Ian Chisholm

Ian supports the Institute's work in a variety of ways. Originally hailing from Saskatchewan, he is a well-known social entrepreneur and CEO in Europe where he guided the challenging operational start-up of the award-winning Columba 1400 Community and International Leadership Centre on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. With leadership development as a central strategy, it was the Columban team's assignment to unfold a successful operational start-up for this influential UK educational movement.

Their approach very effectively transformed the organization's culture, products, employees and brand into ones that modeled and practiced the shared leadership the Centre sought to explore. Since 2002, the organization has been patroned by HRH The Princess Royal.

Ian is a founding member of re-find the future® – a coaching and leadership development practice group with partners, Robert Henderson (former Motorola Senior Vice President of Leadership and Organizational Development) & Mark Bell (former Human Resources Director for Boots, UK.)
In 2003, Ian was asked to lead a groundbreaking task force for The Hunter Foundation and Scottish Executive, implementing the creation of a more entrepreneurial culture in Scottish education. The work of this task force in coaching the leadership of school administrators (and creating a system in which they coached each other) was researched by Paisley University to make a remarkably positive impact in the lives of participating Head and Deputy Head Teachers and indirectly touch the lives of over 50,000 young people in Scotland in its pilot year. The program continues to this day. In 2004, after supporting the launch of Columba 1400 Australia (now Activate Australia), Ian was named the first Fellow of Columba 1400.

Prior to his time in Europe, Ian served as the Director of Programs for Operation Enterprise - a division of American Management Association International headquartered in New York City, USA. There he played an integral role in bringing young talent from inner city USA to experience regimes of formal leadership development. Aligned with this background, Ian is the co-creator of The Gemini Project – an intensive leadership and coaching development program. The thinking behind The Gemini Project brings together senior executives with emerging talent from "tough" socio-economic realities.

Ian is married to Anne-Marie Daniel, an independent mediator and specialist in conflict resolution. Ian is a graduate of United World College - USA, The University of Alberta and Strathclyde University, Glasgow. He is a Trustee of the Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific.

Anne-Marie and Ian live with their family on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.

Learn more about Ian and The Roy Group.