Claudette McGowan
Driving technological change at one of Canada’s oldest banks
Graduated: 2011
Based in: Toronto, ON
“I couldn’t have gone this far without the financial acumen, the ethics, the marketing, the human experience I got at Athabasca University,” McGowan says. “I was able to learn on my own dime, on my own time.”
Read more about Claudette here
Watch Claudette’s story hereClaudette McGowan, MBA '11
In 2008, Claudette McGowan was itching to take her career to the next level. She’d spent eight years as a technology director at the Bank of Montreal in Toronto, and she wanted to deploy her tech experience in an executive role at the company, whether that meant retail, or legal, or accounting. First Canadian Place offered a business program, but it would have required her to either take a leave from work or give up weekend time with her family, neither of which she was prepared to do.
“What I thought would be a slam dunk turned out to be a non-starter,” she says.
Athabasca University’s MBA program appealed to her not only for its flexibility, but for its embrace of burgeoning technological tools. In 2008, the concept of telework was just starting to permeate the corporate world, and McGowan had been instrumental in bringing mobile working and Skype for Business to BMO. And while she appreciated the opportunity to work around her own schedule, she also knew that Athabasca’s program was rigorous.
“People don’t know how difficult it is and how disciplined you need to be,” she says. “It’s not a free-for-all.”
The program also demanded collaboration and participation. When McGowan was completing her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Windsor, she was able to hide in a lecture hall of 300 people and stay anonymous. Athabasca’s program forced her to speak up.
“You’d expect virtual education is isolated, but it’s actually more collaborative,” she says. “You see other points of view. You open your mind and say, ‘Hey, I don’t have that perspective.’”
McGowan was an expert technologist, but it wasn’t until she got to Athabasca that she was trained to think about the customer. She took marketing courses that helped her think about who her end users were and how to engage them. She learned the significance of testing the products with audiences and incorporating their feedback.
“I’m now one of the experts in experiential technology, ensuring it has high adoption, brings joy, has utility,” she says.
McGowan had spent most of her university years avoiding accounting courses, but at Athabasca she realized they were crucial—if she wanted to get to the executive level, she’d have to get a handle on managing big budgets and working with a portfolio. In her operations course, she studied logistics, design and how products travel through the supply chain to distribution. Toward the end of the program, she wrote a dissertation about the multigenerational workforce, focusing on the similarities that connect boomers and millennials.
“They all want to have a sense of community. They all want to be heard. And they all want flexibility,” she says. “I may want to work from home because I have a baby or an ill parent or another constraint that prevents me from being mobile. That spans generations.”
In the years following McGowan’s graduation from Athabasca in 2011, she rapidly moved up the corporate ladder at BMO. She went from a director, in charge of 100 employees, up to a company vice-president, in charge of around 1,000 employees. She brought new email and mobility systems to the bank and helped shepherd the installation of Apple technology at the branches.
She kept supplementing her education, taking courses at Lakehead and Harvard, and last year she was promoted to chief information officer at BMO. She’s currently leading the technology strain for BMO’s splashy new 346,000-square-foot urban campus above the Eaton Centre in Toronto.
“I couldn’t have gone this far without the financial acumen, the ethics, the marketing, the human experience I got at Athabasca University,” she says. “I was able to learn on my own dime, on my own time.”
Claudette McGowan, MBA '11
Joy Romero
Innovating bitumen production
Graduated: 2006
Based in: Calgary, AB
“An AU MBA helps you build a vision and ensure you have the tools and skills to achieve the vision. The online coaches and cohort model honed my ability to deliver by ‘working together’ regardless of where people are.”
Learn more about JoyJoy Romero, MBA '06
Joy Romero is vice-president of technology and innovation at Canadian Natural Resources Limited (Canadian Natural), in Calgary, Alberta. She joined the oil and natural gas company almost 19 years ago, after working in British Columbia and Labrador in metallurgical coal and iron ore. While obtaining her MBA through Athabasca University (AU) between 2003 and 2006, Romero was also in charge of design and then operations of the bitumen production component of the Horizon Oil Sands Project, a $9.7 billion project that employed more than 10,000 people at peak construction. During that time, Romero explains how she used her MBA assignments to overcome work challenges and introduce technology to improve Canadian Natural’s environmental footprint.
