions – a wonderful match and adventure.

This inspiring leader has a solid background in technology from her work as a partner at BCG and Accenture, experience she has brought to her role leading the Council for Economic Education's

digital transformation. She is knowledgeable about how to use data and technology to meet customer needs and increase profitability. As a dependable relationship builder she has developed team-based collaborative cultures to maintain and motivate talent and build long-lasting relationships with a variety of stakeholders.

Council for Economic Education at a Glance

CEE is a renowned national organization that has trained teachers to teach economics and personal finance to K–12 students for over 70 years. Initially, they used books and workbooks to instruct instructors in economics in small workshops. They continue to teach educators today, but they also now include personal finance. Online options now have a significant role in how they provide teacher training, student programs and classroom lessons (EconEdLink.org), while they continue to offer robust in-person options where relevant. Since its founding they have also taken on an increasingly active advocacy role to increase state requirements for personal finance and economics in K-12 schools.

CEE’s mission is to provide personal financial and economic education to all K–12 children so they can make better decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities.

They carry out their mission by advocating for fair access to this education in every state, by giving teachers training and resources to improve their subject-matter expertise and self-confidence, and by offering high school student programs that encourage learning through competitions and career preparation.

Towards a Solid Path to Financial Stability and Economic Mobility

CEE is focused on equitable access to financial and economic education. Today, about half the states require personal finance or economics to be taught in high school, and in states where these subjects are not required to be taught, students from low and moderate-income communities have the least access to these subjects. It is crucial to teach this material in school since for a variety of reasons these students are less likely to gain an understanding of personal finance and the economy at home.

CEE’s Invest in Girls program is especially focused on introducing low- and moderate-income girls of color to the possibility of a career in financial services, which can provide a strong path to financial stability and economic mobility.

CEE’s Access Zone program has brought financial education to low emoderate income of communities and has dramatically increased the participation of black and Hispanic students in CEE’s National Personal Finance Challenge to nearly 40%.

Standing Ahead of the Competition

The primary characteristic that distinguishes CEE is its outstanding quality. Their teacher feedback surveys consistently receive favorable scores of 90% or higher, and all of the classes and professional development sessions are created and implemented by actual educators. Their advocacy efforts have had an impact on important states. Their student contests are unique.

CEE hires based on a person's capability. Their diverse team is comprised of more than two-thirds women and two-thirds people of color, resulting in diverse opinions which tend to create stronger outcomes.

"CEE is unique in its commitment to excellence, adherence to our mission, and leadership through our values, which include trust, honesty, respect for the individual, teamwork, transparency, and inclusivity. We have constructed our Access Zone program to ensure equal access for all children, identified a scalable methodology for educator training that is sustainable and leverageable to reach many students, and built a coalition to get more standards to teach our courses in place” Nan notes.

Take on Women's Entrepreneurship

Everyone has a choice about whether or not they wish to run something. If you are starting a business or considering a change in your existing environment, thinking about how things may be improved or altered is a useful perspective, and something I would urge everyone to undertake.

Hurdles on the Way

Although Nan has had many influential male mentors and supporters, she notes that, as a woman, she was frequently required to demonstrate something in order to advance to the next level, whereas men did so more rapidly based on their trajectory and ability.

Syncing with the Latest Advancements

Teachers and students are the organization’s primary customers and Nan and her team make it a point to consult them when making changes to what and how they educate. This feedback resulted in CEE in adding extra courses on cyber security to

their risk-based curriculum standard. They can also quickly respond by posting new or updated lessons online, as they did for analysing COVID's economic effects and to help children comprehend the true significance of market moves surrounding GameStop.

Achievements and Milestones Along the Way

CEE’s award-winning Financial Fitness for Life curriculum is not only popular with teachers but is often a go-to resource for researchers in the field. Their biennial Survey of the States, a focal point of their advocacy activity, is frequently cited and referred to as the authority on the state of financial and economic education in the US. Through their national network of affiliates, they reach over 40,000 K–12 teachers annually, who in turn reach over 4,000,000 students. CEE’s online teacher resource EconEdLink, has over 500,000 users annually,

Road Ahead

Nan is highly focused on scaling the key programs, with the overall theme of creating equitable access. CEE’s current plans include building on their successful advocacy initiative, growing their National Personal Finance Challenge and Invest in Girls programs, and continuing to leverage new technologies to reach every teacher and student in effective and relevant ways.

