Keynote Speaker

Scott Gilmore is the founder and CEO of Building Markets, a social enterprise that helps create jobs and reduce poverty by connecting local entrepreneurs to global markets. Under his leadership, that organization pioneered new models for creating shared value, and helped broker over $1.2 billion in contracts in Afghanistan, Haiti, Myanmar, Mozambique, Timor Leste and Liberia, creating 70,000 local jobs in the process. Building Markets is now partnered with City Financial to launch a large social impact investment fund for frontier markets in Asia and Africa. Scott is currently focusing on a new start up to facilitate the flow of remittances to developing economies. Prior to this, Scott was a diplomat with extensive experience in Asia and with the United Nations.

Scott studied Commerce at the University of Alberta and earned a Masters Degree from the London School of Economics. He has been named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, and one of 25 “Transformational Canadians”. In 2010, President Obama and Prime Minister Harper awarded the G20 SME Prize to Scott. The Globe & Mail designated him a “Leading Thinker” on aid in the 21st century, the World Economic Forum has honored him as a Young Global Leader, and he is a Senior Fellow with the Munk School of Global Affairs and the Ashoka Foundation.

Additional Information

Prior to 2004, Mr. Gilmore was a Canadian diplomat. In 1998, he was posted to the Canadian Embassy in Indonesia where he covered the collapse of the Suharto government and the outbreak of regional unrest. In 2001 Scott was the Deputy National Security Advisor of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in East Timor (UNTAET) responsible for the creation of the defence department, as well as the development of the national economic security policy. His final position as a diplomat was the Deputy Director for South Asia, working on Canada’s integrated defence, development and diplomatic assistance to Afghanistan.