This NationSwell Braintrust will convene cross-sector leaders to explore what it would take to establish mentorship as a recognized leadership capability and build a credentialed, scalable, and investable system that creates value for both companies and the next generation of talent.

Grounded in iMentor’s 25+ years of mentoring expertise, the session will explore the opportunity to partner with a top-ranked university to develop a first-of-its-kind mentor leadership and certification program. The conversation will move beyond traditional “volunteer program” framing to position mentorship as critical workforce and social-impact infrastructure that strengthens leadership development, employee engagement, and economic mobility for young people.

This will be a working session and feasibility exercise for an emerging university-backed mentor certification and enterprise engagement model. Participants will pressure-test key assumptions around the business value of mentorship, identify the most compelling use cases and buyers within companies, and help define how to articulate the ROI of mentorship, including leadership development, manager readiness, avoided training costs, talent attraction and retention, employee purpose and engagement, and brand value. The session will also explore what evidence, outcomes, and pricing models would be necessary to make mentorship a scalable investment for companies and a new standard for leadership development.

To encourage open and candid discussion, this event follows the Chatham House Rule – attendees may share insights from the conversation but cannot attribute statements to specific individuals or organizations. This ensures a trusted space for thoughtful dialogue and deeper insights.