Director - The Samuel Group of Companies
Through her various endeavors in her family business, family foundation and independent relationships with several international non-government organizations, Kim Samuel-Johnson displays a passion for and dedication to creating positive, sustainable social change. She is specifically committed to 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.
Ms. Samuel-Johnson is Director of The Samuel Group of Companies, which consists of a network of companies engaged in the processing, manufacturing and distribution of steel and other metals. Founded as a Canadian family business in 1855, The Samuel Group has operations across North American and is organized under two corporate pillars: Samuel, Son and Company Limited and Samuel Manu-Tech Inc.
Ms. Samuel-Johnson is President of The Samuel Family Foundation, a role she assumed in 1998. The Samuel Family Foundation supports the empowerment of the family unit and the family in the community. The Foundation has made a long-term commitment to help provide family members experiencing cancer and disability, family caregivers and the family as a whole with value-added resources in their communities.
Ms. Samuel-Johnson is a Director of The Synergos Institute, a civil society organization based in New York whose mission is to support local communities to develop effective, sustainable solutions to global poverty problems. In addition, she is a Founding Member of the Global Philanthropists Circle, an initiative of Synergos. She also is a Director of Special Olympics International (SOI), a worldwide organization whose mission is to empower individuals living with intellectual disabilities through participation in sport. In this capacity, Ms Samuel-Johnson has been instrumental in the creation of the Family Support Network Program, which is now is being replicated on a global scale.
In addition, she is a Director of The Quincy Jones ListenUp Foundation and Covenant House in Toronto, and a Member of the Advisory Board of The Erivan K. Haub Programme in Business and Sustainability at York University. She also participates in a number of policy initiatives related to business and social responsibility, disability ethics, sustainable development and youth employment.