Guest Speaker: Stéfan Denis
Location: The National Club
Topic: A Walk in the Gobi Desert

Host: John Fortney
 
Stéfan is Chief Talent Officer & CEO at Mandrake Human Capital which operates in the Search, Career Transition, Leadership Development, and Onboarding/Executive Acceleration.
Mandrake has recruited more than 10,000 executives in Canada and is one of the country’s largest firm in its sector. A graduate from McGill University, he started his career as a marketer at Procter & Gamble before joining Mandrake as a Consultant. He became Partner in 1991, and CEO in 1999. He is also is Executive Director of IMD, Mandrake’s 30 country strong global partnership.
 
Stéfan has led hundreds of executive engagements in Finance, Sales, HR, Marketing, Communications, and Strategy for various service, not-for-profit, and manufacturing companies. He is an expert on the issues surrounding the changing face of human capital in today’s market, and a leader in creating and structuring competitive advantages for clients.
 
Caught in his third recession and dealing with a do or die turnaround and looking for his own breakthrough in resilience, he signed up to run the 250km Gobi Desert foot race, rated as one of the top 10 endurance event in the world. Never having run a marathon before, the Gobi involved running six in five days. He crossed the line first in the 40+ category. His insights on producing the unexpected result led to a TEDx and publishing best-selling Gobi Runner. He was inducted in the Marketing Hall of Legends of Canada and awarded the Paul Mulvihill Humanitarian award for his charitable work having raised more than $1mm for charities.

Stéfan’s presentation is not about executive search, it’s about the limits we put on what is possibly within us and how to break through.