Alex Gill

Alex Gill is a social entrepreneur who founded and leads Mendicant Group (external link, opens in new window) .  Mendicant is a Toronto-based consulting agency that works with a range of social issues, and the organizations that are trying to solve them, across Canada and in (so far) 12 different countries around the world.  Since 2005, he and the Mendicant team have brought new thinking to such issues as foster care reform, newcomer settlement, military-civilian transition, youth entrepreneurship, community mental health services and university entrepreneurship.  He has also moderated the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance since its inception in 2010, planning and facilitating summits in several countries around the world.

In Ryerson's Department of Politics and Public Administration, Alex teaches courses in social entrepreneurship, advocacy, corporate citizenship and nonprofit management.  In addition to a Master of Arts (MA) in Communications Studies (Windsor) and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Canadian History (Carleton), Alex holds postgraduate certificates in Managing Strategic Change and Marketing Management from the Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto) and Schulich School of Business (York University), respectively. He was also one of 50 global nonprofit leaders invited to attend Stanford University Business School’s global Nonprofit Leaders’ program in 2014.  In that year, he co-founded Ryerson’s new SocialVentures Incubator and was named its first-ever Social Innovator in Residence. 

When he isn’t travelling the world or learning from social activists, Alex spends his downtime on the Bay of Exploits on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland.