Plenaries
Plenary sessions bring together top leaders and thinkers to explore complex leadership questions with ILA’s signature bridging of theory and practice. They challenge us to think more creatively and inspire us to lead with purpose. More plenary speakers coming soon!
Leading the Future of Work with Humanity in an Age of AI
Thursday, 29 October, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Join us for an inspiring keynote conversation with Zabeen Hirji, former Chief Human Resources Officer of Royal Bank of Canada, Executive Advisor, Future of Work at Deloitte, and a thought leader and speaker on leadership, AI and human capabilities, and Danny Torchia, Vice President of Walmart Technology Canada, as they explore how leaders can place humanity at the center of our AI-powered future. Zabeen Hirji brings decades of transformational leadership championing human-centered digital transformation, offering practical frameworks for building cultures of continuous learning, fostering psychological safety, and ensuring AI enhances rather than diminishes the dignity of work. As she puts it, the future of work is “more human, not less.” Danny Torchia shares compelling, real-world examples from leading large-scale technology initiatives, demonstrating how organizations can deploy AI responsibly while creating new career pathways and maintaining the human connections that drive engagement and performance. Together, they’ll equip international leaders, HR professionals, technologists, and policymakers with actionable strategies for ethical AI governance, equitable talent development, and leadership practices that ensure technology serves humanity’s highest aspirations. This keynote session at the 28th Annual ILA Global Conference promises both inspiration and practical value for anyone committed to leading the future of work with empathy, purpose, and unwavering respect for human potential.
Zabeen Hirji
Executive Advisor, Future of Work, Deloitte Canada; City of Toronto’s Economic Advisory Panel
Zabeen Hirji is a strategic advisor to business, government, academia, and NGOs, and a thought leader in leadership, culture, future of work, and diversity & inclusion. Her senior leadership and board experience bring a practical, results-focused perspective to her advisory roles, speaking, and writing. She retired from RBC in 2017 after a distinguished career culminating as Chief Human Resources Officer, with oversight for 80,000 employees across 40 countries. She currently serves as Advisor on Future of Work at Deloitte Canada, is Chancellor-Designate of Trent University, and is the founder of the Purposeful Third Act movement. Her honors include appointment to the Order of Ontario and the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal.
Zabeen Hirji is a strategic advisor to business, government, academia and NGOs and a thought leader in leadership, culture, purpose, future of work, AI + human skills, diversity & inclusion, and elevating the impact of HR for business and societal success. Her senior leadership and board experience bring a practical, results-focused perspective to her advisory roles, speaking, and writing.
Zabeen had a distinguished career at RBC, culminating as Chief Human Resources Officer for ten years until her retirement in 2017 with oversight for 80,000 employees across 40 countries. She was a member of RBC’s Group Executive Committee, which set the bank’s strategic direction, and she also held responsibility for brand, communications, and corporate citizenship. RBC was consistently recognized as a leading employer, brand and corporate citizen, alongside top financial performance.
Now in her Purposeful Third Act, she strives to create impact by activating her purpose – “to unlock human potential and build inclusive prosperity.” As Founder of the Purposeful Third Act movement, she champions this chapter as one defined by impact, learning, and joy. Her goal is to build an ecosystem that helps leaders design personalized Third Acts – leveraging their crystallized wisdom, skills, and social capital to make an impact that matters.
Currently, as Advisor Future of Work at Deloitte Canada, Zabeen advises clients on leadership, talent and culture, issues key to their transformation agendas and long-term success. She leads a forum of CHROs from 30 leading private and public sector organizations, and their goal is to accelerate both their own organizations as well as Canada’s economic and social prosperity through a skilled, inclusive, and resilient workforce. She is a Senior Advisor to Knockri, an AI-enabled recruitment process that improves efficiency, quality of hire, and workforce diversity.
Zabeen is Special Advisor on Public Service Renewal and values and ethics to the Clerk of the Privy Council, and Co-Chair of the City of Toronto’s Economic Development Advisory Panel. She was recently announced as Chancellor-Designate of Trent University, and is also an Executive-in-Residence at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, a member of the University of Toronto’s Reach Alliance, and on the Advisory Board of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Bridging Divides research program.
Active in the not-for-profit sector, Zabeen serves on the boards of Public Policy Forum, Junior Achievement Worldwide and Canadian Club Toronto. She is Executive Advisor to the Human Resources Professional Association of Ontario.
Zabeen has received numerous honours, including her appointment to the Order of Ontario, the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal, and the Canadian HR Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. She holds an MBA from Simon Fraser University and an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.
Learn more about Zabeen on LinkedIn where she is a Top Voice, or on her website.
Danny Torchia
Vice President of Technology, Walmart Canada
Danny Torchia is a Vice President of Technology who transforms complex organizational challenges into measurable business results at scale. A servant leader at heart, he builds high-performing and human-centered teams that drive unparalleled organizational value. He achieved a company-leading 93 percent associate retention rate and double-digit gains in engagement while leading the transition to a product-led operating model. At the intersection of emerging technology and ethical leadership, Danny brings a distinctive perspective on how organizations can harness innovations like generative and agentic AI without losing sight of their people. He was honored with the 2025 HMG Strategy Global Leadership Institute Award in Toronto for high-trust leadership and strategic impact.
