We just wrapped two extraordinary days of learning and connecting, both with our Harvard Business School professors and, just as importantly, with each other.
We didn’t pick easy themes. We leaned into the ones that feel timely and urgent in a world that’s changing faster than any of us can fully predict.
We wrestled with hard questions and left challenged in the best possible way. We also left encouraged and genuinely excited for what comes next.
Our annual seminar is a living example of our Pillars of Purpose in action.
Lifelong learning was everywhere. There’s something humbling about a room of experienced leaders choosing to be students again, pushing past what they already know to find what they don’t. That posture, the willingness to keep growing, is the whole point.
We honored our Lifetime Dedication Award winners
The people whose individual steady commitment over +40 years has shaped who we are. Recognizing them reminds all of us that dedication compounds quietly, year after year, until one day you look up and see we’re all standing on what that dedication built.
We celebrated 32 new Zynik Founder Scholarship recipients
Thirty-two! Each one a bet on potential and on the belief that investing in people is the most durable investment we can make.
One special highlight worth noting: every morning began with yoga, led by our founder Iqbal Kassam. At 74, Iqbal greeted each day on the mat alongside everyone else, and in doing so he reminds us of something easy to forget: you’re only as old as you let yourself feel and you’re never too old to learn something new, to stretch yourself (literally and figuratively) and to make a meaningful difference. His example, more than any slide or framework, set the tone for everything that followed.
We all leave this week with the themes buzzing in our heads. Same with the conversations we had at our tables, over meals, and in the quiet moments between sessions, where so much of the real connection happens. Those are the moments that turn a group of colleagues into something closer to a community.
This is our 16th year meeting like this. The Zynik Seminar is not a one-time event, rather it’s a practice we return to, year after year, because we believe the work of learning and growing together is never finished.
To our Harvard Business School professors, thank you for challenging us. To Kevin Nolan of GE Appliances, thank you for joining and making an academic case study truly come to life. To everyone who showed up ready to be stretched, thank you for bringing your full selves. And to our scholarship recipients and award winners, you’re the reason this all matters.
Here’s to the year ahead.
We’ve got work to do.
