Leadership Lens is a series of Q&As with participants from AKFC’s Global Leadership Program. From artists to philanthropists, finance executives to medical doctors, AKFC’s Global Leaders are all dedicated to strengthening Canada’s role in addressing global and local issues, and building a more prosperous, peaceful, and pluralistic world.
Aaron Joshua Pinto is a Canadian diplomat and the Government of Ontario’s Trade & Investment Representative in New York, leading Ontario’s international presence in the northeastern US. He focuses on commercial diplomacy, promoting economic interests, building cross-border partnerships, and advising companies on global expansion. Previously, Aaron served as a Trade Commissioner at the Consulate General of Canada in New York, supporting tech companies in international growth. Learn more about Aaron Joshua on our 2025-2026 Global Leadership Program cohort page.
AKFC: What led you to pursue a career in diplomacy?
Aaron Joshua Pinto: I think it started on my family’s living room couch — watching the six o’clock news with my dad. He’d sit beside me and translate the world, country by country, helping me understand not just what was happening, but why.
As a kid, I loved difference — foreign music, movie subtitles I couldn’t yet read, accents that didn’t sound like my own. I was drawn to the idea that people everywhere found their own ways to solve the same problems. And the more I learned, the more I realized how similar we all are beneath the surface.
That curiosity — that mix of wonder and empathy — never really left me. Diplomacy, to me, is just a grown-up version of that same impulse: to listen, to learn, and to find the thread that connects people who might seem worlds apart.
AKFC: What keeps you motivated?
AJP: Creating something out of nothing. That’s what drives me.
I love those moments when an idea turns into action — when you connect two people, two organizations, two worlds, and something unexpected begins to take shape. Whether it’s helping an Ontario company discover a new partnership abroad that opens doors for growth, supporting a renewed province-state economic agreement, helping a New York company invest and create jobs in Ontario, or bringing together executives in Boston who once studied in the province — those are the sparks that keep me going.
It’s the tangible problem-solving, the opportunity-seeking, and the relationships that flow from this work that keep me energized. Diplomacy is often invisible — but when a conversation leads to collaboration, when potential turns into substance and progress, that’s when you remember why you do it.
AKFC: What inspired you to apply for the Global Leadership Program?
AJP: I applied because I wanted to pop my bubble a bit.
My day-to-day life revolves around trade and investment — building commercial relationships across borders, mainly between Ontario and the U.S. It’s fast, fascinating, and deeply continental, but it’s easy to get caught up in your own orbit.
This program felt like a chance to step outside that rhythm — to see the world through different lenses, to learn from people tackling national and global challenges in development, governance, and social innovation. I wanted to stretch: to move from seeing global systems through the lens of deals and commercial diplomacy, to understanding them more deeply through people and purpose.
What also drew me was the program’s emphasis on thoughtful leadership in a complex world — on equipping people to meet uncertainty with agency and hope. I wanted to sharpen both mindset and skillset, and explore what leadership looks like when it bridges sectors, disciplines, and perspectives. After all, cross-sector leadership is what will define our time.
AKFC: Do you have any questions or curiosities you are excited to explore over the course of the program?
AJP: I’m curious about how leadership works in uncertainty — how people build trust, adapt, and collaborate when there isn’t a clear playbook.
I want to explore how ideas travel: how a policy, a partnership, or a new way of thinking in one part of the world can inspire change somewhere completely different. I’m especially interested in how organizations — whether governments, private firms, or NGOs — can work together more effectively when their motivations and cultures don’t perfectly align.
At its core, I’m interested in how we create meaning in global work — how we keep empathy, creativity, and curiosity at the centre, even when the systems around us make it hard to do so.
AKFC: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
AJP: I’ve always believed diplomacy, at its heart, is about connection — about seeing yourself in someone else’s story.
That’s what excites me about this program. Not just what I might learn, but who I might learn it with. Because every time we bring people together — from different places, disciplines, or ways of thinking — we create something larger than the sum of its parts.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Aaron Joshua Pinto is part of the 2025-2026 cohort of AKFC’s Global Leadership Program. Learn more about the program here.
