Founder and strategic advisor
Author and creator of the Entrepreneurial Community School (ECS), also widely known as the Conscious entrepreneurial community school (CECS), of the Pedagogical and educational approach in conscious entrepreneurship (PEACE) as well as the concept of the school-community training partnership (SCTP), Rino Levesque has been interested in the structuring dynamics of links between school and its community, in organizational innovation and in educational conscious entrepreneurship for more than 28 years. He worked initially as a teacher and then as a director and principal. This journey brought him to work throughout Canada (Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Québec and New Brunswick) and several countries.
Motivated by quality education and the idea that we must get off the beaten tracks in order to offer more, Mr. Lévesque is also convinced that it is possible to bring great dreams to life as soon as elementary school and throughout all school levels. Since several years, he has been supporting educational teams and committed partners towards the transformation of their academic establishment in ECS. In Québec when he was principal of École-des-Cœurs-Vaillant School, he transformed it into a successful entrepreneurial community school. In New Brunswick, he became Director of Transformation and strategic innovation within the francophone sector of the Department of Education and led a large-scale transformation process, based on the ECS, in every New Brunswick elementary and secondary francophone schools.
Because of his inspiring leadership, he progressively received support from people and organizations in the educational sphere at both national and international level. His profound desire to make the ECS more accessible together with a growing demand for its implementation brought him to jointly found, with the Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys (Montréal, Canada), the international organization of conscious entrepreneurial community schools (OIECEC). Supported by many people, by the Québec Ministry of Education as well as by important businesses and higher education institutions, he then created the non-profit organization Idea entrepreneurial education, that works together with the OIECEC, an international network of ECS (CECS).
Rino Levesque is an OECD international ambassador for youth entrepreneurial education. He is also an appointed member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum as well as an honorary member of the Rogers – J.A. Bombardier Chair of Entrepreneurship of the HEC-Montréal. He received prizes such as Educator of the year – (Association canadienne d’éducation de langue française – ACELF) and Socially responsible young entrepreneur (Montréal Chamber of Commerce). His ECS school system was awarded the Paul-Arthur Fortin prize for its outstanding contribution to the development of entrepreneurial skills in the province of Québec. It was furthermore recognized as an innovative, inclusive and best practice model by UNESCO, as an Innovative School by Microsoft Corp and by a growing number of Education ministries and educational organizations in Canada and in the world.
