Martin Itzkow

Martin's passion is to empower organizations across all sectors, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally to meet the challenges and opportunities inherent in today's fast paced global community. Time and again, Martin has assisted individuals and groups to embrace change and renewal as the first step toward sustained organizational effectiveness.

Over the past twenty years Martin Itzkow held many senior positions in the Province of Manitoba, the Voluntary and Non -Profit Sector, as well as the private sector in Manitoba.His roles include the Provincial Director of Immigration and Settlement and later the Director of Policy and Planning for the Government of Manitoba. He was also with Citizenship and Immigration Canada to help lead Canada’s International Immigration Promotion Strategy Team.

After leaving government, he entered the private sector with the establishment of two enterprises: an immigration consulting firm and later an import/export house focusing on Argentina. Moving on from these two practices he re-entered organizational and policy consulting by assisting organizations whether in government, the private sector or the voluntary and non-profit sector on developing forward-thinking strategies.

He has authored countless policy documents for government and is a Research Associate of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development (CVSRD) at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University.

Martin offers a wealth of international experience, leading projects in India, China and Europe as well as North America.

Martin's accomplishments include:

  • Created Manitoba’s first international immigration promotion strategy in over 75 years and helped guide the implementation in Europe (Eastern as well), Asia, and South America.


  • Developed a formal international promotion campaign via the Internet for the Province of Manitoba prior to any other country in the world using this technology for that purpose. This lead to a significant increase in Manitoba’s presence in the world as one of the important immigration destinations and provided a strong foundation for Manitoba to play an important role as an immigration destination of choice in Canada.

  • Facilitated the Manitoba Voluntary Sector Initiative work plan development and implementation – Policy Summit with the Manitoba Federation of Labour, the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Winnipeg “BIZ” association, Province of Manitoba the resulted in developing a range of legacy products for the community, government, business and labour.

  • Lead the development of a collaborative initiative with the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and the Volunteer Centre of Winnipeg Inc.

  • Implemented a Social Economy Congress initiative with partnerships across Canada

    Whether it is government, the private sector, the voluntary and non¬profit sector or community, Martin sees opportunity to strategize and build the future, linking people, and ideas to opportunities yet to be discovered.