Today, she attributes her AU MBA as a key factor in helping maintain and build an entrepreneurial innovation culture within Canadian Natural and collaborative industry-led networks, such as the Clean Resource Innovation Network (CRIN) and Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) – organizations dedicated to leveraging technology by working together to ensure the oil and gas industry remains sustainable and productive for years to come.
Why did you pursue an MBA through AU?
It was something that I promised myself that I would do for many years. I am an engineer, but my other love is economics. Having transferred industries, I thought that an MBA focused on project management and energy would help me in my job in addition to learning the industry better. I was working at Canadian Natural’s Horizon site, 80 km north of Fort McMurray, in a camp environment so attending a bricks-and-mortar university wasn’t feasible at that time. This made AU’s Project Management/Energy MBA a perfect fit for me, allowing me to pursue my career and education in parallel with the opportunity to apply my learnings in real time.
What were some of the projects you completed during the MBA that applied to your work?
As my applied project, I completed the communications plan for the entire Horizon project. The discipline and process of identifying the internal and external stakeholders that you need to communicate with, and the ways in which you communicate, has served me well. Every time you map it out, you see that you’re more than likely over-communicating to a group and you’re probably under-communicating to others. I still use those same principles today.
I used real life deliverables at Canadian Natural for my assignments. I was able to truly internalize what I was learning and add value to Canadian Natural at the same time.
Can you explain the quality control system “Lean Six Sigma” (LSS), which was originally used by car manufacturers, and how you introduced it to Canadian Natural?
As we were bringing up the Horizon operations, we used “Lean” to support the development of our procedures and protocols and how to lay out our work places to be the most efficient and effective. Lean ensures that you are literally only using the minimum number of steps required to complete a task. Once you are up and operating, variation from what you should be doing is the enemy. “Six sigma” tools allow you to measure the variation and develop solutions to reduce or eliminate the variation. We started formal LSS training in our department and now it’s across Canadian Natural. I had heard of it before starting the MBA, but I hadn’t studied it in enough detail to be able to vision the value and know how to achieve it.
You were promoted to VP while getting your MBA. Did the program help?
Absolutely. Being able to use real life deliverables at Canadian Natural for my assignments allowed me to better understand and gain confidence in how to support my team and my colleagues. We were executing a mega project and I was able to add more value when my technical skills were combined with best practices in project management and a deeper understanding of the energy world. We were able to develop and implement new technologies that improved both environmental footprint and productivity.
How did innovation play a role in developing the Horizon project and your career at Canadian Natural?
I was the second employee hired to help steward the development, commissioning and operation of Bitumen Production within the Horizon Project. Our design was based on proven technology in the industry. To reduce footprint and increase productivity, we conducted parallel new technology pilots. We managed to bring in new technologies for every component of bitumen production, including a new tailings technology that reduced tailings pond footprints by 50 per cent, reduced water use by 30 per cent, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 16 per cent. When Bitumen Production was commissioned, I became accountable for Technology Development for Horizon overall. This encompassed all of the technology development for Mining, Bitumen Production and Upgrading. Using tools from my AU MBA and others, we developed procedures and protocols to evaluate technologies and execute pilots. This transitioned to leading Technology and Innovation for our company with a mandate to ensure we have an innovative entrepreneurial culture and the tools to accelerate innovation and adoption within our company.
We work together as industry to ensure that Canada is the global leader in clean hydrocarbon production from source to end use. I have the privilege of working within the Canadian and international oil and natural gas innovation ecosystem where $1.4 billion a year is spent in Canada alone, with 75% in clean tech. I speak to investors, government, academia and policymakers across Canada about the successes and challenges our industry is facing and how we have an opportunity to find innovative solutions to our biggest challenges. For example, our teams are currently developing processes that eliminate tailings ponds altogether and reduce GHGs by up to 40%, turning vision into reality.
