Alumni in the Lead
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Ms. Robinson has been an active member of the Canadian investment industry for over twenty‐five years. She has unparalleled experience in investment management due diligence and monitoring, and building comprehensive multi‐manager investment platforms geared to the unique needs of private clients. Her experience has also included managing the portfolios and relationships of both private clients and institutions including not‐for‐profit corporations and foundations. Ms. Robinson began working exclusively with families and individuals at RBC Private Counsel in Ottawa where she was a Regional Vice President, Investment Counselor and Partner. She continued her journey with the unique investment needs of private clients when she joined CC&L Private Capital as Vice President. Her work with families and individuals has focused on the development and implementation of customized investment manager strategies, portfolios and investment policies.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Rob Mariani, is Vice President and Group Leader, Public Engagement at Hill + Knowlton Strategies in Ottawa.
Ten years ago Rob co-founded Ascentum with his business partner and fellow Telfer MBA Alumnus Joseph Peters. From a small office in Ottawa's Somerset Village, the firm set out to change the way organizations engage their publics. They developed tools and approaches, both online and in-person that enabled informed participation. Informed participation can be described as what happens when issues meet context. It is an enriched knowledge gathering process that produces meaningful dialogue and supports different degrees of involvement in the decision-making life cycle.
In the market place, this offering represented a shift from the traditional 'top of mind' approach to gathering citizen and stakeholder feedback. Informed participation makes a difference because of the complexity of issues facing today’s organizations. With context, facts and background, participants are better equipped to provide their diverse perspectives helping organizations make more robust and sustainable decisions.
Over the ten year span Rob led a number of initiatives across the government, not-for-profit and business sectors. He participated in public policy development, strategic business planning, program and service delivery, and business transformation. As project lead Rob often called upon this background in Quality and Process management from his time spent at Mitel to help deliver projects on time, within budget, and most importantly of the highest quality.
Today, Rob looks forward to a new horizon. In August of this year Hill + Knowlton Strategies announced the acquisition of Ascentum. H+K is the top-rated strategic communications firm in Canada, a leader in both public relations (PR) and public affairs (PA). As Vice President and Group Leader of the newly formed Public Engagement group, Rob's goal is to support the evolution of PR and PA from an industry that has been traditionally more about telling a story, to one that is involved in the creation of the story by engaging stakeholders and citizens in that process.
For H+K CEO Mike Coates the integration of public engagement into the current service mix represents an opportunity to redefine how the agency uses their relationships to help clients achieve their goals. For Rob and the Public Engagement group, it provides a spring board to continue to grow and expand what started as an Ottawa grown business by two MBA alumni over a decade ago.
Rob volunteers his time with the Telfer School of Management as a mentor in its Executive Mentoring Program.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Mark is co-owner and President of Inspire Developments – a private corporation that owns and manages 94 rental units in the Ottawa area as well as develops unique infill real estate projects. Currently the company is developing a 31 unit condominium project near the Ottawa Train Yards as well as a 3 unit townhouse project in Centertown.
Until the spring of 2012, Mark lived in Toronto for 10 years where he was President and CEO of The Futura Loyalty Group, a strategic services and technology provider to the leading rewards program operators in North America including Aeroplan, Delta Sky Miles, American Advantage Miles and US Airways Miles.
Key experiences in this role included:
- Raised $34 million in venture capital financing through both equity and debt instruments.
- Recruiting, structuring and implementing numerous strategic partnerships with large, public entities.
- Day to day oversight and management of a team of as many as 50 staff.
Mark is a down to earth, transparent, results oriented manager who enjoys interacting with all stakeholders in a business environment.
Mark is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the Telfer School.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Five remarkable alumni will be recognized by receiving Trudeau medals, the Young Achiever's Award and the Dean's Philos Award for their outstanding contributions to the world of business, the community and their alma mater at the 2012 Telfer School of Management Alumni Association Gala of Excellence. The Gala will be held at the Ottawa Convention Centre on September 29, 2012, during the University of Ottawa’s Homecoming celebrations.
Trudeau Medals
John King, MHA 1979
Janet LeBlanc, MBA 1990
Charles-Antoine St-Jean, BAdm 1975, BCom 1976 [This link is no longer available]
The Young Achiever's Award
Frédéric Michel, MBA 2004
The Dean's Philos Award
Brian Radburn, BAdm 1981, BCom 1982 [This link is no longer available]
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
In 1992, Michael was selected among 5300 candidates to be one of Canada's next generation of astronauts. Michael retired from the military in 2001, and seeking ever-greater challenges, began to work with PixeLINK in 2002. As president, Michael provided strategic direction to the company and ensured that PixeLINK provided the best products to customers as well as the most value to shareholders.
