2025 Global Impact Summit: George Sifakis and Eva Sifakis

Big problems don’t yield to siloed effort. From the floor of the Idea Gen Global Summit in Athens, we sit down with future global leader Evangelia Safakis to unpack why cross-sector collaboration is the most reliable path to real, lasting impact—and how leaders can make it work without jargon or guesswork. We move beyond platitudes to lay out the mechanics: aligning incentives, sharing language across industries, and designing small pilots that generate quick wins and credibility.

Together, we examine what each sector brings to the table. Government can scale policy and infrastructure, nonprofits carry community trust and on-the-ground insight, and businesses contribute capital, talent, and execution speed. When these strengths combine, innovation accelerates. Healthcare examples show how finance and education partners remove adoption barriers; climate and social impact projects benefit from diversified funding and shared data; and workforce initiatives gain traction by pairing training with placement and wraparound support. The thread through all of it is clear goals, honest feedback loops, and simple governance that keeps momentum.

We also talk long-term value. Partnerships create leaders who can translate across domains, improve resilience against budget and political shifts, and build programs that survive leadership changes. The compounding effect is powerful: more ideas surface, failed paths are caught earlier, and successful models endure. If you’re leading a team, a nonprofit, or a company, these insights offer a practical blueprint to move from intention to outcomes.

If this conversation sparks new ideas for your work, follow the show, share it with a colleague who leads across boundaries, and leave a quick review telling us the best partnership you’ve seen in action.

Chapters

• 0:12 Setting The Stage In Athens
• 0:34 Why Cross-Sector Collaboration Matters
• 1:19 Partnerships As Force Multipliers
• 1:54 Driving Innovation Through Mixed Expertise
• 2:39 Public–Private–Nonprofit Synergy
• 3:24 Long-Term Gains From Partnerships
• 3:50 Closing From The Global Summit

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:12

Welcome to the Idea Gen Global Summit, Idea Gen Foundation Future Global Leader portion here live at ACS Athens in Athens, Greece, here today with Evangelia Safakis. Evangelia, welcome.

SPEAKER_00: 0:28

It's a pleasure.

SPEAKER_01: 0:29

It's my pleasure. You have some questions here, future global leader questions.

SPEAKER_00: 0:34

Okay, the first one: why is it critical for leaders to collaborate across industries and sectors?

SPEAKER_01: 0:41

Well, Evangelia, it's important to collaborate across sectors because as we believe at Idea Gen, many of the world's most vexing issues can be solved by bringing folks together from across sectors. Yeah. And so you gain different perspectives. For example, healthcare, education, finance, they all speak different languages. And when you bring folks together from those industries, from any industry or cross-sector, it's amazing what people learn. And that's what we do at Idea Gen.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12

Yeah, definitely. And like, because obviously, like one group can't do it all.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17

That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_00: 1:19

Um, what makes multi-sector partnerships essential in today's interconnected world?

SPEAKER_01: 1:25

Well, partnerships, gosh, partnerships are the key to it all. I mean, no one entity, like you just said, can do it alone. You can't do it alone.

SPEAKER_00: 1:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:34

And so when you partner strategically, yeah, the sky's the limit.

SPEAKER_00: 1:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:39

You can do many multiples of what you could do alone doing it together. So you can, like they say, you can run alone or you can run together with someone else, and you can go so much further. So uh in collaborating. So that's a key part of it as well.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53

Definitely. Um, how can cross-sector collaboration drive innovation and solve global challenges?

SPEAKER_01: 2:02

Well, so it's taking that a step further. So when you have cross-sector collaboration and partnerships combined, you can drive uh specific uh insights that you otherwise wouldn't have.

SPEAKER_00: 2:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 2:15

You can go further together, you can do more, and ultimately you can solve some of the world's most vexing issues when collaborating across sectors strategically.

SPEAKER_00: 2:25

Yeah, definitely. And more ideas like equal, like better solutions.

SPEAKER_01: 2:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:31

Um, in what ways does working across public, private, and nonprofit sectors strengthen impact?

SPEAKER_01: 2:39

Well, look, working across government, NGO, public sector, private sector, it's all so critical because again, not even a government can do it all alone. And so whether you're you're in a in the government or you're in a private sector organization, collaborating across sectors to find solutions to what is an issue is so critical. So partnerships are the key for solutions.

SPEAKER_00: 3:10

And they each bring like something different.

SPEAKER_01: 3:13

Yeah, exactly. Different perspective, different experience. That's right, Eva.

SPEAKER_00: 3:17

Uh, what are the long-term benefits of fostering partnerships across different fields?

SPEAKER_01: 3:24

Well, the long-term benefits. Short-term, you can get some easy wins and do some things together. Long-term, sky's the limit what you can do.

SPEAKER_00: 3:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 3:32

When you partner, you can think of new ways to partner, you can come up with innovative solutions, you can innovate, of course. And so all of that combined helps to really drive incredible success and innovation.

SPEAKER_00: 3:44

For sure. And it helps things like last and grow.

SPEAKER_01: 3:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 3:49

Exactly. Evangelia Safakis, future global leader here with the Idea Gen Foundation. Thank you so very much. Live from Athens, Greece, at the Idea Gen Global Summit.