On January 15, the Young Professionals committee at the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce hosted a Leadership Speaker series event. The keynote speaker at the event was the Consul General of India in Toronto, Mr. Akhilesh Mishra.

Mr. Mishra belongs to the Indian Foreign Service and prior to starting as the Indian Consul General in Toronto, he served as Joint Secretary in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, heading the Northern Division dealing with India’s relations with Nepal and Bhutan, and Joint Secretary in charge of Multilateral Economic Relations Divisions. He has also served, on behalf of the Indian government, in various senior leadership roles in Kabul, Tanzania, San Francisco, Katmandu, Rome and Lima.

The event was held at 259 The Host, which is an up-scale, warm and inviting space with some of the most delicious Indian cuisine in the city. Mr. Mishra spoke to a full house of people, some of whom travelled from far in order to hear him speak.

The audience enjoyed the inspirational journey through Mr. Mishra’s life, as he talked about the ups and downs of a career in diplomacy. One of the most inspirational aspects of his journey was his rise to the top despite the competitive nature of a diplomatic career in India, where competition is high and opportunities are tough to come by. The other inspirational aspects of his career were the countries he travelled to due to the various roles and the projects he worked on at each post. Mr. Mishra is  calm and sincere, and despite being soft spoke, he is a force on his own. His interest here in Canada is to unite the Indo-Canadian community with India and encourage connection of youth projects between India and Canada.

The evening was a success, as audience members followed up the talk with in-depth and enthusiastic questions and left the evening being most impressed with the speaker. We hope to see Mr. Mishra's presence at future ICCC events.