Michael left the company in 2008 to become an independent consultant and CEO of the Ottawa Flight College/Ottawa Flying Club. He helped the organization to transition from a club to an operating business with the development and formulation of policies and procedures and the creation of corporate learning processes that have enabled the organization grow and adapt to changing business conditions. In addition, he revamped the IT system, implementing an open-source Enterprise Resource Planning system that automated business processes and improved reporting and control, while replacing several other software systems and eliminating redundant manual data entry. He has also been instrumental in maintaining strong stakeholder relationships with key partners and suppliers of the company.
In 2012, Michael became the CEO of Scouts Canada.
Mike holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada and an Executive MBA from the Telfer School of Management.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Three remarkable alumni will be recognized by receiving Trudeau medals for their outstanding contributions to the world of business, the community and their alma mater at the 2012 Telfer School of Management Alumni Association Gala of Excellence. The Gala will be held at the Ottawa Convention Centre on September 29, 2012, during the University of Ottawa’s Homecoming celebrations.
John King, MHA 1979
Janet LeBlanc, MBA 1990
Charles-Antoine St-Jean, BAdm 1975, BCom 1976 [This link is no longer available]
The recipients of the Dean's Philos Award and of the Young Achiever's Award will be announced shortly.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Weiwei (Vivi) Wu will present her research on innovation-enabling organizations at the Academy of Management’s annual meeting, August 3-7 in Boston.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Janet LeBlanc is internationally recognized for her expertise in customer value and experience management with award winning results in driving transformational change. She works with organizations to improve performance by transforming how they interact with clients to deliver a branded customer experience. Janet integrates customer expectations into strategic planning, employee performance management, and process improvement initiatives—with the goal to link customer strategies to business and financial results. She successfully led the integration of customer feedback into one of Canada’s most recognized brands, Canada Post. Janet works to engage employees with a branded customer experience through training and development, performance management, executive coaching, compensation and rewards, and communications.
Awards & Recognition
Janet was the winner of a 2009 Stevie Award for Women in Business (Best Executive) and her leadership won Canada Post four international awards ─ namely an International Business Award for Best Customer Service Organization, a 1to1 Impact Award for Organizational Transformation, a World Mail Award for Customer Service, and an Aberdeen Industry Achievement Award for Business Evolution. Janet was named to the prestigious position of Customer Champion, joining a world-wide community of top-level executives who are the voice of the customer in their organizations and whose efforts help tie customer strategies to bottom-line results. She sits on Dr. Bradley Gale’s Advisory Board for Customer Value Management and was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Customer Strategist, an executive journal for Chief Customer Experience Officers. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Capital Region YMCA-YWCA.
Speaking Summary
A leading-edge practitioner, Janet is passionate about representing the voice of the customer. A sought-after guest speaker, Janet regularly presents at events all over the world including the Chief Service Officer Summit, the Customer Experience and Engagement Summit, and the European Market Research Event. She was the main conference chair for the 9th Annual North American Conference on Customer Management.
Professional History
A 20-year marketing veteran, Janet has influenced innovative strategic thinking since starting her career. She previously led a national training and development department for sales and customer service and served as marketing director of the Coaching Association of Canada where she led the implementation of “Coaching Principles in Management” a training program for sales and service managers. Janet holds a Masters of Business Administration and was an adjunct professor of marketing at the University of Ottawa for 10 years. She is an accomplished writer including a Canadian best seller, available worldwide in three languages
Click here [This link is no longer available], to read the article on Janet Leblanc featured in Distinctive Women Magazine.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Emily graduated from the Telfer B.Com program with an option in International Management in 2006. While at the University of Ottawa, Emily got involved with AIESEC Ottawa, the local chapter of AIESEC, a global youth-led organization. After leading the local chapter for two years, and upon graduation, Emily moved first to Pretoria, South Africa in 2007, to support the operations of Ungana-Afrika, a niche consultancy and non-profit that catalyzes scalable enterprises in emerging markets by accelerating the adoption of innovative technologies, business models and services, that promote equality and improve quality of life.
