Rima Qureshi (BCom’87, MBA’96), former president and CEO of Ericsson North America, has been named executive vice president and chief strategy officer for Verizon Communications Inc., effective November 6, 2017.
In this role, she will take over responsibility for the development and implementation of Verizon's overall corporate strategy, including business development and strategic investments.
Quantum International Income Corp. has appointed Chad Williams (MBA’93) as chairman of the board of directors. Williams is currently the director of the corporation, and is the president and chief executive officer of Red Cloud Klondike Strike Inc.
To this role, be brings two decades of experience in corporate finance and management, having previously held the positions of chief executive officer of Victoria Gold Corp., and head of mining investment banking at Blackmont Capital Inc.
Vitalhub Corp. has announced the appointment of Mohan Plakkot (MBA'09), Partner and Chief Strategist at Valsef Capital, to its Board of Directors.
In this role, Plakkot will use his “extensive experience and analytical skills” to further the strategic plans of the Toronto-based organization.
Mary Van Buren (MBA'88) has been appointed president of the Canadian Construction Association (CCA), bringing years of experience to the role.
Van Buren has worked in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors and has held executive roles at leading organizations, including the Canadian Medical Association's subsidiary, MD Financial Management, and Export Development Canada.
Knight Therapeutics has announced the resignation of its chief financial officer, as the company’s president and Desautels International Faculty Advisory Board member, Samira Sakhia (BCom’90, DPA’94, MBA’01), takes on the additional responsibility of CFO.
In doing so, Sakhia will leverage her 14 years of prior experience as CFO for Paladin Labs Inc.
Mohammed Ashour, co-founder of Aspire Food Group, received the Highly Commended Award at FoodBytes, a startup competition that supports innovative ideas in food and agriculture. The Aspire Group transforms crickets into high-protein powder and snacks, and are looking to expand their market into the U.S., where the aversion to insects as food seems to prevail.
For French native Ben Plomion (MBA’07), his early teenage years consisted of skateboards, Nirvana, and an unshakable dream of relocating to the U.S. After completing his studies in Canada, he made his dreams a reality by securing work at General Electric in New York.
Since then, he has moved into the startup scene in California, working as Chief Marketing Officer for GumGum, an artificial intelligence company. He remains, however, wary of Donald Trump’s stance on immigration and how this might impact his future in the U.S.
LIMRA has released its 2017 Rising Stars of Innovation under 40 list and Jean-Michel Lavoie (MBA’09), Assistant Vice President, Product Development, Group Benefits at Sun Life Financial has made the final cut.
The list recognises individuals across many areas of the financial services who are using an innovative approach to their business practice and day-to-day activities.
Light Reading reports that after leaving her position as Head of Ericsson North America, Rima Qureshi (BCom’87, MBA’96) has been hired as Verizon’s new Chief Strategy Officer. She will be working for CEO Lowell McAdam.
Qureshi has a deep understanding of the issues involved with running a successful tech company in today’s network-heavy reality: she started at Ericsson as a system analyst in 1993, before moving up through the ranks.
Marie Laure Leclercq (MBA) started her career, and indeed her life, as a male. According to the Canadian Bar Association’s (CBA) National Magazine, when she began the process of changing her gender in 1995, it was what she calls an act of survival.
For years, the former Mr Leclercq had been hiding growing feelings of unease in his gender and suffering from depression, but at the time, transgender people had to jump through hoops before becoming eligible for gender-reassignment surgery.
A recent piece in Le monde du droit announces that French business law firm Bersay & Associés has brought Thibault Lasserre (MBA'07) on board as an associate. Mr Lasserre concentrates on corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity. Before joining Bersay & Associés, he advised several corporations about international mergers, acquisitions and spinoffs; and worked at Law firms such as Veil Jourde, Coudert Brothers and Jones Day.
Jason Wood’s (MBA’94) construction company, Diamond Head Development, has been a going concern in Squamish, BC for over 10 years now. He sat down with Canadian Business Journal to talk about his development as an entrepreneur, his work history, his company’s dual role as a builder and a developer, and building sustainability into new construction projects.
Craig Buntin (MBA’13) is a Desautels alumnus, a former figure skating champion, and the CEO of hockey analysis company Sportlogiq. The company’s software uses video and machine learning to track what players are doing on the ice, and help them up their game.
The software is being used by 22 NHL franchises; Mr Buntin’s team has just raised $5 million towards improving the system and expanding into soccer, with five teams in North America and Europe already signed on.
Sumanto Chattopdhyay (MBA’90) recently sat down with Impact to discuss his new job as Chairman and CEO of Indian marketing powerhouse Soho Square. The former Ogilvy & Mather Creative Director has only been at the job for a month, but he has already taken steps to set the tone in terms of the corporate culture and the corporate vision.
Ram Panda (MEng’71, MBA’77) is the new chair of the McGill University Board of Governors. He came to Canada from his native India in 1968 to study electrical engineering at McGill, and never left. In 1978, he co-founded metal-industry software maker Invera Inc., which rapidly became a major player in its market.
