Maliha Aqeel, PMP, SCMP, MC, is an award-winning communication professional with more than 20 years of progressively senior experience in global financial and professional services organizations.

Her doctoral research aims to explore whether purpose-led companies that consistently demonstrate their social commitment inspire particular actions, behaviors and attitudes in their customers. Her research will contribute to emerging dialogue on social purpose organizations and provide a customer engagement framework that companies can adopt to demonstrate their social purpose commitment with authenticity.

She is Founder & CEO of The Ideas Collective Inc., an independent consulting firm that helps clients bring their brand purpose to life through purpose-driven content and communication programs. Prior to starting her own consultancy, she was Director of Global Communications & Digital Channels at Fix Network World. She has worked in corporate and agency roles in organizations such as EY, APCO Worldwide and Institute of Corporate Directors, connecting the dots between brand, marketing and communications to drive business objectives.

She has won several IABC Gold Quill awards for brand development, content marketing, publications and internal communications, including two Gold Quill “Best of the Best” awards globally for employee engagement and for COVID-19 response management and communications. She is Vice Chair of IABC’s international board of directors, with automatic succession to Chair in July 2023. She is a regular speaker and contributor at industry conferences and publications.

She holds a Master of Business in Strategic Marketing from University of Wollongong, Australia, and is a Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Strategic Communication Management Professional (SCMP). In 2021, she was named IABC Canada’s 61st Master Communicator (MC), a lifetime achievement award recognizing outstanding Canadian communication professionals.