Emily then moved on to Lagos, Nigeria, to work for C2G Consulting, a technology consulting firm. Upon her return to Canada from Nigeria, Emily re-joined AIESEC, this time in a full-time role, with the national head office in Toronto, managing an alumni engagement program. She was then elected as National President for AIESEC Canada for the 2008-2009 term. In this role she led a team of 8 full-time staff out of the head office and oversaw the activities of 28 local offices and over 300 volunteers across the country.
At the end of her time with AIESEC Canada, Emily was selected to be part of the team that oversees AIESEC's global operations and was based in the Netherlands for much of 2009 and 2010, in her role as Director for Western Europe and North America. In this role, Emily oversaw operations in 19 national offices in the region, providing consultancy services and training to groups representing over 10,000 members of AIESEC in Western Europe and North America. This role gave her the opportunity to work in 23 different countries over the course of the year.
Upon completion of her time with AIESEC International, Emily moved to Sydney, Australia, where she is now Director of Operations and Projects for the Youth Action and Policy Association, an industry body representing, and advocating on behalf of, the interests of youth services and young people in the state of New South Wales. In her role, Emily oversees the delivery of the organization’s training and resourcing of its members as well as its internal operations.
See Emily's profile on our Linked with Leadership portal.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Once a year, the Ottawa Business Journal nominates professionals for their business achievements to be in their forty under 40 list. On June 21, nominees will be honored at the Forty under 40 awards at the Hilton Lac-Leamy. This event is sponsored in part by the Telfer School Executive MBA.
Among this years’ nominees, 6 are University of Ottawa’s alumni from which 2 studied at the Telfer School of Management. For this achievement, the Telfer School would like to congratulate:
Kyle Braatz, BCom 2009
Alexandra Pontbriand, BCom 1999
The Telfer School would also like to congratulate Adam Aptowitzer, Theresa Balys-Bertuzzi, Deepak Dutt, Fadi Ghaby and Julie Kingstone who all graduated from the University of Ottawa.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Russ Morgan is a Telfer School of Management alumnus that likes to keep busy. Aside from his professional life as a strategy and marketing professional, over the last three years he has started and run a non-profit alongside his brother and a small board. Dedicated to eliminating poverty in the developing world, Building Walls of Wisdom (BuildWoW) has been committed to creating educational opportunities through the construction of schools.
During his tenure at the Telfer School of Management, Russ was the president of the winning Undergraduate Business Games team [This link is no longer available], as well as a four-year executive on the University of Ottawa Marketing Association, now the Telfer Marketing Association. Russ learned early on that going above and beyond what is expected of you can be incredibly rewarding.
One of the biggest rewards Russ received was on a recent trip to visit all BuildWoW projects underway in Africa. He was able to see first-hand the very real difference that his organization, inclusive of its numerous contributors, has made in various communities. In a recent reflection of his trip, he wrote the following:
“At the end of the day we are all people; people that work, people that laugh, and people that want the best for their children. The only difference is where we are born and the resources that are available. For those of us who live in a country where resources and education are abundant, we have a responsibility to help those communities with less.”
Russ is a firm believer that his business education has greatly contributed to his organization's success. With a BCom in Marketing, Russ has been able to apply a number of strategic frameworks to help BuildWoW grow. In addition, Russ continues to support doing more -“Everyone within our organization, myself included, work on a volunteer basis. I have seen first-hand that individuals can provoke change no matter what profession they choose.”
To see Russ in action, we invite you to watch the video explaining the current Building Walls of Wisdom project in Northern Ghana.
About Building Walls of Wisdom
Launched on April 1st, 2009, Building Walls of Wisdom was created in an effort to make a small impact in the world of extreme poverty. The construction of schools is one of the most significant ways to tackle this issue. Building Walls of Wisdom creates educational opportunities one school at a time. Its original and very modest goal was to build 10 schools in 10 years. Today, they are in the midst of raising funds for their 7th project. To date, Building Walls of Wisdom has been responsible for the construction of schools in Kenya, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, and Ghana.
For more information on Building Walls of Wisdom, please visit www.buildwow.com.
To contact Russ Morgan directly, please
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Diane Lorenzato (EMBA 1996) will be at the Annual Symposium Association of the Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada (APEX) as the winner for the Leadership Award of Excellence. This event, titled “Ahead of the Curve: Predict, Plan, Perform”, will take place on May 29 and May 30 at Canada’s National Arts Center in Ottawa. To view the preliminary program or to register, click here.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Laura Recoskie and her team members (Steven Recoskie and Sébastien Touchette) won 1st place in the graduate students category of the 2012 PEI Student Competition organized by the Faculty of Engineering. Their challenge was to develop a portable, low cost and long endurance system capable of providing crisis management solutions and search and rescue support. The product solution that was presented is an autonomous, low cost, hybrid powered, dirigible, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), capable of operating up to 96 hours. Because it uses commercially available components and a modular design, it is cheaper to produce and it can be adapted to other devices according to specific mission objectives.
