Caroline MacDonald

Brainstormer, Connector, Consultant, Global soul, Idea generator, Marketer, Parent, Project manager, Promoter, World traveler

In the words of a fellow Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson, "I travel not to anywhere but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move". My experience spans global, multi-lingual communications, developing talent, facilitating business development and fundraising for education. I have lived and worked in Asia, the Americas and Europe working in marketing & business development roles. Educating the next generation of leaders became a focus of my work in Brazil and I am now back in Europe. I worked with HEC Paris (and helped students and MBAs put on TEDxHECParis), and then at the American School where I helped encourage their TEDx event. I am now at an exec search firm in Paris developing research focused on human (and animal) predisposition for leadership. I co-founded TEDxMiami to connect communities in Miami, attended TEDWomen where Eve Ensler inspired me to take action so I became involved in organising the first Miami One Billion Rising Event in 2013. In Brazil I led the first ever TEDxBrasilia, helped kick of TEDxUniversidadedeBrasilia and supported TEDxUNWomen. The role of women as leaders, contributors and facilitators has always been uppermost in my mind. My Master's thesis was on Japanese Political women; I participated in the Asean forum on Women in the 21st century and in Sri Lanka helped funding for NGOs dealing with displaced women. I am a coach and member of IWF France and the European Professional Women’s Network. My blog "East, West and Everything in between" is a platform for discussion on the idiosyncratic aspects of the cultures and peoples I encounter

Cultural fluency and changing the way you do business. The future of education. The power of words & language. The global nomads and tribes that TEDx has brought together. Changing the way we think about recruitment

Let's get back to being human. The living world emerged 3.8 billion years ago and in all its forms, it continues to evolve and provides an enormous source of learning for new ways to organise, cooperate and think about our human endeavours. Bioinspiration encompasses creative approaches based on the living world, including biomimcry, a scientific process for developing technical solutions by replicating nature. Humans are part of the living world, and we have natural aptitudes that reveal unique ways of doing things and predispositions that represent an underdeveloped strength. To meet the challenges of our ever changing world, we need to shake up and rethink the way we recruit. The idea behind the research we are doing is to reveal what makes us human. As our uniqueness, our natural aptitude, our singular way of working cannot be identified on a CV, through interdisciplinary research drawing on academic work from around the world, we aim to reveal singular, assertive and high level leaders over and above their technical capabilities. To find the right person for the right job, we need to start look beyond the theoretical (technical skills, degrees and qualifications). By analysing jobs in relation to their complexity, their context and the challenges they offer and matching these with someone's natural aptitude, for example, to be a leader, surely we will be opening up the realm of possibilities? Instead of copy and paste profiles, by putting our human, natural aptitudes back into the equation, we will be able to bring invisible leaders, singular profiles, and a huge diversity of people into leadership roles. Only when we manage to change the way leaders recruit will we truly be able to measure up to the challenges of our working world.

Communications, Connecting, Event Facilitator, Fundraising, Ideas., Leadership, PR & Communications, Talent management, Travel, Trend spotting/analysis

Miami and a meeting of minds. 4 women from totally different backgrounds set out on a mission to prove that Miami is a hub of ideas, the city of the future and a great place to connect communities through ideas worth spreading. TED just appeared in my life one day and I haven't looked back! Thank you Evelyn!

Connecting the dots. Creating conversations.