In an era defined by rapid technological disruption and global uncertainty, today’s leaders are required to navigate unprecedented complexity. More than ever, resilience has become a core attribute of effective leadership—the ability to adapt, persevere, and lead through instability. At Ivey Business School, a group of MBA students exemplified these qualities by reviving the long-dormant Graduate Business Conference (GBC) in April 2025, aptly titled Resilience: A Pillar for Tomorrow’s Leaders. Their achievement was not merely the reinstatement of a prestigious event but a testament to student-driven innovation and proactive leadership.
Co-sponsored by Ivey’s Scotiabank Digital Banking Lab, the conference was spearheaded by Mohit Gupta, MBA ’25 and MBA Association President, alongside a dedicated team of over ten student leaders. GBC 2025 brought together the top MBA student leaders from more than 25 leading business programs, including NYU Stern, Duke Fuqua, and NUS Business School. The event was packed with engaging panels exploring resilience in AI, inclusive leadership, and financial innovation—bridging student leaders with leading industry and policy experts in business, technology, and policy.
The work of the MBA student leaders, coupled with the insights shared by speakers and panelists, generated meaningful reflections on what effective leadership requires today. From this experience, five key lessons emerged—each illustrating how resilience enables leaders to navigate the demands of a complex and uncertain world. These include the value of global collaboration, adaptability under pressure, experiential learning through real-time decision-making, the importance of mentorship and trust, and the power of diverse perspectives.
1. Resilient leaders build global networks
For Mohit Gupta, one of the goals in reviving the GBC was reconnecting a global community of student leaders. From the outset, his vision was to create a space where peers from top MBA programs could share challenges and exchange ideas. Motivated by the loneliness often felt in student leadership, Gupta envisioned GBC as a peer-to-peer support network for those carrying the weight of student leadership.
The conference reestablished a robust student network spanning 25 leading business schools worldwide. Participants discussed how their institutions approach shared issues such as governance strategies and incentive models for ongoing student involvement. "I heard eight different solutions to the same problem in one conversation," Gupta recalled, "solutions I wouldn’t have even considered otherwise." In this, it is clear that leveraging a global community and network strengthens the qualities of resilient leadership.
2. When agility isn’t enough, resilience leads
During the keynote session led by Ivey Dean Julian Birkinshaw, students were invited to rethink a common leadership mantra. While agility, the ability to pivot and respond quickly, often dominates leadership discourse, Birkinshaw offered a crucial distinction: resilience is what carries leaders through when agility alone falls short.
That message hit home for Gabrielle Stadler, MBA’25, who led logistics for the conference. “It wasn’t about how quickly we changed direction,” she said. “It was about how well we bounced back when things didn’t go as planned.” From missed hotel bookings to last-minute speaker changes, the student team faced real-time stressors that called for more than quick pivots. These challenges demanded resilience; the capacity to recover and adapt while engaging in stakeholder communication, vendor negotiation, and high-pressure moments.
3. Case-based learning sharpens decision-making
The case method is at the heart of Ivey’s academic model, built to prepare students for real-world complexity by honing their ability to think critically, navigate ambiguity, and make informed decisions under pressure. For the GBC student organizers, these principles moved from the classroom into practice. As Zuyi Jhon, MBA ’25 and head of marketing, explained, organizing the conference mirrored a live case: there was no fixed solution, just evolving variables, competing priorities, and the need for constant judgment calls. From stakeholder alignment to strategic pivots, the team had to respond to changing circumstances in real time—learning not by theory, but by doing.
This mindset extended to the conference itself. Sessions were designed to be interactive, encouraging participants to apply analytical thinking in fast-paced environments. A highlight was Professor Gerard Seijts’s live case session, Isaac Park: A Crucible of Leadership, which immersed attendees in a complex leadership scenario that demanded ethical clarity and decisiveness. For many international attendees, it was their first encounter with Ivey’s all-in-case-based learning approach.
4. Cross-sector dialogue enriches student learning
What set GBC apart was the intentional diversity of perspectives in the room. As Nanma Unni, MBA ’25 and head of content, noted, designing the conference’s program involved a process of curating conversations that addressed today’s most pressing leadership challenges.
That intention shaped sessions like Resilience in AI: How Are Leaders Adapting in a Rapidly Changing World? moderated by Lab Director Romel Mostafa and featuring Salim Teja (Partner, Radical Ventures, and LNC Industry AI Champion), Stephen Reddin (Partner, McKinsey & Company, Toronto). The panel examined Canada’s evolving AI ecosystem and the organizational and strategic considerations required for responsible adoption. Similarly, Inclusive Leadership: Building Tomorrow’s Organizations Through Authenticity and Action, featuring Carolyn Lawrence (Founder, CLEAR PATH, and LNC Advisory Council Member) and Martha Maznevski (Ivey Professor, Organizational Behaviour), fostered a candid dialogue on equity, identity, and leadership integrity.
Students reflected on how these sessions expanded their understanding of leadership not just as a set of skills, but as a practice rooted in authenticity, inclusion, and public responsibility.
5. Resilience grows when students are trusted to lead
One of the most powerful lessons for the GBC organizing team was the role of mentorship and institutional trust in developing leadership. From early planning to final execution, the steady support of champions like Ivey Dean Julian Birkinshaw, MBA Director and Prof. Martha Maznevski, and Lab Director and Prof. Romel Mostafa made a tangible difference. Their encouragement gave the student team the confidence to take initiative and lead with conviction.
As Mohit Gupta noted, when students feel that someone truly believes in them, they lead differently. That trust creates space for risk-taking and accountability. The GBC experience also revealed that resilience isn’t about carrying the weight alone—it emerges through shared ownership, distributed leadership, and mutual support. As the team shifted from delegated tasks to full co-ownership, their ability to lead through complexity deepened. In this way, resilience proved to be not just individual, but collective.
Lessons in Resilient Leadership
In a time of accelerating disruption and uncertainty, resilience has become a defining quality of effective leadership. The students behind GBC 2025 demonstrated that true resilience is not just the ability to endure, but the capacity to lead through ambiguity with conviction and purpose. As the challenges facing business and society continue to evolve, so too must our understanding of what leadership demands.