To see the complete list of the winners, click here [This link is no longer available].
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Sean Sirois is Managing Director of Deutsche Bank Securities Limited and is responsible for Global Markets Structured Solutions sales to institutional clients in Canada. The Structured Solutions business includes cash and derivative instruments in credit, rates, hedge funds, commodities, real estate and FX. He is Director of DBSL and Branch Manager of the Montreal office. He has been registered with IIROC as a Futures Representative and a Commodities Supervisor.
Sean joined DB in 2003. He was previously at JP Morgan in Montreal for 6 years and TD Securities in Toronto, Montreal and Tokyo for 13 years in various trading, sales and management positions. Sean earned a B.Comm (Honours) at University of Ottawa in 1982; a Diplome at Ecole supérieure de commerce de Paris in 1983 and the CFA charter in 1995.
Sean lives in Montreal with his wife and three children, while his work is based between Montreal and Toronto. He enjoys running, cycling, skiing and various other recreational activities. Sean supports various social and environmental causes. He is a past board member for Tyndale St-Georges Community Center in Little Burgundy in Montreal and continues to fundraise for the organization. Sean is currently a member of the Telfer School of Management’s Dean’s Advisory Board in Montréal.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Joanne Lefebvre, Badm 1983; MBA 2011, director-general of the Regroupement des gens d’affaires de la Capitale nationale, provides her CO-OP students with memorable experiences that give them a chance to spread their wings professionally.
To that end, she assigns truly important duties to her students while showering them with tremendous generosity. CO-OP students on Ms. Lefebvre’s team are allowed to play a direct role in event organization and to carry out wrap-up duties as well.
This is why she won the CO-OP Employer of the year Award.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
As recently featured on the Telfer School of Management website, Myron Gomes is a recent BCom graduate from the Telfer School of Management specializing in finance. Upon graduation, Myron co-founded Spoonity, a software company with a unique loyalty rewards platform for the restaurant industry. He recently partnered with Jag Ghuman, another Telfer alumnus and Ottawa franchisee for Freshii restaurants. Jag has agreed to run Spoonity in his two Ottawa Freshii locations. Myron hopes to expand Spoonity into other Freshii locations in the near future.
Additionally, Spoonity was recently accepted into the University of Ottawa’s StartUp Garage for the summer of 2012. The StartUp Garage is an initiative of the Ottawa Technology Transfer Network (OTTN) to foster and support student entrepreneurship in the Ottawa area. This opportunity also includes $20,000 in funding, office space at Invest Ottawa and other mentorship opportunities.
Spoonity has also been invited to appear on the next season of Dragon’s Den, airing this Fall on CBC.
The future is looking bright for this startup. Congratulations to Myron and his team at Spoonity!
Click here to find out more about Myron Gomes.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Felix Chim graduated from the Executive MBA program in 2000. Prior to studying at the Telfer School of Management, he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree (with honors) in Civil Engineering from Leeds University in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Chim went on to work in the construction industry for over 15 years. He has been employed by a number of multinational companies including, CertainTeed (Saint-Gobain), HILTI, Tyco and Shui On. He currently works for Lowe’s, a fortune 50 company in the United States and the second largest home improvement retailer in the world, as Managing Director of the Global Sourcing Office in Hong Kong.
Since joining Lowe’s in 2005, he has moved over 800,000 container cargoes from Asia to the United States! “I had never dreamt of taking up a career in global sourcing and supply chain management but after receiving an EMBA from the Telfer School of Management, it opened up all kinds of career opportunities and I am very happy of where I am now” says Mr. Chim.
Outside of work, he is also a non-executive Director of Christian Excellence Mission Limited, a not-for-profit Christian book publisher in Hong Kong and he is also Vice Chairman at the Export Supply Chain Council in Hong Kong.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Jacline Abray-Nyman is an accomplished leader in the public sector with 20 years of demonstrated success in senior roles within Canadian universities. Jacline's career has focused on philanthropic fundraising, stakeholder and external relations. Acting in the capacity of principal gifts director and campaign counsel, Jacline has personally negotiated many significant philanthropic gifts and business partnerships, and worked on fundraising efforts totaling in excess of $125 million since 1999.
