Dr. Mai Thai is a Professor at HEC Montréal and Global Director of Social Business Creation, an international platform she founded to advance social innovation through entrepreneurship. Her research examines entrepreneurship within socioeconomic, cultural, and political contexts. Her scholarship has received the Distinguished Scholar and Emerald Literati awards, while her teaching has earned multiple honors, including induction into the HEC Montréal Hall of Fame. In 2025, she received the King Charles III Coronation Medal for her contributions to Canada and international impact.

Léo-Paul Dana is Chief Researcher at Kazimieras Simonavicius University, in Lithuania, and Professor at VIZJA University, in Poland. A graduate of McGill University, and HEC-Montreal, he has served as Marie Curie Fellow at Princeton University and Visiting Professor at INSEAD and at Kingston University. He has published extensively in a variety of journals including: Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice, International Business Review, International Small Business Journal, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of World Business, Small Business Economics, and Technological Forecasting & Social Change . In 2024, he was the most cited entrepreneurship professor in Canada.