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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
Kelly Medora Elliott (BCom 2005) is a partner at global law firm Dentons in the Real Estate and Banking and Finance groups. In addition to her law practice, where she provides legal counsel and strategic advice to clients, Kelly is also the Canada Director of Practice Support & Optimization at the firm.
Being naturally ambitious and career-minded, Kelly has enjoyed taking on progressively more senior leadership roles at Dentons, where she has led numerous complex transactions and managed a broad range of client projects. More recently, Kelly’s work leading the 20-person Practice Support & Optimization team has provided a transition into the firm’s management, giving her the opportunity to leverage the business fundamentals she learned at Telfer.
As a testament to her success at Dentons, her growing professional profile, and personal commitment to mentoring and influencing young women in her network, Kelly was named a 2019 recipient of the Ottawa Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 award, which recognizes accomplished and rising business leaders in the National Capital Region.
Kelly’s passion for business started early. She recalls having ongoing discussions with Professor Koppel about her career, which remain among her fondest memories from her time at Telfer. As she approached graduation from the Telfer School, she knew she wanted to pursue additional studies, and eventually decided to study law at McGill.
Women in significant leadership roles, such as Dentons’ Canada CEO and CFO, Beth Wilson and Andrea Nicholls, respectively, inspire Kelly. Her desire to see women “sit at the table” with decision-making capabilities in large organizations has motivated her to set and achieve her own professional goals.
Kelly’s advice to recent graduates is to be kind to themselves, and never lose sight or give up on their dreams. “We need to challenges ourselves to aim really high, while acknowledging the bumps and mistakes that will confront us along the way,” says Kelly. What’s most important, she says, is to learn from your mistakes, not throw in the towel during the hard times, and embrace the advice of strong mentors when they push you to keep reaching.
Given her accomplishments and success in her field so early in her career, Kelly Elliott will undoubtedly leave her mark on the practice of law in Canada.
Connect with Kelly Elliott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellymedoraelliott/
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Strategic leader, developer and builder, François Vaqué is an accomplished business pioneer whose career path was enriched by his MBA from Telfer.
With a Bachelor in International Commerce from Rouen and in Economics from the Université du Québec à Montréal, François chose to pursue his studies at Telfer because of the diversity of its students as well as its faculty expertise.
The MBA program gave François the opportunity to meet potential employers, which allowed him to work at Newbridge Networks and participate in the development of its marketing function. Later on, François worked as product manager at Future Electronics, before launching his own company named Marketingisland.com. His work experiences provided him with the knowledge necessary to become Vice-President of marketing and communications for KPMG and Davies Ward Philips & Vineberg. These prestigious positions strengthened his reputation as a business professional with a vast expertise in communications and marketing, and led him to become Vice-President of public relations and corporate affairs at Citoyen.
Even though François has a successful career, he strongly believes in the importance of achieving a healthy work-life balance. He explained that what matters most to him is working hard, having a good career and finding a balance between his personal and professional life. He developed this perspective during his studies at Telfer, because his cohort taught him that you could work hard while still having fun. François is inspired by social implication, which is why he gives back to his community through art foundations. Furthermore, he is engaged with his alma mater by organizing alumni events and being a speaker at Telfer conferences to show his recognition to the faculty that shaped him.
He encourages students to engage themselves, whether that be in nonprofit organizations, with family or at work in order to have a balanced and rewarding life.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
As an aspiring entrepreneur, Cyril Moukarzel was looking for a school that would teach him the business skills needed to start and run a successful business. He was attracted to the Telfer School’s international recognition and faculty expertise, as well as its strong alumni network. These elements made Telfer the best fit for him.
The Telfer School has had a tremendous impact in Cyril’s professional and personal life. He explained the Professors helped guide him in his career path and provided him with the necessary skills to thrive in the business world. In fact, it is with the help of Professor Gurprit Kindra that he changed his major from entrepreneurship to marketing. This decision had a significant impact on his career, as he was able to learn about the digital marketing landscape, enabling him to “bootstrap startups from the ground up and grow them into revenue generating businesses”. Furthermore, during his time at Telfer, Cyril recalls several amazing experiences, like the time he won first place at the Telfer Elevator Pitch competition. He explained this accomplishment gave him the validation and the motivation he needed to pursue a career in Entrepreneurship.
When asked about how the Telfer School helped shape him into the person he is today, Cyril explained how the School helped launch his entrepreneurship career. It is thanks to the Telfer School that he was able to take part in the Startup Garage Accelerator. The program helped him acquire the funding necessary to get his first startup off the ground. The startup, called eCelery, is an “online marketplace where hungry food lovers can order authentic ethnic meals from chefs cooking in their own kitchens”. Without this program and the Telfer School, Cyril would not have been able to grow his startup to 40 chefs and gain hundreds of monthly sales in just a few months. Cyril also explained the individuals he met during his studies helped him get to where he is today.
After eCelery, Cyril worked as the head of Marketing for a few startups, where he was put in charge of growing their sales and customer base. He also participated in the Techstars Accelerator Program in Berlin for 3 months, which helped him hone his marketing and entrepreneurship skills before he could start his next venture. Cyril aspires to create a positive impact and change the world with his companies. He is achieving this goal with his current company, LifeDNA. LifeDNA is a personal genomics company that analyzes your DNA and creates a customized regimen of dietary supplements based on your unique genetics. With a growing team and some of the best advisors, LifeDNA created the most personalized supplement line in the world. In this regard, Cyril recalls that Telfer connected him with the Entrepreneurship community in Ottawa and taught him essential business skills, which helped him make this positive impact.