Are there other aspects of the MBA that have benefited your work?
Being able to take the course online was invaluable; acquiring the ability to learn and to communicate digitally has served me well. Our classes would have people from around the world. We had assignments where somebody would start it, then the person in the next time zone would take it, then the next time zone, and whoever was in the last time zone would submit it. This taught me just how effective virtual teams can be. At Canadian Natural, the people we work with are in many provinces and countries and we utilize technology and collaborative methodologies as a cost-effective and efficient method to make distance and time zones disappear. Another great example of how our virtual connectedness allowed us to communicate efficiently was during the Fort McMurray fire in 2016. Like AU, we have built collaborative methodologies into the workflow and processes to allow us to connect teams across our company regardless of where they are physically located. Coupling these strategies with the fact that all of my team members are Project Management Institute and Lean Six Sigma trained, allows us to be effective accelerators of innovations in our company and the oil and gas innovation ecosystem. For example, all Clean Resource Innovation Network events are virtual and some also have a physical dimension – all important connection points for a rapidly growing network of just under 900 people.
How challenging was it to juggle the MBA while working?
I would certainly start some courses and have no clue as to how I was ever going to have time to finish them, but I always managed. It never ceased to amaze me how the pedagogy worked. You finished basically looking at the world differently than when you started it.
Steve Madden
Reinventing how a non-profit delivers housing in Grande Prairie
Graduated: 2015
Based in: Grande Prairie, AB
“My motivation was professional growth. An MBA would give me the tools to do what I’d always wanted, to be a leader in my community.”
Learn more about SteveSteve Madden, MBA '15
Steve Madden has never been complacent. After studying environmental science in his native PEI, he couldn’t find a job locally so he packed up and moved west to Alberta.
He spent the next two decades building a successful career in his chosen field, most recently as an environmental service manager. Through it all, Madden had another, bigger plan in mind: to get his MBA.
“My motivation was professional growth,” he said. “The MBA would give me the tools to do what I’d always wanted, to be a leader in my community.”
After completing his Athabasca University (AU) MBA in 2015, Madden moved quickly through two senior management positions, first at a local engineering company and then in Bon Accord, a small community northeast of Edmonton. He most recently took the helm of the Grande Spirit Foundation (GSF), a non-profit housing management body that provides rental accommodations for more than 1,500 seniors and families throughout northwestern Alberta.
As GSF’s chief administrative officer, Madden works with his employees as well as provincial and federal counterparts to find capital for future housing projects. The need is significant, and there are “huge wait lists,” Madden said, adding he was drawn to this work because of his progressive social politics, as well as his experience managing rental properties as a family side business.
Madden is already making his mark at GSF by leading the development of a proposed $24-million care residence in nearby Spirit River that would accommodate 125 seniors and employ up to 30 people.
It’s a break from the organization’s roots. To date, GSF has primarily provided housekeeping and meal services with homecare to seniors who are able-bodied. But Madden’s plan is to build a facility that will be able to provide 24/7 assistance to residents who develop dementia, mobility, and eating difficulties. The goal is to help people to “aging in place,” which is increasingly important as Canada’s population gets older.
This “shift in thinking,” as Madden calls it, has proven complex since it entails dealing with many different stakeholders in order to move the project from wishful concept to reality. The epic challenge was conceived before Madden’s arrival at GSF, but it’s no less his baby.
Whether working to motivate employees or negotiating with cash-conscious governments, Madden has applied a “win-lose/win-win” principle, something he learned during his MBA.
Madden begins by trying to understand where the other party is coming from, or, “What their limitations are,” he says. He then builds a solution from that point rather than forcing his position from the start, something required for being a good leader.
“If something goes sideways, you accept the blame,” Madden said. “But if it’s a success, then you give it back to staff and say this is your win, not mine. You have to be humble.”
Madden is also putting this wisdom to use as the newly elected president of the local Rotary Club, where he plans to help rebuild a community centre, support youth exchange programs and scholarships, and raise funds to send service vehicles such as school buses, ambulances, and fire trucks to Mexico.
