Every year, the Telfer School of Management presents the Young Achiever’s award to inspiring alumni under age 40 who demonstrate professional excellence, contribute to their communities and continue to engage with their alma mater.
This year, in Part 2 of our award series, we celebrate the accomplishments of three rising stars and explore how their experiences at Telfer helped drive their success today.
Jessy Desjardins (BCom ’19): Redefining urban development in the modern age
Jessy Desjardins is the chief product and brand officer at Brigil. He oversees real estate products from urban development and architectural design through commercialization. Since graduating from Telfer in 2019, Desjardins has been the president of the largest environmental fundraiser in the Outaouais region, raising $2 million for the Boucher Forest Foundation. He also piloted the redevelopment of one of Gatineau’s oldest malls, Espace Canevas, into a vibrant social hub hosting local businesses and community events.
What was your most memorable learning experience at Telfer?
When I entered Telfer in 2015, I wasn’t sure about my career path. I was transitioning from freestyle skiing while trying to find something that would give me a purpose. In that process, my grades suffered, as I wasn’t committed to my academic journey. I was put on academic probation, but with the help of Telfer’s advisers, I turned things around. I think that was the best lesson anyone could have taught me, and it helped instill resilience. It’s important to admit failure and to learn from it. Life is a process of iteration.
How did you start on your current career path?
I grew up, like many in my generation, with the dream of making a positive environmental impact on our world. I wanted to study sustainability. However, I rapidly discovered that everything depends on the way we shape our cities and how we live our lives. The best way to reduce our greenhouse gases and create places that make people happier and healthier is to develop cities and lifestyles that incorporate public and active transportation, foster community and support cultural density. As a result, I decided to pursue my studies in finance with the hope of joining the family business in urban development.
What has been one of your biggest professional challenges, and how did you overcome it?
It has been building human-centric communities in a car-centric culture. It’s an ongoing challenge that we have not yet solved, and one that will likely take generations. In North America, we’re still living with the consequences of decisions made in the 1950s, when the automobile industry reshaped our cities around the car — neighbourhoods were redesigned for vehicles instead of people. This legacy has increased infrastructure and transportation costs, air pollution, health concerns and social isolation. The good news is that I can see the tide turning.
The more people experience human-centric environments, the faster our understanding of cities grows, and the more our expectations change. If Amsterdam did it in the 1970s and Copenhagen did it in the 1980s, so can we in 2026.
How do you connect with the next generation of community and business leaders?
When I look at cities that successfully create links with leaders and new generations, it’s all about making the space for those connections. At Canevas and our other sites, we’re always looking to partner with community leaders to host events and get-togethers. That’s where dialogue happens. That’s where people get to know their neighbours and begin to understand each other.
To learn more about how Canevas finds inspiration for human-centred environments, join Desjardins and his team as they travel around Copenhagen: Canevas à Copenhague (YouTube).
Hakim Garuba (BCom ’13): Turning setbacks into opportunities
Hakim Garuba is vice-president, growth and data analytics, at Knix, the Canadian brand that pioneered leakproof underwear. Since graduating from Telfer in 2013 with a Bachelor of Commerce (Option in Marketing), he scaled Paramount+ to over two million subscribers in Canada and founded the growth marketing firm Stallion Marketing. He served as marketing director at the Black Wealth Club, which is part of the Afrodescendant Leadership Alliance, and now sits on the Canadian Marketing Association’s Insights Council.
What was your most memorable learning experience at Telfer?
One of my most memorable experiences at Telfer was the StratX marketing simulation, where teams ran a virtual company, making decisions on pricing, product and channel strategy as the market shifted around us. My team placed first, and I still remember how much was happening at once. You had to think creatively about how to position the product, build forecasts to back up your decisions, understand what your customer truly wanted and try to predict what your competitors would do next, all while the clock was running. It genuinely felt high-stakes, even though it was a simulation, and I remember being surprised by how exciting that mix of creativity and analysis could be. It reaffirmed my desire to begin a career in marketing.
How did you start on your current career path?
