The ImpactAnation Team | Global Challenges. Youth Innovation.

Our Team

Impactanation is a network of world-class, highly engaged souls who contribute expertise, innovation and talents to our projects. Our founders are;

Vicki Saunders

Vicki is a serial entrepreneur committed to developing entrepreneurial attitudes and talent in others.

Vicki started and ran her first two businesses in the Czech Republic, immediately following the Velvet Revolution (1990-1994) and was a catalyst for the development of many more. Inspired to share her enthusiasm for creating your own business, she conceived of a program to develop young people's belief in themselves.

In 1995, she created Canada's first International Co-op Program for high school students focusing on business and technology which offered youth an opportunity to experience their value to society at the same time that corporate partners recognized the unique skillset of techno-savvy youth. By 1997, the success of her programs led to the launch of KidsNRG, a youth-inspired consultancy. Within 3 years KidsNRG grew to become Canada's leading catalyst and supporter of youth entrepreneurship in technology in the new economy. In 1999 KidsNRG became the NRG Group and merged with a $40M venture fund into an internet incubator and youth marketing consultancy. In 2000, NRG became a publicly company traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange with Vicki as co-CEO.

In 2002, Vicki co-founded Impactanation, an organization dedicated to increasing awareness and inspiring entrepreneurial action in young people around the themes of environment, health and social justice. In early 2004, Impactanation launched The Impact Fund in partnership with the Tides Foundation to support youth action in their own communities.

For the past few years Vicki has been developing strategies for a global youth investment strategy, and a leveraged technology back end for civil society organizations. Together with her partner, Richard Ford, she has developed a global water fund for youth action in partnership with Schlumberger and a highly successful program called EarthCARE Canada which engages youth in doing waste, water and energy audits in their schools. Students have saved millions of dollars annually through this program which is now replicating in school districts across Canada.

Vicki is founder and CEO of Zazengo, a new platform for supporting user-generated communities of action that aggregates impact across individuals, organizations and campaigns.

Vicki was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum for 2001. She has been featured as a speaker in the Women of Influence Luncheon Series. She is Founding Board Member on the Ontario Organization of Women in International Trade, Founder of the GirlsAreIT! Program and the She-EO Competition: a National Internet Business Plan Contest for Young Women Entrepreneurs. She is a director of the Toronto Foundation for Student Success and sits on the Board of Riane Eisler's Centre for Partnership Studies. She holds a Masters in Soviet Foreign Policy from the University of Toronto.

Richard Ford

Richard has been called "the Van Gogh of Teachers" by Ontario's former Deputy Minister of Education and former North York Board of Education Chair Veronica Lacey. During his teaching career Richard won the Marshall McLuhan Distinguised Teacher Award in Canada in 1991 for creating the first integrated arts program in Canada. Richard also won the National Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence in 1997 largely due to his pioneering work with the creation of private and public sector partnerships involving technology. His classroom in North York was host to many international delegations of teachers, Ministers of Education and senior politicians from countries around the world. Richard's pioneering work with the integration of technology in the classroom led him to host many launches for Industry Canada at the inception of Schoolnet. In 1997, Richard Ford joined Vicki Saunders in launching KidsNRG where he was responsible for developing innovative corporate training and coaching. He was a Member of the Board of Directors of The NRG Group until February 2001. Richard trained at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music and became the first Arts Administrator in the Edward Johnson Building (managed all bands, choirs, ensemble programs, orchestras and theatres). He then became the Academic Director of the National Youth Orchestra and ran the Kelso Music Centre. He was Director of Examinations at the Royal Conservatory of Music which led to an innovative career in teaching.

Tom Hadfield

Tom is a 23 year old British junior at Harvard University. In 1999, the sports Internet company he started in his bedroom, Soccernet.com, was sold to ESPN for $40 million while he was studying for his A-Levels. When he was 19, Tom and his father raised $9m from venture capitalists to start an online education company, Schoolsnet.com. His dot.com success story was reported by Time magazine, the Financial Times, Vanity Fair, CNN and every national newspaper in the UK. Tom has been honored as a Global Leader of Tomorrow' by the World Economic Forum in Davos. He is also a Patron of the National Youth Agency and was youth advisor to the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts in the UK. Tom enjoys traveling and has visited more than 30 countries since graduating from high school. Since enrolling at Harvard, Tom has managed a global environmental education program and started an initiative to raise awareness of the genocide in Sudan.

Kevin J. Foxe

Kevin began his film career in 1983 working as an editor, location manager and line producer. He's worked with a number of notable filmmakers including, Robert Benton, Federico Fellini, Bob Fosse, Milos Forman, and David Mamet.

He executive produced "The Blair Witch Project", as well as the documentary, "How To Draw A Bunny, A Ray Johnson Portrait". He has also served as producer on many films that have won awards at major festivals including Sundance, Santa Barbara, Montreal, Newport, and Cannes. In 1997, he won the Writers At Work Screenwriting Award for "On The Trail Of The Golden Spike."

He has several film projects in various stages of production, including the documentary "Exhuming Jefferson" and "Slam Damage" a video game/film hybrid pushing the envelope of entertainment. He has created and collaberated on many internet projects, from websites to interactive television, online festivals and events, and is looking forward to the launch of "Webdwellers" in the near future. He has collaborated on the creation of many digital communities and continues to push the boundaries in digital storytelling.

He is on the board of several wired and wireless companies, and consults for many others. He is a founding Board Member of the Producers Guild New Media Council and just recently stepped down from being it's Vice Chair for two years. He is in the process of a bold new venture, the Outpost Institute, which will serve as the last stop in the old world of storytelling before venturing into the new wild frontier of digital entertainment.

Kevin lives in Los Angeles (after a lifetime in New York) with his children, Wyatt, Auden and Zoë.

Michael Kroll

Michael has a thing for Great White Sharks. When he was four, his parents took him to see Jaws at a local drive-in theatre. To this day he does not sleep with his arms or legs dangling over the edge of his bed. As a wedding gift, his wife Shonda took him Great White Shark cage diving at the Farallon Islands west of San Francisco. For Michael it was magical.

He brings this same supernormal and imaginitive passion to his work. Michael has the intuitive ability to clearly communicate concepts, ideas, energy and personality through his visual graphic design work. Sharpened with a BFA in Computer Arts New Media from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, Michael Kroll brings a personal, passionate point-of-view to his medium. His graphic design work elegantly speaks out for a wide range of individuals and organizations; from Fortune 500 companies to not-for-profit agencies to musicians and performing artists. Michael is the founder of Sheep in Disguise, his new media design studio in San Jose, California.