The Mastercard Foundation’s new podcast champions values-based leadership as a vital tool for creating lasting, positive change

The Mastercard Foundation’s new podcast champions values-based leadership as a vital tool for creating lasting, positive change

Toronto, Canada — March 10, 2025 — The Mastercard Foundation is proud to announce the launch of a new podcast that seeks to challenge, motivate, and inspire the next generation to lead with purpose and to act with courage.

Transcending Boundaries – Conversations with Reeta Roy, is a compelling new series that shares the lives, leadership journeys, and insights of remarkable international leaders including former heads of state, human rights advocates, and social innovators. Hosted by Reeta Roy, President & CEO at the Mastercard Foundation, the podcast features conversations that illuminate the experiences and influences that shaped some of the world’s most inspiring changemakers.

“In my life as a leader, I have learned it is vital to begin a conversation by listening,” says Reeta Roy, President  & CEO at the Mastercard Foundation. “Through the conversations in Transcending Boundaries, we offer a rare opportunity to learn from people who have changed the course of their own lives and the world. Understanding the formative years that shaped the lives, and the journeys, of these extraordinary leaders is a source of wisdom and encouragement. We all have the capacity to be leaders and to make a difference.”

The podcast debuts with a powerful first episode featuring Nobel Laureate and former President of Liberia, the Honourable Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. A trailblazer in governance and women’s rights, President Sirleaf discusses the formative experiences that shaped her vision, the mentors who guided her, and the values that sustained her through times of challenge and triumph.

“I did have the experience of being strong in success while maintaining self-confidence in defeat,” says Sirleaf. “My mother’s strength, in being able to provide that care, and at the same time being able to coach her children that they stayed focused on getting an education, staying in school, preparing themselves, I think therein lies my own strength of character. My own ability to forge ahead if I see there is something that will improve not only me but the society in which I live.”

Airing on March 10, 2025, Transcending Boundaries is an eight-episode weekly series that invites listeners to be part of a vital conversation on leadership, values, and transformation—that is highly relevant in today’s world. It will be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and the Mastercard Foundation’s website.

Episodes feature a distinguished lineup of guests who have made a profound impact in their fields including Former Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf, Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda Louise Arbour, and Former Irish President Mary Robinson.

Join the next generation of changemakers by subscribing to Transcending Boundaries and discover how values-based leadership can transform your journey and impact.

The Mastercard Foundation is a registered Canadian charity and one of the largest foundations in the world. It works with visionary organizations to advance education and financial inclusion to enable young people in Africa and Indigenous youth in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work. Established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company, the Foundation is an independent organization separate from the company, with offices in Toronto, Kigali, Accra, Nairobi, Kampala, Lagos, Dakar, and Addis Ababa. Its policies, operations, and program decisions are determined by the Foundation’s Board of Directors and leadership.