Antony Upward believes that business must play a key role in enabling the possibility for flourishing for humanity and all other life for generations to come. 

In his role as an academic, he is a Visiting Professor in the Business Model Innovation group at the Centre for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Learning, Halmstad University, Sweden and a former adjunct Professor, at the Faculty of Design, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada. 

As a practitioner, Antony is a Certified Management Consultant with 35 years’ experience, a Flourishing Business Architect and a member of the Systemic Design Association.

Antony originated the Flourishing Business Canvas through his research and practice, a fit-for-the-21st-century business modelling tool. This is now being used by 1000s organizations and individuals around the world, including EIT-Climate-KIC, Innovation Norway, the Centre for Social Innovation (Toronto), Georgian College, and two initiatives he helped to co-found Flourishing Startups and Enterprise Evolution.

Antony holds a Masters of Environmental Studies in Business Model Design and Sustainability and a Graduate Diploma in Business and the Environment from York University, Toronto. He has several increasingly well-cited papers about his research and practice, along with a recent book chapter on flourishing strategy design.

Land/social and Biophysical Acknowledgement:

Antony was born in the UK and is a long-time settler in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada – located in the Lake Erie Lowlands ecoregion. This territory is the subject of the “Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant”, an open agreement created by First Nations to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.  He resides in the Wonscotonach/Don River watershed on territory covered by the Upper Canada Treaties, the traditional territory of the Anishinabeg , the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, the Métis, and today, the territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.