For Madden, receiving an MBA was a double dream come true. He was not only the first in his family to get university and graduate degrees, but his education also landed him squarely in that coveted role of community leader, trying every day to improve the lives of neighbours near and far.
“That’s what defines an MBA graduate,” Madden says. “You’re always thinking outside the box and trying to better your community.”
Looking ahead, Madden is optimistic about getting that new seniors’ residence up and running. “It will require planning, business acumen, negotiations, and strong relationships,” he says, “Success in this area will be a milestone for the organization.”
And, surely, for this MBA grad too.
Nathan MacDonald
A game changer in the world of junior hockey
Graduated: 2018
Based in: Swift Current, SK
“I learned about the importance of having a sound mission and vision, and how to stay within those guidelines. You’re not making decisions about the bottom line, but about how to fulfill your vision. That’s why governments, organizations, and customers are supporting you at the end of the day.”
Learn more about NathanNathan MacDonald, MBA '18
Growing up, Nathan MacDonald was a devoted fan of the Calgary Flames. He worked for years as a chartered accountant, but through Athabasca University, he found a way to merge his business experience with his true passion, hockey. As a member of the first cohort of the Business of Hockey program, MacDonald began to see the sport in a new light, and to appreciate the complex economic theories and financial stakeholders behind the cheering crowds and bright lights of the arena. Now, with the help of his Athabasca University MBA, he’s fostering the hockey stars of the future.
What were you doing for a living before you became a hockey executive?
My background is as a chartered accountant at a public accounting firm. In 2015, I’d been doing that for eight years. But I’d never wanted it to be my career path. When I saw that Athabasca was introducing the MBA program with a major in hockey, I thought that might be a cool way to connect my business and accounting experience with hockey, which I’m passionate about.
What was your favourite team?
I grew up in Calgary, so the Flames were always close to my heart.
What appealed to you about Athabasca’s program?
Well, my uncle, Ken Byram, was one of the first students who took the online MBA program at Athabasca, and he was able to walk me through the process and act as a mentor. At Athabasca, I’d also be able to continue at my job, and I appreciated that flexibility.
Tell us about what you studied during the program.
I was lucky that my career background exempted me from a chunk of the regular program. One of the elective courses I was able to take was on management of not-for-profits. I learned about the importance of having a sound mission and vision, and how to stay within those guidelines. You’re not making decisions about the bottom line, but about how to fulfill your vision. That’s why governments, organizations, and customers are supporting you at the end of the day.
What were some of the hockey-specific courses you took?
The Business of Hockey course broke down the high-level economic theories around ticket pricing, contract negotiations, and facility financing. I got a clear sense of all the financial stakeholders involved in this world. Supply and demand are crucial in sports. When a team is playing great, demand is high, and you can create higher value.
I also learned a lot about sports marketing and how relationships with stakeholders and sponsors affect brand values. We looked at case studies of strategic brand associations with sports teams worldwide. As sports teams, when we create excitement in the community, people rally around us, and that increases our value.
Who were some of the other people you met in the program?
I was part of the first cohort. There were eight of us. It was quite a mix. There was a gentleman that worked with the Oilers. Another guy was an up-and-coming players’ agent. There was also a guy who is trying to develop hockey in Asia. We worked together remotely, but we did get to connect a few times. We all attended the NHL draft for the three years we were in the program and met up again at a few events in Toronto. I built real relationships with those guys.
What did you do after you graduated?
When I graduated last year, I knew it was time for me to move on from my accounting job. I did some networking during the off-season, and some really exciting opportunities arose. My background as an accountant had been in not-for-profit, so I gravitated there. In June, I heard that the Swift Current Broncos, a junior hockey team with the Western Hockey League in Saskatchewan, were looking for a director of business operations. They’d just won the championship, and it seemed like a natural fit.
How do you deploy what you learned at Athabasca in everyday life?
