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- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Building businesses through collaboration
Going to the University of Ottawa for Business was an eleventh hour decision for me but one I will never regret! Prior to that, I was focused on getting into med school. The recruiting numbers were against me, so I knew I needed to pivot. At the time, the market had little demand for a biology major. It was all about business and finance. Here we are, almost 30 years later, and I’ve never looked back.
The Telfer School of Management gave me the fundamental skillset I needed. More importantly, it peaked my curiosity and completely opened my eyes to this horizon that was Finance. It equipped me with that sense of discovery that you need to scratch beneath the surface and really look into things to get the answers you need.
I’m not your traditional operator: I’m a fixer. I’m driven by challenges. I like to come in, make tough choices, reshape businesses and set vision and strategy. And, like most of my peer CEO’s, I’m really driven by success. For me, the best way to achieve that is by being collaborative, being eternally optimistic and most importantly helping to unleash people’s potential.
I believe celebrating success is indispensable in building a winning culture. When I started out in the industry, TD didn’t really have a Markets business. It was covered by other investment dealers/banks. When I left in 2010, TD Securities had risen to be one of the top investment dealers in Canada and was now a fierce competitor to those same dealers. I take tremendous pride in having contributed to building that great business.
That was the appeal of joining TMX, to be able to challenge the status quo and build businesses again. To help a siloed organization break down barriers, be more collaborative, and unleash the full potential of an integrated entity. To have more of an “enterprise” view of the business. When you start leveraging the strengths and complementary skillsets of the whole team, it can be a very, very powerful thing!
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Make Missions Work
The mission of the organization matters most to me. In the context of working at Shared Services Canada, my goal is to find solutions that help Canadians have their service needs met. We support all the technology services that enable people to be safe and secure, to benefit from our social safety net, and even to pay taxes in support all the priorities and activities of government. My mission now is the most ambitious I’ve ever been a part of: to create the new platform for governments at all levels so that information is gathered and used for the benefit of all Canadians. I want to help make our governments achieve excellence in gathering, using and safeguarding information.
Telfer School of Management made it possible for me to take on this challenge. Because of the Telfer Executive MBA, I have gained skills, acquired knowledge, cultivated new ways of thinking, and I have reached a much higher level of contribution for my employer. Along with turning me into a high-performing communicator, thinker and strategist, Telfer also taught me to appreciate the advantages of diversity. Organizations are made up of people at different stages of their careers, and we collectively face the challenges of achieving the mission. We can rise up to the challenges because of our diverse skills, perspectives, capabilities and experiences. The Telfer Executive MBA equipped me with the awareness and ability to bring together teams whose members have specific blends of strengths and capacities.
These are the kind of teams that succeed in completing missions and improving how governments operate. Which is vital, because the status quo is no longer an option—for people and for organizations. People must always look to enhance their knowledge—just as I did—and government departments must always look to give their people opportunities to apply what they know to make missions work.
Five remarkable alumni, including David Adamson, will be recognized for their outstanding contributions to the world of business, healthcare, community and their alma mater at the 2016 Telfer School of Management Gala of Excellence. The Gala will be held at the Shaw Centre on Saturday, October 15, 2016. This will also be an opportunity to collectively celebrate our alma mater and highlight the graduation anniversary of the classes of 1966, 1976, 1991 and 2006.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Create Opportunities for People to Become Healthy
Many people think of academia as being separate from the real world. Their kind of thinking doesn’t reflect my experience. What I learned via the Telfer MHA has enabled me to create opportunities for people to remain or become healthy. You can’t get more real world than that. Every single day, I put to use the skills I gained at the Telfer School—in analytics, in strategic planning, in research methodology, in project and financial management. These skills also shape the systematic frame of mind I apply to every problem my organization faces. This combination of ability and attitude gives me the confidence and ambition to tackle tough challenges, build broad partnerships, and try methods that have never been seen or done before.
I simply couldn’t function—let alone achieve any degree of professional success—without these skills and the frame of mind they inspire. My position as executive director of Ottawa Inner City Health has no piece of paper that tells me what to do and how to do it. Solutions are never plug and play. My job requires me to think what I call big thoughts about big problems and the big ideas and partnerships to solve them.
It only sounds daunting. My work connects me with people I like and actions I believe in. It gives energy and balance to my life. It enables me to do not merely what I want to do, but also what matters so much to me that I believe I was born to do it. There is no better feeling and no greater satisfaction than that—and the Telfer MHA made it possible.
Five remarkable alumni, including Wendy Muckle, will be recognized for their outstanding contributions to the world of business, healthcare, community and their alma mater at the 2016 Telfer School of Management Gala of Excellence. The Gala will be held at the Shaw Centre on Saturday, October 15, 2016. This will also be an opportunity to collectively celebrate our alma mater and highlight the graduation anniversary of the classes of 1966, 1976, 1991 and 2006.
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Student Voices
The following article was written by a member of our student community. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Telfer School of Management. For more information or to flag inappropriate content, please