Canada’s Influence Capital: Mobilizing Canada for Leadership Abroad

Melanie Walker is the Executive Director of the Canadian International Council (CIC), one of Canada’s oldest civic organizations dedicated to strengthening public engagement in international affairs. She brings more than twenty years of experience in operational leadership, programme development, and global fundraising, with a focus on democratic participation, women’s and youth leadership, and resilient media and civic ecosystems. Before joining CIC, she served as Executive Director of Media Development at the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), where she also founded Women in News, now active in 24 countries. She has led capacity-building and advocacy initiatives in more than 30 countries and has raised and spearheaded multi-million-dollar funding relationships with public and private international donors, including Sida, Norad, the European Commission, the Open Society Foundations and others. Melanie serves on several international advisory bodies, including WAN-IFRA Media Freedom Board, the World Expression Forum Young Experts’ Nomination Committee, and the Advisory Council for the Sustainable Journalism Partnership. She holds an MSc from the London School of Economics. She is a Senior Fellow at the Graham Centre for Contemporary International History.

Lauren’s career spans three interconnected phases, beginning with a decade of international fieldwork, journalism, and teaching focused on democratic transitions, national reconciliation, and post-conflict reconstruction. She later transitioned into roles centered on civic engagement and public policy, contributing across federal, provincial, and municipal levels in Canada. Throughout her career, she has been closely involved with organizations dedicated to international cooperation, national unity, and public learning.

Her current work focuses on designing multi-sector and intergovernmental partnerships that advance sustainable finance and values-based banking. This includes leadership roles with Vancity Credit Union and the launch of Vancity Community Investment Bank, as well as co-founding the Table of Impact Investment Practitioners (TIIP). She has also served in advisory capacities, including as a member of the federal steering committee that informed the Government of Canada’s Social Finance Fund and related investment readiness initiatives.

Jonathan Manthorpe has been a journalist and author for 60 years, mostly as a foreign
correspondent in Europe, Africa and Asia, and as an international affairs columnist. He
has worked for the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and the Southam Group of Canadian metropolitan newspapers. Outside journalism, he was an advisor to Pierre Trudeau on patriation of the constitution, and was a member of the 2003-2006 Canada-Japan Forum, which reported to the prime ministers of the two countries on ways to boost bilateral relations. He has also carried out projects for the United Nations, the World Bank, the Asia Development Bank, and several NGOs. Jonathan gave up column writing in 2018 and is now a full-time author. His books include “Power and the Tories: A History of the Conservative Party of Ontario,” “Forbidden Nation: A History of Taiwan,” “Claws of the Panda: Beijing’s Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada,” “Restoring Democracy in an Age of Populists and Pestilence,” and, most recently “On Canadian Democracy.” He is currently working on a book setting out the history of Canada-United States relations. The book is to be called “Defiance.”

Shelly D’Mello is a skilled relationship builder, a collaborative coach who takes a strength-based approach to team and community development, a creative thinker, and a visionary leader. With over 25 years of experience in private, government, and non- profit organizations, Shelly is an inclusive and transformational leader whose strengths include strategic planning, financial acumen, organizational development, and organizational change management.

A self-proclaimed entrepreneur, Shelly is backed by a degree in Economics from York University, an international MBA from England, is a member of HRPAO (Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario) and holds a Certificate in Adult Training and Development from the University of Toronto. She has held executive and management positions in organization in sectors including settlement and integration, management consulting, information technology, education, and health care.

Born in Guyana, South America, Shelly is passionate about women in leadership, and has created curriculum and facilitated workshops that empower immigrant women and entrepreneurs to create a meaningful life in Canada. Over the last 13 years, Shelly has immersed herself in the settlement and integration sector in Toronto, Ontario designing, developing, and delivering programs and services to newcomers, immigrants and refugees. These programs give voice, opportunity, and recognition to the important contributions of immigrants to Canada while addressing barriers to integration such as language, credential recognition, access to employment, mental health and wellbeing, and housing.

Shelly is a founding board member of Aurora House, a transitional home for survivors of modern slavery, and is the Treasurer of the Workforce Housing Non-Profit Corporation, a non-profit initiative working towards addressing how home ownership and control of the “roof over one’s head” is the best way to break the cycle of poverty, build equity, and create self-respect.

Dr. Cynthia Milton is the current director of the Centre for Global Studies (2026). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, Past President of the RSC College of New Scholars, Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and former Canada Research Chair in the History Department at the Université de Montréal. She holds a BA from McGill in Honours History and Political Science, MA from Stanford in Latin American Studies, and Ph.D. from Wisconsin-Madison in History. Her interdisciplinary research studies include inclusive modes of truth-telling, transitional justice, human rights, memory, and cultural interventions in the construction of historical narratives after state violence.

In her academic networking, she is concerned with the science-society disconnect in our dramatically changing world and the need for the humanities, arts, and social sciences in the diffusion of knowledge.

Major General (MGen) Michel-Henri St-Louis (Retired) is a highly decorated senior officer currently transitioning to civilian life following a career that has shaped Canadian defence policy, international military cooperation, and coalition operations across multiple theatres. His final appointment before retirement was Director General responsible for planning the Defence of Canada, a role that placed him at the centre of national security policy and continental defence modernization.

Immediately prior, he served as Canada’s Defence Attaché to the United States, representing Canadian defence interests in Washington, D.C., and strengthening bilateral military and diplomatic coordination at a time of evolving geopolitical pressures. Indeed, his service in Washington, D.C. placed him at the nexus of military strategy, diplomacy, and global security engagement.

During his long career, Mike also served as Acting Commander of the Canadian Army, following his tenure as the Army’s Training Authority, where he oversaw the development, readiness, and professional excellence of the Canadian Army’s force generation system. In addition, he led Joint Task Force IMPACT—Canada’s mission in the Middle East—from mid-2019 to mid-2020. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Commanding General for Operations of America’s First Corps (I Corps, U.S. Army) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, working directly with U.S. and allied forces across the Indo-Pacific region. His earlier commands include 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (2015–2017) and the final Canadian Battlegroup in combat operations in Panjwai, Kandahar (2010–2011).

MGen St-Louis (Retired) is an Officer of the Legion of Merit (United States), a recipient of Brazil’s Ordem do Mérito Militar, and an Officer of the Order of Military Merit (Canada). He also earned the Meritorious Service Medal for his leadership of combat operations in Panjwai and the Meritorious Service Cross for his command of Joint Task Force IMPACT.