I draw on the program all the time. In my current job, I need to manage staff and make sure we’re all pulling in the same direction toward something bigger and better. When we implement ideas, I need to make sure they’ve gone through a sound decision-making process. I deal with negotiations, cost structures and facility agreements.
For example, right now (the end of January) we’re a few weeks away from Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada, and I’m on the local organizing body. We’re hosting an alumni and celebrity game, with big names like Lanny McDonald and Darcy Tucker, as well as a bunch of players from the Broncos’ 1988–89 championship team. My team and I’ve developed the whole thing from scratch.
Curtis Stange
From farmhand to the frontier of fintech
Graduated: 2000
Based in: Edmonton, AB
“I see my MBA at Athabasca as a key part of my development and learning journey to get to where I am today—and I am loving it!”
Learn more about CurtisCurtis Stange, MBA '00
Curtis Stange began his working life as a farmhand in Saskatchewan and aspired to one day run a farm of his own. Then an encounter with a recruiter from one of Canada’s big banks upended all that.
Instead he went on to a career in banking that started with supporting farmers with their financial needs and later led to the very cutting edge of fintech—from pioneering international blockchain transfers to Apple Pay and virtual banking assistants. Now 54, Stange was named CEO of ATB Financial last summer. He says his journey from farmhand to bank whiz might never have happened without his Athabasca University MBA, which helped leverage the leadership skills he needed to get it all done.
“That learning moment was a big enabler at a pivotal time,” he says.
Stange was studying agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture in Saskatoon when he met the recruiter, who was from CIBC.
“He wasn’t a Bay-Street, pinstriped-suit banker, he was an agrologist himself,” Stange says of the man whose career pitch changed his life.
“Work with farmers but do it as a banker,” the man advised. “Lend them money; know their businesses. That’s how you can stay connected to farming.”
After he returned to his summer job as a hired hand on a grain farm south of Swift Current, Sask., CIBC reached out to offer him a job. The farmer he was working for was an older man who had grown preoccupied with the question of who’d take over the farm after his retirement. Stange was intrigued by CIBC’s offer, and told the farmer he intended to accept the position.
“A few days later, one night after dinner, he called me to the porch,” Stange says. “He slouched down in his chair, put his hat over his eyes, and offered me an opportunity to buy into the farm.'”
Stange very nearly did. “It was a defining moment,” he says. Yet the banking world beckoned, and he followed its call. At CIBC, Stange worked his way from Kelvington, in northern Saskatchewan, to Regina and Saskatoon, followed by Kelowna, and Edmonton. Understanding CIBC’s size and the breadth of opportunity available there, he diversified, from agriculture to wealth management to leadership.
It was while he was a branch manager in Edmonton, in 1997, that he started the Athabasca MBA.
“I don’t want to undersell this one iota, it was meaningful,” he says of the program. “The types of courses I was taking, on strategy, marketing, human resources, I’d ask different questions than other branch managers—the right questions.”
As a result, he was singled out, and ultimately given responsibility for 15 CIBC branches across Edmonton.
From there the bank sent him to Toronto (where he finished AU’s online MBA program), then Ottawa, where he ran all of CIBC’s eastern- and northern-Ontario operations. Later, in Calgary, he was put in charge of CIBC Alberta. It was there, after 23 years at CIBC, that Stange got the call from ATB Financial.
He was soon leading the world’s first “big bang” replacement of a core banking system—the underlying tech that banks rely on for most transactions—and in one fell swoop moved ATB from a “mainframe” to a more malleable and technologically advanced “distributive” system. That put ATB ahead of even Canada’s largest banks and as its Chief Strategy and Operations Officer, a brand-new role designed just for him, Stange exploited the disruptive opportunities that this giant shift made available to him. He moved money from ATB’s books to a German bank via the blockchain in 2015, launched Apple Pay in concert with Canada’s largest banks, and helped create a bot in Facebook Messenger that today helps ATB customers do their banking on social media, a global first.
“We were being super disruptive, and we were showing off a little bit based on our new core,” says Stange. When Curtis looks back on his nearly ten years with ATB he points to three enablers.
