Stephen Hecht

As co-founder and Chief Executive Peacemaker of Million Peacemakers, Stephen brings over 30 years of personal and business experience to the field of conflict resolution. In 2016, he co-authored a #1 Best Seller, Nonflict: The Art of Everyday Peacemaking.

Much of his experience is in family businesses, private and public. During this time, he has dealt with conflicts dealing with growth and recessions, family issues, unions, strikes, retailing, domestic and offshore​ manufacturing. He co-founded Million Peacemakers as a non-profit organization to spread the tools of constructive conflict resolution to businesses, families and communities worldwide. Over 225,000 people were trained in the first 5 years, impacting 7.8 million.

Stephen served as the youngest and first Canadian Chair of the International Formalwear Association; the same year he joined YPO at age 31. He is a winner of the Canada Award for Business Excellence, presented by the Prime Minister of Canada as well as the YMCA Peace Medal.

As Chair of the Advisory Board of McGill University’s International Community Action Network, Stephen trains students from the Middle East in Nonflict to then share at their 11 community centres in the region.

Stephen had an audience with Pope Francis in March 2019 when he spoke to a conference on Religions and SDG’s, and was then invited back a month later to address the working group advising the Pope on Peace and Non Violence policy.

In June 2020 he launched an Amazon Alexa virtual Nonflict coach, that can be enabled for free on over 200 million Alexa devices. Stephen has an MBA from Ivey Business School, Western University, Canada and a B.Comm from McGill University where he also taught organizational behaviour.

Married to Naomi, Stephen has 4 adult children, 3 step-children.