Natalia Hahn, the Operations and Sustainability Director at Impact Toolbox, believes that the strongest, most resilient systems are designed with human care at their centre. Raised in Ontario, Canada, she grew up on stories of entrepreneurial resourcefulness and grit. Her grandparents immigrated from Germany to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, where her grandfather built his own businesses as a Volkswagen mechanic, later opening car dealerships in Ontario. Her father carried that self-reliant spirit forward, encouraging Natalia and her siblings to start creative ventures and think outside the box to fill gaps and identify peoples’ needs.
From an early age, Natalia knew: “I wanted to do something I enjoyed, but also something that would make an impact.”
During university, Natalia took her first major leap by opening a skateboarding and snowboarding shop with her brothers. Seeing that traditional shops could feel loud and intimidating—especially for kids and young girls—they created a welcoming space for families to have genuine, unhurried conversations. Their approach resonated and they expanded to three stores in three years. But as the excitement gave way to routine, Natalia realized she wanted more than a retail business centred on selling goods. This chapter taught her what intentional leadership looked like and sparked a desire to align her work with a deeper systemic purpose.
Seeking that deeper alignment, Natalia moved to British Columbia, launched an eco-friendly cleaning company, and began writing a column on everyday sustainable living. She later earned a Master’s degree in Environmental Management, which guided her into a global sustainability role at IKEA. Here, Natalia focused on a fundamental question: What is our place and responsibility as a corporation within our communities?
Through her role with IKEA, Natalia travelled to India on a social entrepreneurship initiative. Working alongside women in village communities, her role wasn’t to prescribe solutions, but to sit on the floor, listen heart-to-heart, and work with local organizations to provide access to education and know-how. As she watched these women open bank accounts, make their own decisions, and build agency within their families, Natalia witnessed how seemingly simple forms of support could shift entire community dynamics. It was a beautiful experience that revealed the butterfly effect of human-centred impact.
This path later took her to Sierra Leone, in collaboration with the United Nations. There, she saw how access to foundational resources like running water, hygiene products, and seed funding in schools could significantly improve collective health and educational access. From this, Natalia learned that social impact doesn’t come from trying to fix a community from the outside—it unfolds when we break down structural barriers so people can access their rights, meet their needs, and build a collective capacity for change.
Yet, the most profound shift came in an unscripted moment.
When community members were asked about their dreams, they looked at Natalia and her colleagues and simply said, “We want to be like you.”
The weight of those words stayed with Natalia. In that moment, the invisible systems that had supported her own life came sharply into focus. Pursuing higher education or starting a business had always felt like natural, accessible choices—options she had never needed to question. Realizing how much she had unconsciously taken for granted, Natalia began to see access itself as a form of wealth that calls for stewardship. As she reflects, “I have a responsibility to take my education experience forward and create meaningful change.”
After working in IKEA’s innovation hub in Sweden, Natalia felt a strong pull to bring her global insights back to Canada. She didn’t want equity and community well-being to be treated as afterthoughts; she wanted them embedded into how future leaders are trained. This vision naturally aligned her with Segun Fatudimu and the mission of Impact Toolbox, where she saw an opportunity to contribute her operational expertise to a growing ecosystem of changemakers.
Today, Natalia’s work is a living expression of the stewardship she discovered along her journey. She sees operations not just as structure, but as a way to design systems that honour people, resources, and the long-term health of communities. By co-creating spaces where knowledge is democratized and relationships come first, she helps build pathways where access and sustainability go hand in hand—creating lasting, generational impact.
