Peter Flegel
Peter Flegel is a multilingual social entrepreneur, fundraiser, columnist, community organizer, philanthropist, philosopher and musician. He has been recognized as one of the world’s 100 most influential Black leaders aged 40 and under. the Haitian-born former orphan has striven, through a variety of local, national and multilateral organizations, to promote the rights of racialized and LGBTQ minorities, migrants, and other oppressed groups. With extensive Canadian and international experience working in the public, charitable and the not-for-profit sectors, he is the co-founder of the Mathieu da Costa Centre for Global Harmony, a new global change accelerator, which strives to activate multifaceted campaigns to counter ethno-national populism around the globe. Flegel also currently supports change initiatives in Latin America, which focus on improving social and economic conditions for people of African Descent, LGBTQ communities, artists and people with low income. Through his work at the Michaëlle Jean Foundation, the legacy project of the Rt. Hon. Michaëlle Jean and her husband Jean-Daniel Lafond, he is the brains and organizer behind the National Black Canadians Summit, which has gathered over 2,000 people from across the country to build a Canadian strategic plan to implement the aims of the International Decade for People of African Descent, which has helped to transform federal policy, budgeting priorities, programming and internal governmental structures. As Director of Development of the Foundation, Flegel has overseen the raising of over $2 million for charitable initiatives supporting underserved youth and communities across Canada. He worked as a speechwriter and a Special Advisor to the Governor General of Canada, overseeing a global campaign to empower youth to affect systems change leveraging the power of the arts. Flegel has over twenty-five years experience in media and communications, as his commentary has appeared in Philosophy Now, Aljazeera English and the New York Times.