Giving Back to the Community

Nan has the good fortune to oversee a business that carries this out daily. She believes that giving back includes any action - no matter how small - that the recipient sees as beneficial. Simple acts like guiding an elderly person across the street or connecting someone to a job lead can have a big impact.

Nan’s Secret Formula of Success

Listen; keep moving ahead; be willing to make decisions even if they are not popular; speak up with your ideas; work smart and with care. Advocate for yourself and build meaningful relationships.

When we talk about a business leader with breakthrough solutions and who inspires others with his unwavering commitment to his field, one name that comes to mind is Keith Jansa, Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Governance Council (DGC).

Keith works with senior leaders to safeguard Canadians participating in the digital economy while together strengthening Canada's position in an increasing digital world. He has over 15 years of experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors and is renown for his expertise in strategic application of standards. His unparalleled acumen in devising strategies for responsible data and digital governance has earned DGC the distinction as preeminent technology leadership council globally.

Keith’s Professional and Personal Life: At a Glance

Keith is a charismatic and dynamic leader with razor-sharp focus on meeting strategic objectives. He is a provincially appointed member of the Ontario Health Data Council and Chair of its strategic working group on Data Governance and Data Stewardship. Keith also

Keith Jansa

CEO | Digital Governance Council

A Prominent Corporate Leader and Key Execu�ve of the Digital Governance Council

serves as a member of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario’s Strategic Advisory Council and Ontario’s Trustworthy AI Framework Working Group. He is called to testify as an expert before parliamentary and senate committees, contributing to government reports and legislative proposals to enhance trust and confidence in the digital economy. Keith graduated with honors from the University of Ottawa with a degree in health sciences. Keith is happily married to Kayla and is the loving father of their three children.

Revolutionary Changes by the Digital Governance Council

Accreditation

Keith led the development of national standards to enhance Canada's digital economy by providing executive leadership in the design and successful accreditation of the organization's standards-setting process.

Significance: Lawmaking and regulation lag the development of new technologies. Standards define acceptable practices, and technical specifications, and

occasionally modernize cumbersome regulations. Without standards, there would be no way to measure success, no way to ensure product safety, no way to integrate worldwide markets with a single technology, and most definitely no way to allow for healthy competition.

Specifics: Through their agile, open-by-default, consensus-based approach, DGC has accelerated the standards-setting process in Canada to match the speed of innovation and advancement in ICT, developing new standards in months, not years, and making them readily available at no cost to organizations and individuals. Comprised of hundreds of thought leaders and experts cutting across various economic sectors from coast to coast, the hard work of their technical committees led to the publication and development of critical standards for data governance, AI ethics, digital identity, cybersecurity, and more.

Exporting Canadian expertise

As a trailblazing champion, Keith paved the way for the DGC Digital Governance Standards Institute (DGSI) to attain esteemed recognition from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), enabling the submission of its standards and specifications for review and acknowledgement as global standards. Leading digital nations, including Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Ukraine, helped them attain this important goal.

Significance: DGC DGSI is now empowered to set the agenda and lean in on having international standards serve Canada's interests, Canadian innovation, best practices, and knowledge as a result of this international recognition. This is a game-changer for Canada in terms of accelerating the adoption of innovations and know-how produced in this country around the world. Only a small number of organizations have achieved this high status worldwide, including DGC DGSI.

Specifics: This process guarantees that Canadians hold the pen and are fully engaged in the international approval process for how emerging digital technologies are governed globally. The process also results in the DGSI standards carrying both the ISO and IEC logos.

Protecting Children’s Rights

Bill S-210, An Act to Restrict Young Persons' Online Access to Sexually Explicit Material, has swiftly passed its third reading in the Senate in April 2023, a year after Keith Jansa was humbled to testify before the Senate of Canada Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. Senator Miville-Dechene proposed an amendment to the Bill based on his testimony during a clause-by-clause review in committee before the third reading in the Senate.

Significance: By establishing adequate protections for the use of age verification technologies with children, the Bill now protects children's rights. In doing so, it also supports Canada's commitment to upholding the rights of children under the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child and the OECD Recommendations on Children in the Digital Environment.