“I’ve lived through three quotients that have increased in importance over the years,” as he puts it. “IQ gets you in the game, EQ, or emotional intelligence, keeps you there, and nowadays it’s AQ, the adaptability quotient—the ability to constantly be curious, hungry for information, always looking at disrupting. That resiliency allows you to fail and understand failure. AQ differentiates you and can differentiate companies.”
It differentiated Stange.
“I see my MBA at Athabasca as a key part of my development and learning journey to get to where I am today— and I am loving it!”
Frederick Enns
Powered up by education
Graduated: 2004
Based in: Pickering, ON
“The main thing I learned was the ability to look at a problem from different perspectives: to learn how the same problem looks different to an HR person, or a financial person, or a marketing person.”
Learn more about FrederickFrederick Enns, MBA '04
Fred Enns had spent his post-university years loading up on night courses and continuing education, hoping to develop his mind, as well as his career. In 2001, he saw an article in a small Ontario newspaper about Athabasca University’s MBA program, and decided to apply with the goal of growing his business acumen. At Athabasca University (AU), he felt like he had found a second home, connecting with peers from other industries, and learning to look at business problems from different perspectives. He liked it so much that he stayed on after graduation, working for AU as director of finance and operations.
You started your studies at Athabasca in 2002. What brought you there?
I had studied sports management in college, but then I spent the next decades furthering my education. I did a lot of night school, completing courses in economics, law, accounting. Then, in 2001, I saw an article in an Ontario newspaper about Athabasca, and decided to apply. At the time, I was working as a director for a small pharmaceutical company. I wanted to advance my career and my education.
Why did Athabasca appeal to you?
I was working in Texas, commuting between Austin and Collingwood, Ont. That meant I couldn’t go to a fixed school. At the same time, I was on a visa and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep renewing it. I wanted to be able to move forward when I came back to Canada. It was 2002, so we were working on dial-up Internet. That presented certain challenges, but I never questioned the value of the program.
What were some of your favourite courses at AU?
I loved the statistics course, and learning the tools to complete a statistical analysis. I also appreciated the human resources courses, marketing, and finance for managers. Because I was in Texas, near the Mexican border, I was able to do some projects on cross-border trade with Mexico. I learned a lot about the auto industry and the development of manufacturing plants in Mexico to support the American market. I loved those unique experiences.
What kind of people did you meet while doing the program?
There was a huge variety of people. I met special people who are now close friends, like Terri, a registered nurse working in pharmaceuticals who had a wide-ranging set of skills, and Joe, who worked as an IT specialist but was also a great people-person. They all had different perspectives. We were fortunate enough to do a couple of in-house courses working face-to-face with my classmates. That was a great experience.
What were your main takeaways from the program?
The main thing I learned was the ability to look at a problem from different perspectives: to learn how the same problem looks different to an HR person, or a financial person, or a marketing person. I also loved the format. If you’re in a classroom and you make a point, it drifts into the air. Online, there’s a hard copy record of everything you say.
What did you do after graduation?
I graduated from the program in 2004, when I was looking to move back to Canada. Right around the same time I applied to AU for the position of director of finance and operations in Alberta. After two gruelling days of interviews, I was fortunate enough to be offered the position. I’d worked in somewhat similar position before, and I had the added knowledge from the program. It was one of the best jobs I ever had. A dream job. While I was there, I worked with a range of teams and sat on different committees. I believed in the quality of the product, and I hope I had an impact there. I only stayed two years because my parents, in Ontario, were having health issues and I wasn’t able to keep flying back and forth.
So what was your next move?
I returned to Ontario Power Generation (OPG) in 2006 and I’m currently a manager in project controls at the Pickering Nuclear Generation Station. I manage a team of analysts in Pickering and Darlington and at the Bruce Power site. I encourage continuing education among all my staff. My experience at AU was such a positive one. In early 2020, I plan on retiring from OPG and pursuing other challenges as well as spending more time with my 3 grandchildren.
And how do you use those skills you learned in your everyday life?
