Each spring, a group of Ivey Business School (Canada) students trades the MBA classroom for something far less predictable: teaching entrepreneurship in emerging markets. The LEADER Project, now in its fourth decade, sends student instructors abroad to work alongside local partners – universities, chambers of commerce, innovation hubs – helping aspiring entrepreneurs build practical business skills. What they find, almost universally, is that the exchange runs both ways.

This year, 33 Ivey students and six alumni volunteered at eight sites across India, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, and Kenya – the last of these a first for the programme.

Adapting on the ground


Preparation for LEADER begins months before departure. Students review feedback from previous cohorts, revise teaching cases, practise with faculty, and coordinate logistics with local partners. But as many LEADERites discover, the real work starts once they’re in the room.

In Kenya, MBA ‘26 candidate Maggie Kortekaas and her team arrived with a case study about protein bars – a product that made sense at Ivey but meant little to students aged 18 to 24 who were thinking about chicken farms, salons, and car washes. The team dropped it and rebuilt the lesson around Darling Kenya hair products instead.

“It was the first case they worked through, and that familiarity helped build the confidence they needed to actually use the tools and frameworks we’d given them,” said Kortekaas.

That kind of real-time adjustment is exactly what Dominic Lim, PhD ‘09, associate professor of entrepreneurship and LEADER’s faculty adviser, hopes to see.

“Our students do not go to these countries thinking we know these things, so we are going to teach these things to these people,” he said. “They usually go to those countries with a really open mind.”

Lim is also candid about what the programme can and can’t do.

“I wouldn’t say everybody starts a business out of these programmes. But I think the important thing is that we are planting those seeds. If you go back there every year and do that again, do that again, do that again, then it really cultivates the landscape.”

Learning by teaching


In Podgorica, Montenegro, HBA ‘27 candidate Laura Guo expected the most important moments to happen in lectures and case discussions. They didn’t – they happened over coffee.

“Sharing a simple cup of coffee allowed me to connect with the students on a human level. I learned about their lives, their values, and their backgrounds. Ultimately, this completely transformed my teaching,” she said.

One entrepreneur Guo mentored was preparing to launch an event-hosting and rental business on her family’s property. The team visited the site and helped her think through what kinds of events might work and how to market them. Around two months after Guo returned to Canada, she heard back: the entrepreneur had officially opened the space and was hosting successful events.

In Tashkent, Uzbekistan, MBA ‘26 candidate Bob Deng arrived expecting to need to actively encourage female participation – a note flagged by previous teams. His expectations were immediately overturned:

“The female participants were among the most active, confident, and expressive people in the room, driving the debates and leading the workshops.”

Meanwhile in North Macedonia, HBA ‘27 candidate Ryan Doerr led lectures on financial statements and cash flow for entrepreneurs who had the vision but lacked the tools to structure it.

“Watching someone go from feeling overwhelmed by a financial statement in the morning to confidently walking through a business decision by the afternoon was something I will not forget,” he said.

He also reflected on how the Ivey case method translated across borders:

“It gives you a way to break down complex business problems, think critically about real constraints, and arrive at practical, actionable solutions. Being able to bring that approach into the room with these entrepreneurs, and watch it click for them, was something really special.”

Impact that extends beyond the classroom


Back in Kenya, the challenge wasn’t only teaching business fundamentals – it was helping students find their voice. On the first day, only a handful raised their hands. By the final session, every student stood up to present.

“On the last day, every single student got up to present, and watching them do it with real pride was an incredible thing to see,” said Kortekaas.

The local teachers who sat in on the sessions told the Ivey team they planned to carry some of those practices into their own teaching.

In Vietnam, HBA ‘27 candidate Eva Karpukhina worked with entrepreneurs in Ho Chi Minh City building ventures across health care, education technology, and e-commerce. She was struck by how differently participants spoke about business: less focused on individual success, more centred on community impact and collective growth.

“Seeing their ambition, resilience, and commitment to solving meaningful problems challenged my assumptions about entrepreneurship and reinforced the importance of diverse perspectives in driving innovation,” she said.

In Thailand, MBA ‘26 candidate Tolu Michaels – a founder herself – watched a participant who had spent years away from work take a seat at the back of the room on day one. By the end of the programme, that same person stood at the front, sharing her ideas and fielding questions. “Coaching her through that was the most meaningful moment of my LEADER experience. And it changed something in me too.”

Since 1991, more than 1,200 Ivey students have taught through LEADER in 23 countries, reaching over 10,000 entrepreneurs and students. The numbers tell part of the story. The rest, as Doerr put it, is harder to quantify:

“I walked in as an educator and walked out as a student.”