My path didn’t start in marketing. I went into the University of Ottawa planning to study medicine, starting out in biopharmaceutical science, but my grades and lack of true passion told me it wasn’t the right fit. Meanwhile, I was excelling in commerce electives, which led me to transfer into Telfer and discover digital marketing. That was the first moment resilience showed up in my path — choosing to change course instead of pushing through something that wasn’t working. From there, I was let go from a sales role for not hitting targets. That led me to Halogen Software, where growth marketing really clicked for me. That fascination led me to a master’s at Queen’s, and then positions at Google, Square and Paramount. Now I’m at Knix. More than a decade, four industries and a path that only looks straight when you trace it backward.
What has been one of your biggest professional challenges, and how did you overcome it?
In 2020, I left Google and started working on Stallion Marketing full time. The pandemic hit almost immediately, and the business didn’t take off the way I’d planned. I had to be honest with myself: I still needed a job. So, I joined Square as their performance marketing lead, which turned out to be one of the best professional decisions I’ve made. I kept building Stallion Marketing on the side and properly launched it in January 2021 while still working full time, and it’s still running today.
Setbacks are not the same as a failure, as long as you’re willing to adjust and keep going.
How do you connect with the next generation of community and business leaders?
I served as marketing director at the Black Wealth Club. We brought emerging Black leaders together with speakers and industry professionals to build leadership skills and business acumen. I’ve also served as a mentor in Telfer’s MBA Mentorship Program. Today, through Stallion Marketing, I regularly have career conversations, review resumés, talk through tough career decisions and make referrals into my network when it makes sense. What I try to pass along in all of these settings is resilience, authenticity and finding the intersection between your own interests and what can help other people.
Jasmine Meaux (BCom ’09): Embracing the non-linear path
Jasmine Meaux is a private wealth advisor at Goldman Sachs. Since graduating from Telfer in 2009 with a Bachelor of Commerce (Option in Finance), she has built a career across corporate and investment banking, capital markets and private wealth. She serves energy companies and high-net-worth families while raising three children alongside her husband, Mark, in Houston, Texas.
What was your most memorable learning experience at Telfer?
Two experiences stand out. The opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant across several courses taught me that you don’t truly understand something until you can explain it clearly to someone else, a lesson I carry into every client conversation. Our final-year Strategic Management simulation gave me my first real taste of decision-making under pressure and ambiguity. That combination, deep understanding plus composure when the stakes are real, turned out to be the foundation for everything that followed.
How did you start on your current career path?
Finance became a genuine passion late in my studies, but once it clicked, I committed fully — networking, building technical credibility and moving to Calgary to start in investment banking. That world shaped me. Oil and gas attract entrepreneurs and builders, and working alongside them early on gave me a commercial instinct and a respect for what it takes to build something. My path from there wasn’t linear: corporate finance, structured derivatives and then private wealth. But I’ve come to see that as an asset.
Every chapter taught me something the next one needed, and it turns out the non-linear path was better preparation for this work than a straight line ever could have been.
What has been one of your biggest professional challenges, and how did you overcome it?
Transitioning from corporate finance into private wealth has been the hardest and most rewarding thing I’ve done professionally. It meant starting over in a world that required an entirely different skill set — less transactional, more relationship-driven. I chose to make this move because it’s where I felt I could do the most meaningful work, as a genuine partner to people navigating real decisions, not just executing transactions. I’ve approached the transition with humility, been relentless about growth and leaned on my faith as an anchor when the path felt uncertain.
How do you connect with the next generation of community and business leaders?
I try to be intentional in every interaction with colleagues, mentees or anyone early in their journey. I’ve benefited from people who were honest with me about what the path really looks like, and I try to offer the same. If there’s one thing I’d say to a young person starting out, you don’t need to have it all figured out. Stay curious, commit fully when something clicks and don’t fear the detours. They’re often where the most important growth happens.
Congratulations to the 2026 Young Achiever’s award recipients! Your growth inspires a new generation of innovators across industries and communities. Through your success, we see the Telfer effect in action — our alumni community passing the torch of ambition and dedication to emerging leaders.
Interested in nominating a graduate who exemplifies business excellence for the 2027 Telfer awards? We’ll be accepting nominations for the R. Trudeau Medal and the Young Achiever’s award starting in February 2027.
Meet Telfer’s 2026 Spirit of Giving, Donor of the Year, and Volunteer of the Year recipients: Murray Kronick, Mathieu Lupien and Jeffrey R. Smith (BAdm ’78, BMgtSc ’79).