At AU, you’re held accountable to other people and teamwork is a huge part of the process. You may be working with people in Asia or Europe, all with their own agendas and schedules. It was excellent training in dealing with remote teams, especially as we move toward digital communications.
Johnson Ofori-Mensah
A global citizen speaking the international language of numbers
Graduated: 2016
Based in: Brampton, ON
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants had suggested several MBA programs, but Ofori-Mensah chose AU in part for its convenience. He could work at the same time as he pursued his studies.
Learn more about JohnsonJohnson Ofori-Mensah, MBA '16
It may seem a long way from Accra, Ghana, to the Greater Toronto Area, but Johnson Ofori-Mensah discovered the language of numbers translates pretty well.
Ofori-Mensah, a financial manager and accountant by trade, immigrated to Canada in 2011, and recalls he arrived on the eleventh of November, 11-11-11. He wasted no time in trying to optimize that common language.
When he left Accra, he was finance manager and acting Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with an insurance company. Within a year of arriving in Canada, he had enrolled in Athabasca University’s (AU) MBA program, pursuing coursework with a focus on corporate governance and strategic management.
Ofori-Mensah came with high-level professional experience. In Ghana, he had obtained a respected international accreditation from the U.K.-based Association of Certified Chartered Accountants. He started his career at PKF, a multinational network of accounting firms that operates in 150 countries around the world. He began as an audit assistant and rose to audit manager.
“That’s where I cut my teeth, so to speak, in developing my skills and competencies in audits and financial accounts, as well as in providing some advice in management and corporate governance,” he said.
After 10 years with PKF, he left for Trasacco Estates Development Company, a major property developer in Accra. Trasacco’s current building projects are worth upwards of $460 million, including a football stadium and Ghana’s tallest commercial and residential tower. In his role as accounting manager, Ofori-Mensah oversaw his department, preparing financial statements, overseeing payables and receivables, and working with external auditors for the firm.
He went from Trasacco to Export Finance Company Limited, which he describes as Ghana’s equivalence to Canada’s Export Development Corporation. A head-hunter then recruited him to Unique Insurance, a company co-owned by the Ghana Mine Workers Union, the national teachers’ union, and other significant players in Ghana.
He became finance manager and acting CFO at Unique in 2009, just two years before he left the country—and a thriving career. But he was drawn to Canada by some of the same things that have drawn millions of newcomers here.
“I always wanted to be a global citizen,” he said. “Canada, being a peaceful and multicultural country appealed to me.”
Ofori-Mensah’s professional aim was to get into the Canadian finance sector. He registered with Costi, a non-profit that helps newcomers connect with opportunities and he decided to pursue his Chartered Professional Accountant designation. But first he wanted to get his MBA, which he saw as a way of broadening and developing his on-the-job management experience. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants had suggested several programs, but he chose AU in part for its convenience. He could work at the same time as he pursued his studies. The program at AU, in addition to providing a high-quality education, also offered networking opportunities.
“Networking here is very important to move ahead in your career,” he said. “It’s not so key in Ghana.” He chose to focus on corporate governance and risk management because issues of governance are “so key in companies, especially large ones. They can impact society positively—or otherwise.”
Since 2012 Ofori-Mensah has worked for the John M. Yeboah Professional Corporation, an independent accounting firm. He started as client services manager, providing business, taxation, and accounting services to companies. He is currently a finance and governance consultant, working with senior management with a range of clients—law offices, dental clinics, and various small- and mid-size companies—to strengthen internal controls and governance.
He’s matter- of- fact about the huge changes he’s made in the past seven years. Canada and Ghana aren’t that different, he says—“they’re both Commonwealth countries, so there are similarities.” He’s acclimatized to the winters, and his wife and children, too, are comfortable with the rhythm of life here.
Looking ahead to the next chapter, Ofori-Mensah, armed with his MBA, plans to eventually move into a larger-scale, business environment more like the ones he worked at back home. He enjoys his work with his small-business clients very much, but corporate life has its draw. “I like to be in the middle of the action!”
It will be yet another chance to prove how the language of numbers can translate into opportunity.