With Queen's School of Business, Jacline provides leadership for developing meaningful relationships with QSB's alumni and donors as well as with community and corporate leaders. As an Assistant Professor, Jacline teaches marketing, marketing ethics and social responsibility and has research interests in marketing, philanthropy and the social-mission sector. Jacline recently concluded a major research project entitled "Transformational philanthropy and networks of cocreated value in Canada."
Prior to joining QSB Jacline worked as a consultant providing advice to clients on relationship building, resource development, marketing and strategic planning. She held the position of Vice- President of Fundraising and Donor Relations for the York University Foundation; Director of Development and External Relations, for the Haskayne School of Business (University of Calgary); and Director of Advancement Services (University of Ottawa); in addition to several other for-profit and non-profit roles. She has worked closely as a volunteer with the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), a Toronto-based social enterprise with a mission to catalyze social innovation.
Jacline holds a Bachelor of Administration (Ottawa), an MBA (Calgary), and Doctorate in Business Administration (Cranfield, UK). She is married and has a daughter.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Congratulations to Telfer School alumnus Jacline Abray-Nyman (BAdm 1990) who has been named as President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way Centraide Canada.
About Jacline Abray-Nyman
Jacline Abray-Nyman is an accomplished leader in the public sector with 20 years of demonstrated success in senior roles within Canadian universities. Jacline's career has focused on philanthropic fundraising, stakeholder and external relations. Acting in the capacity of principal gifts director and campaign counsel, Jacline has personally negotiated many significant philanthropic gifts and business partnerships, and worked on fundraising efforts totaling in excess of $125 million since 1999.
With Queen's School of Business, Jacline provides leadership for developing meaningful relationships with QSB's alumni and donors as well as with community and corporate leaders. As an Assistant Professor, Jacline teaches marketing, marketing ethics and social responsibility and has research interests in marketing, philanthropy and the social-mission sector. Jacline recently concluded a major research project entitled "Transformational philanthropy and networks of cocreated value in Canada."
Prior to joining QSB Jacline worked as a consultant providing advice to clients on relationship building, resource development, marketing and strategic planning. She held the position of Vice- President of Fundraising and Donor Relations for the York University Foundation; Director of Development and External Relations, for the Haskayne School of Business (University of Calgary); and Director of Advancement Services (University of Ottawa); in addition to several other for-profit and non-profit roles. She has worked closely as a volunteer with the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), a Toronto-based social enterprise with a mission to catalyze social innovation.
Jacline holds a Bachelor of Administration (Ottawa), an MBA (Calgary), and Doctorate in Business Administration (Cranfield, UK). She is married and has a daughter.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
The Telfer School of Management wishes to congratulate Charles Bordeleau (BAdm 1984) who has been named the new Chief of the Ottawa Police Service. Mr. Bordeleau was honoured as an alumnus of the Telfer School in 2011 as the recipient of the 2011 Dean's Philos Award.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Thibaud Clement is a 2011 Telfer MBA Graduate. Native from France, Thibaud is currently traveling around the world to learn about eCommerce in a creative way, by meeting experts on the road. This is The DODEQA Project: 12 months, 12 cities, 12 objectives. Passionate about Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Web Technologies, Thibaud has already launched his first eCommerce website: Candyscovery. When he is not blogging or reading books, Thibaud loves running, photographing and cooking. His motto? Do Your Best & Fix The Rest!
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Co-Founder, Spoonity
Myron is a recent BCom graduate from the Telfer School of Management specializing in finance. He has a strong passion for entrepreneurship and business development. As an undergraduate Myron was very involved in extra-curricular activities including founding a regular speaker series while President of the Telfer Finance Society which brought in professionals to educate students on careers in finance. He also excelled in inter-university academic competitions. He placed 1st in the Entrepreneurship Case at the 2011 Jeux du Commerce, 1st in International Marketing at the 2010 Happening Marketing, 1st in Finance News Quiz at Omnium Financial Open 2010 and 2nd in International Business at JDC 2010. While a student Myron participated in the uOttawa co-op program and had a diverse set of work terms with organizations like RIM and EDC. Myron also participated in an international exchange to Aarhus School of Business in Denmark.
Following university Myron co-founded Spoonity, a software company with a unique loyalty rewards platform for the restaurant industry. Myron leverages knowledge and skills gained through his multi-faceted Telfer education to run an innovative technology company. The company is poised for rapid growth following a period of software development and a pilot test featured restaurants in the Ottawa area.
Spoonity in the news (this link is no longer available)