UnLeadership

12Leadership Is a Mindset-Based on Practice

WHEN WE UNDERSTAND LEADERSHIP BEYOND title, it emerges as a transferable tool kit of curiosity, vision, communication, and confidence. Few people demonstrate this better than Jeff Adams, a Canadian Paralympian, six-time world champion in wheelchair racing, and Osgoode Hall Law School graduate. Born in Brampton, Ontario, Jeff underwent radiation therapy to treat cancer as an infant, which saved his life but permanently damaged his spinal cord. Learning to use his wheelchair as a piece of athletic equipment, Jeff discovered new ways to fulfil his potential. He rose to elite levels of competition on the international stage and became one of Canada's most successful Paralympic athletes. Jeff has served as a spokesperson, journalist, and media commentator, as well as chair of the Accessibility Committee for the Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid Committee and chair of the Ontarians with Disability Advisory Council. After retiring from competition, he transitioned from sport to business, founding two medical device engineering companies, which he sold in 2016 to return to school to study law. He was called to the Ontario Bar in June 2021 and is currently working at Fasken LLP, a Bay Street law firm specializing in management-side labor and employment and human rights law. In 2018 Jeff was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

The common thread in Jeff's work, the North Star, is to help people. As an athlete, he was given a platform, an amplified ...