Connect with Cyril on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cyrilmoukarzel/
Learn more about LifeDNA: https://www.lifedna.com/
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Once a year, the Ottawa Business Journal (OBJ) recognizes accomplished and rising business leaders in the National Capital Region by naming them to their Forty under 40 list. These pioneers reflect the economic diversity, entrepreneurial spirit, and future of the city’s dynamic business community.
Among this year’s recipients, five are alumni of the University of Ottawa, one of which studied at the Telfer School of Management. The Telfer School would like to congratulate Kelly Medora Elliott for this astounding accomplishment.
After her studies at the Telfer School of Management, Kelly went on to study Law. She now is a partner in Dentons' Real Estate, Project Development, and Banking and Finance Practice groups. Her ability to think and act strategically as well as her amazing leadership skills have led to her new role as Director of Practice Support and Optimization for the Dentons Canada Region. Those who know her agree her organizational skills and work ethic have contributed greatly to her success, and have enabled her to become of the best lawyers in Canada.
Click here to read more on Kelly Medora Elliott »
The Telfer School would also like to congratulate Amy Lynn Friesen, Christina Kathelyn Black, Ian Duff Bingeman, and François de Bellefeuille who all graduated from the University of Ottawa and also made it on the coveted list.
This year's Forty Under 40 awards gala will take place at the Hilton Lac-Leamy Hotel on June 21, 2019. The event will feature cocktails, fine food, music and dancing and is in part sponsored by the Telfer Executive MBA.
Click here to view the full Forty Under 40 list on the OBJ website.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Blaze a Trail of Giving
I arrived at the Telfer School almost 30 years ago as a young student, unsure of how I would perform. I needn’t have worried: my professors gave me all the tools I needed to succeed. Best of all, they nurtured in me a confidence I didn’t know I had—the self-assurance to see myself in a top job, to be a leader of a successful organization and to improve my community through giving.
So I made that vision a reality, becoming a top executive at one of Canada’s biggest banks and an active contributor to many charitable organizations. Yet the higher I climbed in my career, the more I realized that there were even fewer women in philanthropy than there were in high leadership positions. Generations of men had looked to other men as mentors and guides in their professional lives, but we women didn’t have that luxury—either as executives or as philanthropists.
I decided to change that. To supply rising career women with the role models they needed, I started acting as a giving mentor. As these younger women became increasingly engaged as philanthropists, they became mentors themselves. We created a community of women that encouraged other women to cultivate generosity alongside their career successes. Steadily but surely, this growing group of women blazed a trail of giving.
Our work is far from done. We must make certain that women continue to have powerful examples of giving that they can emulate. We need to foster a culture of giving and, in doing so, leave a clearer, wider trail of generosity behind us to guide the way for others.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
People, planet, and profit. Otherwise better known as the "triple bottom line," this concept distinguishes itself by including certain spheres, namely social and environmental, in assessing the profitability of a business. It's from this same vision that The Unscented Company, a line of unscented home and body care products, was born. The brand was launched in 2016 on two founding principles that greatly inspired founder and CEO Anie Rouleau in her company's creative process. "Firstly, we had to redefine the notion of clean by offering exclusively unscented, all-natural products. Secondly, we had to design our packaging for conscious living, with the goal of significantly reducing our collective plastic footprint."
Anie's philosophy is based on a model combining transparency, inclusiveness and accountability. More specifically, "what inspires me are the men and women who hold on to their vision, while staying true to their own beliefs, even when it's hard."
It's thanks to this same innovative vision that Anie's company was awarded B Corp certification, making The Unscented Company the first Canadian home and body care product company to be certified.
"I find real joy in giving back. I want to contribute to a better world and I enjoy building the business of tomorrow." This same desire to give back is reflected in the Anie Rouleau International Exchange Scholarship. Established in 1999, this scholarship not only gives young people the opportunity to pursue their studies abroad, but also encourages young women to carve their own path to entrepreneurship. "Every thank-you letter I get from recipients reminds me how important it is to give back and be involved in the academic lives of young people."
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Upon graduating from a private school in Bahrain, George Khalife set out to find a university that he could grow with, and help grow. After deciding on the Telfer School of Management, George graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce in 2015. George came to the Telfer School because of the genuine professors, untapped opportunities, a strong and improving curriculum and a student and alumni base that was, and still is, very closely connected.
During his time at Telfer, George remembers certain classes and professors that stood out as making an impact on him, including MIS with Nour El-Kadri, the Financial Research and Learning Lab with Pouya Safi, and Equity Valuation with Miwako Nitani. George also mentions three classmates, with whom he helped found a student-run investment fund called T&V Capital Management, which is now known as Telfer Capital Fund. It was this initiative that introduced him to the fund’s first capital sponsor, and lead him to joining the TMX group.
George lists many things from his time at Telfer that helped get him to where he is today, including the connections he built with professors, the friends he made while studying, the clubs and extracurricular he took part in, the alumni network, networking events and academic workshops held by Telfer. George says: “these are the things that positively contributed to my success during university and post-graduation”.
As for his inspiration, George draws that from his parents. George’s parents moved from the Middle East in order to give him and his sister a chance at a better future. As George puts: “every time I feel challenged, I feel tired, or I feel like giving up, I go back to them and remember how much they struggled to help me get here – that’s all I need to keep going”.
Post-graduation, George immediately started working for the Toronto Stock Exchange (TMX Group), in their two-year rotational Associate Program. At the conclusion of this program, he signed to stay on full time and lead TMX’s sales efforts in Toronto and New York. While working at TMX, George had many projects being developed on the side, including BookBack, and app for university students to buy and sell books, hosting his podcast – “Let’s Grab Coffee”, and blogging on LinkedIn as well as his personal site.
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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