Ms. Samuel is Director of The Samuel Group of Companies, a Canadian family business founded in 1855, The Samuel Group consists of a network of companies engaged in the processing, manufacturing and distribution of steel and other metals. Ms. Samuel serves as Corporate Director of Environment, Health and Safety Programs.

In her various endeavors within her family business and the family foundation, her association with several civil society organizations, and especially in her personal philanthropy, Kim Samuel is passionate and dedicated to bringing about sustainable change in the following areas and in strengthening the links between them: eradicating poverty by building capacity at the community level; making education a basic human right for all the world’s children; empowering the family as the core societal unit for stability and development; and pursuing environmental sustainability as an integral human value.

In 1998 Ms. Samuel assumed the role of President of The Samuel Family Foundation. The Foundation has identified cancer, disability, rehabilitation and related social and medical issues as its core mission and is now making its initial forays into these critical areas. Among her many her many distinctions and responsibilities, Ms. Samuel is also a Director of The Synergos Institute, whose mission is to support local communities to develop effective, sustainable solutions to global poverty problems. Her particular regional interests are focused on program development in Africa and Latin America. In addition, she is a Founding Member of the Global Philanthropists Circle, a Synergos initiative.

In 1996, Ms. Samuel was named a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” (GLT) by the World Economic Forum, based in Geneva, Switzerland. In this capacity, she chairs the GLT Environment Task Force whose mission is the development of an “Environmental Sustainability Index” (ESI) that ranks nations in terms of their ability to maintain growth on current policies without crossing critical resource and environmental thresholds. The ESI is both a stand-alone product and a component of the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Report.

In addition, Ms. Samuel serves as Chair and President of The Earth Council Institute Canada (ECIC). She is a Member of the Advisory Board and Executive Committee of The Erivan K. Haub Programme in Business and Sustainability at York University in Toronto and a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Foreign Policy Association in New York. She also participates in a number of policy initiatives related to business and social responsibility, disability ethics and sustainable development.

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