In Conversation with Maple Bear Global Schools: Innovating in Education Through Practice, Partnership, and Purpose
Education entrepreneurship operates under a different set of conditions than most venture-driven sectors. It must scale responsibly, perform in real classrooms, navigate diverse cultural and regulatory contexts, and maintain public trust while innovating.
In Conversation with Maple Bear Global Schools brings together global education leadership and joint venture experience to reflect on what it takes to build, operate, and sustain education enterprises across the world. The conversation centers on learning from practice — what global education entrepreneurship teaches us about leadership, innovation, and system-building beyond products and expansion alone.
The conversation will explore:
- how education entrepreneurship takes shape across different regions, cultures, and regulatory environments
- what it means to scale education organizations while maintaining quality, coherence, and trust
- how innovation and leadership are shaped through practice in classrooms and education systems, not just strategy
- how insights generated through global education enterprises can inform the broader education ecosystem
Who should attend?
For students, founders, and education leaders, this session offers an authentic view of education entrepreneurship as it is practiced: complex, contextual, and deeply human.
Date & Time:
March 3rd, 2026
12:00 pm
Category:
Panel Discussion
Type:
Webinar
Price:
Free
Subject Matter Experts
Dr. Elisabeth Rees-Johnstone, Executive Director, OISE CPL
Elisabeth is the Executive Director at OISE Continuing and Professional Learning, University of Toronto, and the co-founder and current director of InnovED – the University of Toronto’s first campus-linked accelerator dedicated to education innovation and entrepreneur development for education services improvement.
Mr. Sunil Sudhakar, Chief Operating Officer, Maple Bear Global Schools
Sunil Sudhakar is the Chief Operations Officer at Maple Bear Global Schools, the world’s largest international network of Canadian schools, operating across multiple continents. With more than 25 years of global leadership experience, Sunil specializes in scaling mission-driven organizations through operational excellence, strategic growth, and capability development.
Before joining Maple Bear, Sunil held senior corporate leadership roles at Subway and YUM! Brands (franchisor of KFC, Pizza Hut & Taco Bell), where he led international operations, franchise systems, and global learning and development across complex, multi-market environments. His career reflects a strong understanding of entrepreneurship within structured systems — building scalable models that balance quality, innovation, and local adaptability.
At Maple Bear, Sunil focuses on strengthening global partnerships, enhancing educational delivery systems, and driving sustainable expansion. He is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs within education ecosystems and building resilient organizations that create long-term impact.
Mr. Yann Bidan, General Manager, Maple Bear Central & Eastern Europe
Yann has over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe.
His greatest venture so far is TELUS International Europe, formerly named CallPoint, for which he co-founded in 2006 the Romanian affiliate. With the acquisition of CallPoint by the Canadian technology company TELUS in 2012, he became Member of the Board of Director and Country Director for Romania until 2017. Today the Canadian company currently employs around 2,000 team members in Romania.
Since 2018 his focus went from IT & Customer services to Impact Entrepreneurship, investing in tech for good companies in Europe and other continent. Consequently, he joined the French Tech global community, which he serves as Co-Founder and Vice President for Bucharest.
In 2019 Yann co-founded a joint venture with the largest and fastest-growing education network Maple Bear Canadian Schools, to create Maple Bear Central & Eastern Europe, headquartered in Sofia Bulgaria. The Maple Bear network currently includes 496 operating schools in 38+ countries offering bilingual, high quality, Infant care, Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary and Secondary education, based on practices that place Canadian education among the top on the planet. Maple Bear is proud to bring the best of Canadian education to 70,000 students around the world.
In 2022 he signed a 100M Euro investments partnership with Vantage Capital partners to develop a network of 50 Maple Bear Canadian schools in Poland and Czech Republic.
In 2023 he co-founded the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria and serve since then as Board Member.