Danny Torchia is a Vice President of Technology who transforms complex organizational challenges into measurable business results at scale. A servant leader at heart, he builds high-performing and human-centered teams that drive unparalleled organizational value. He achieved a company-leading 93 percent associate retention rate and double-digit gains in engagement while leading the transition to a product-led operating model. At the intersection of emerging technology and ethical leadership, Danny brings a distinctive perspective on how organizations can harness innovations like generative and agentic AI without losing sight of their people. He was honored with the 2025 HMG Strategy Global Leadership Institute Award in Toronto for high-trust leadership and strategic impact.
Danny holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Massachusetts Global and is a certified expert in Information Security Management (CISM) and the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT).
Relational Leadership in a Fragmenting World
Day and Time Forthcoming
As we convene for the 2026 International Leadership Summit, we stand at a historic crossroads. The “heroic” individualistic model of leadership has proven insufficient against the mounting pressures of geopolitical polarization, systemic social isolation, and the paralyzing rigidity of organizational silos. This keynote session serves as a clarion call to reconstruct the foundations of global influence. By synthesizing the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu and the Anishinaabe framework of Minobimaadiziwin, our speakers, Zwelinzima Ndevu and Niigaan Sinclair, will illuminate a path toward a more resilient, integrated future.
This plenary redefines Relational Leadership as a rigorous strategic necessity rather than a secondary soft skill. In an era of fracture, the ability to cultivate deep, authentic interconnectedness is the ultimate competitive advantage. We invite you to move beyond the pursuit of individual power and join us in a visionary exploration of collective flourishing, where leadership is reimagined as the stewardship of our shared humanity.
Zwelinzima Ndevu
Director, School of Public Leadership in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Stellenbosch University
Zwelinzima Ndevu is a leading scholar and practitioner in public leadership at Stellenbosch University, where he teaches leadership and change, institutional collaboration, and ethics. His expertise spans public leadership, performance management, public participation, and local government — areas in which he has published widely and contributed to conferences internationally. Beyond the classroom, Zwelinzima chairs Stellenbosch’s Anti-Corruption Centre for Education and Research, leads the Allan Gray Centre for Africa Entrepreneurship, and serves as board chair of the Inclusive Society Institute, dedicated to advancing multiparty democracy in South Africa. A sought-after analyst, he regularly contributes expert commentary on governance and public leadership to television and radio broadcasts.
Zwelinzima Ndevu is the current director of the School of Public Leadership (SPL) in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at Stellenbosch University (SU). He is also the academic head of the BComHons in Public and Development Management. As part of the latter degree programme as well as the Diploma in Public Accountability and the MBA, he teaches modules on the management of institutional collaboration, leadership and change, as well as institutional conduct.
Zwelinzima’s expertise spans the fields of public leadership, human resource management with specialisation in performance management, as well as ethics, public participation, and local government. This has resulted in several published peer-reviewed book chapters, journal articles and national and international conference proceedings, as well as his appointment as an external examiner for master’s and doctoral dissertations at various universities in South Africa and abroad.
Other roles at SU more broadly include chairing the University’s Anti-Corruption Centre for Education and Research (ACCERUS) and leading the board of the Allan Gray Centre for Africa Entrepreneurship (AGCAE). Further afield, he has been appointed by the Minister of Higher Education as chair of the governance council at King Hintsa Technical and Vocational
Education and Training (TVET) College. Zwelinzima is also the chair of the board of directors of the Inclusive Society Institute, which is dedicated to supporting and deepening multiparty democracy in South Africa. In addition, he serves on the national boards of the South African Association of Public Administration and Management as well as the Association of Southern African Schools and Departments of Public Administration and Management.
He is a leading expert in short-courses training and professional consultation, and regularly contributes to television and radio broadcasts as an expert analyst on public leadership and administration, governance and performance, local government, and political affairs. Zwelinzima is a supporter of interdisciplinary research, which has led to numerous capacity-building projects in South Africa and abroad.
Niigaan Sinclair
Award-Winning Writer, Editor and Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba
Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe from Peguis First Nation. He is an award-winning writer, editor and professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba who was named by Maclean’s magazine in 2022 as one of the most influential people in Canada. Niigaan is a multiple nominee of Canadian columnist of the year (winning in 2018) and his commentary appears weekly on multiple platforms across Canada – from the pages of The Winnipeg Free Press to TV shows on CBC, APTN and on his co-hosted podcast Niigaan and the Lone Ranger. His first book Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre (McClelland & Stewart, 2024) was a national bestseller that won the 2024 Governor General Award for Non-fiction.
Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe from Peguis First Nation. He is an award-winning writer, editor and professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba who was named by Maclean’s magazine in 2022 as one of the most influential people in Canada. Niigaan is a multiple nominee of Canadian columnist of the year (winning in 2018) and his commentary appears weekly on multiple platforms across Canada – from the pages of The Winnipeg Free Press to TV shows on CBC, APTN and on his co-hosted podcast Niigaan and the Lone Ranger. His first book Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre (McClelland & Stewart, 2024) was a national bestseller that won the 2024 Governor General Award for Non-fiction. He is a former secondary school teacher who won the 2019 Peace Educator of the Year from the Peace and Justice Studies Association based at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.