Dave Toycen, "Entrepreneurial Difference-Making"

DESCRIPTION:  Dave Toycen will be speaking about how you can get involved in going deeper than simple transactional giving to a transformational experience that promotes partnership and cultivates empowerment of communities around the world.  Hear more about how poverty and solutions to addressing poverty are not just about meeting material needs--but fundamentally about spiritual transformation.

As president and chief executive officer of World Vision Canada, Dave Toycen heads Canada’s largest humanitarian relief, development and advocacy agency. In his 16 years as president, he has guided the organization into dramatic growth in its efforts to serve the world's poor.

Prior to his appointment as president in 1996, Toycen was World Vision Canada’s executive vice-president, and vice-president of donor development for eight years. In his 24 years as a leader with the agency, income has increased tenfold to nearly $400 million annually. The number of children sponsored through World Vision Canada in those years has also risen to more than 500,000. Besides his commitment to World Vision’s overseas development and emergency relief activities, Toycen has championed the agency’s Canadian efforts, including ongoing work with church leaders and refugees.

In addition, he has led World Vision Canada into significant justice and advocacy work, in areas such as child and maternal health, the rights of girls, and the protection of children in armed conflict. He has spoken before the World Bank and has met with heads of state, key global executives and development leaders to discuss the well-being of the world’s children. His unique position as head of a faith-based agency has given him opportunities to encourage church leaders and congregations to serve and advocate for the poorest of the poor.

Toycen’s career with World Vision internationally has spanned more than 35 years, during which time his influence has been felt in every continent.

• Under his leadership, more than $4.0 billion has been raised in aid and development for the poor.
• He has provided on-site assessment and support during many large scale humanitarian disasters in the past 20 years.
• He established World Vision communications offices in more than 20 developing countries.
• His influence helped pioneer World Vision’s move into television fundraising in Canada, Australia and the United States.
  

Toycen’s book, The Power of Generosity (Harper Collins, 2004), draws from his wide experience and calls readers to become more engaged in the world and to develop a more generous way of life. An American/Canadian citizen, Toycen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lawrence University in Wisconsin, a master of divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in California, and honorary doctorates from Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California and Wycliffe College, University of Toronto. He is a member of the Order of Ontario.