Specifics: Before the Governor-in-Council orders organizations that distribute sexually explicit content online to use an age verification method, the method must be dependable, respect user privacy and protect their personal information, collect and use that information only for age verification purposes, destroy any personal information collected for that purpose after the verification is finished, and adhere to best practices in the fields of age verification and privacy protection.

Addressing the Major Industry Hurdles

With increasing reliance on digital systems and data in nearly every aspect of modern life, the need for strong digital governance has never been greater. These problems cannot be solved by one organization alone. It will take coordinated efforts from all sectors of the economy to gain the public's trust in digital technologies. The work of DGC is essential for this reason. DGC maintains its reputation as a dependable forum for mobilizing people around shared digital agendas. This is reflected in membership growth. And the members' contributions continue to be a key factor in why their work together is so effective at defending the interests of all Canadians.

Delivering Digital Governance in Canada’s Digital Economy

DGC works to provide Canadians with confidence in the

responsible design, architecture, and management of digital technologies. It convenes senior leaders from diverse sectors to engage in strategic discussions and the exchange of best practices, collaborates on proving out new digital technologies, designs global technology governance standards through the DGSI, and certifies organizations in the responsible use of digital technologies.

The work of the DGC DGSI continues to advance standards that lessen risk for Canadians and Canadian organizations adopting and utilizing breakthrough digital technologies in today's digital economy in collaboration with specialists, national and international partners, and the general public. DGSI is an independent division of DGC.

DGSI is Canada’s only accredited standards development organization solely focused on digital technology governance.

The Digital Governance Council’s Sustainable IT Pledge

Leading Canadian organizations have made a commitment to assist in reducing the negative environmental effects of growing internet and technology use, which already produces more greenhouse gases than the aviation sector and is on track to account for 8% of emissions by 2025. With the Sustainable IT Pledge, public and private sector organizations in Canada have for the first time agreed to reduce emissions associated with their IT operations. The signatories have pledged to:

● Take steps to address emissions from their IT operations by, for instance, optimizing their systems to reduce data processing volumes, using cloud-based services where possible, and extending the service life of devices by refurbishing existing assets instead of buying replacements.

● Set realistic emissions goals for their IT operations and publicly report your success.

● Establish strict sustainability criteria for vendors while assisting Canada's cleantech sector.

● Facilitate the adoption of sustainable IT practices and take into account any areas where national sustainable IT standards could be useful.

Words of Wisdom

Never undervalue standards. Underestimating standards can reduce market access, stifle innovation, raise risks, create unnecessary harms, and undermine public confidence. By strategically developing and applying standards, we can shape the blueprint for our digital future, embedding our core values, safeguarding the well-being of citizens, and fostering the growth of our domestic innovators.

Improving your business reputation should be high up on your list of things to do as a business owner, and if it’s not then you need to sort out your priorities. Business reputation is half the battle when it comes to bringing new people to your business, and keeping the clients that you already have, so it’s an important area to focus on. The good news is that if you are struggling with this then you’re in the right place. In this article, we’re going to be taking a look at some of your options, so keep reading if you would like to find out more.

Make Use Of Social Media

The first thing that we’re going to suggest is that you start making use of social media if you are not already. We know that a lot of businesses already know about this little trick, but for the ones who don’t, social media is a fantastic tool. Not only is it free to use which is incredible for your business, but it also gives you a platform to speak to more people than you would ever manage to encounter without it. This means that you will be able to reach new people, people that would never have known about your business otherwise,

Start A Podcast

The next thing that we’re going to mention is that you should be considering starting a podcast. While this is not a common thing for businesses to do, that doesn’t mean that it’s not a fantastic idea. More people are listening to podcasts than ever, especially if it’s on a topic that is of interest to them. Make sure that it’s relevant, that you have all of the right equipment, and that you are using software and tech that is capable of solving audio for business so that it’s crystal clear.

Focus On Your Reviews

The final thing that we are going to say is that you should focus on your reviews as much as you can. We know that it might not seem important, but we can assure you that it is. The more reviews that you have, the more your business will shine in the SERPs. Of course, you need to be looking and responding to both positive and negative reviews, appreciating the positive and doing what you can to mitigate the damage of the negative. For example, you should be replying something like ‘thank you for sharing your experience, we’re sorry that you have had issues with our business, please get in touch with us so that we can assist you further’ or something along those lines.