Scott Montgomery
Uncorking a global vision for a growing wine importer
Graduated: 2009
Based in: Toronto, ON
“Once I decided that an MBA would be a good idea, I looked for programs with flexible schedules. I was in my early 40s, I travelled frequently for work, and I couldn’t be tied to the classroom. AU jumped right out.”
Learn more about ScottScott Montgomery, MBA '09
Scott Montgomery was a was Canadian Sales & Marketing manager for a growing wine company when he realized he needed to augment his business skills. His job required frequent travel, so he searched for a flexible MBA program that would allow him to complete courses remotely. He enrolled at Athabasca University (AU) and was struck by the diversity of students in the program—he was the only person in his cohort who worked in the wine industry. He learned to see the bigger picture of running a healthy company in the long term and 13 years later, he’s a vice-president at one of North America’s top wine importers. Here, he shares how AU helped to get him there.
You enrolled in the MBA program in 2006. Where were you in your career?
In early 2006, I was working for a company called Constellation, running their sales and marketing in Canada. As the company grew, it was clear to me that it was becoming more corporate and more centralized, and I realized I didn’t have the tools to flourish in the company as it was changing. Around that time, Constellation bought Vincor, Canada’s largest wine company, and my team of five people was merging into a company of 2,000 people. I realized an MBA program would give me more credibility to build my career.
And what drew you to AU’s MBA program?
Once I decided that an MBA would be a good idea, I looked for programs with flexible schedules. I was in my early 40s, I travelled frequently for work, and I couldn’t be tied to the classroom. AU jumped right out. At first, I was just attracted to the prospect of being online. As I dug into it more, I liked the philosophy. It was about enabling people, and I appreciated the diversity of the people in my cohort.
What kind of people did you encounter in your program?
I was pretty much the only person in the wine industry. There were people from the Canadian military; one student was on a Canadian destroyer in the Persian Gulf. Others worked for Manitoba Hydro, in healthcare, in banking. There were lots of different age groups, and it was pretty evenly split between male and female students, which was interesting to me because the wine industry is so skewed toward men, although that’s changing. One woman in our cohort had just given birth to twins.
What were the courses you appreciated most?
Well, I was already in marketing, so I was already comfortable with that. But the strategy course was particularly helpful. It taught me to think long term about how to build a business. In the day-to-day of getting things done, you lose sight of the big picture. If you’re trying to get into the leadership role, you need vision about where you’re going. I also liked the finance courses, where I learned how to properly read balance sheets and financial statements. And I was fascinated by the course on negotiations and conflict management. I learned about setting goal posts and knowing when to shut up.
Where did you take your new skills and education after graduation?
As soon I finished the program in the spring of 2009, I was packaged out from Constellation. But as a newly minted MBA, I knew I was going to be fine. By December 2009, I had three job offers on the table. The role I took was a large family owned winery called Delicato Family Vineyards. I was running the Americas (less domestic US), and the financial training I got through my MBA came in handy. That was one of one of my first jobs where bonus was based almost entirely on profitability, and I knew how to aim for the bottom right corner. I outlined a five-year plan for my business unit. There’s no way I could have articulated it without the training from AU’s MBA program.
And where are you working now?
Two years ago, I was recruited by a major private importer called Palm Bay International. They had developed a new California wine portfolio, and they wanted to take it to a wider global market. For the interview, I analyzed routes to market, their potential, and expected timelines. Once I had presented this, I said, ‘There’s your blueprint. Even if you don’t hire me, take it as free consulting.” Shortly after, I got a phone call. They said, “We’re not going to look at anyone else until you tell us no.”
What role does your AU education play in your day-to-day work?
The program offered everything I could want: diversity of subjects, of people, of viewpoints, all bundled up in a coherent, consistent package. When I started the program, I was a marketing manager. Now I’m a vice-president of international business, and I’m building an entire division almost from scratch. It’s the kind of experience you can get through training or experience. I got it through both.
Denise Blair
Helping at-risk youth with a new non-profit model for corporate partnerships
Graduated: 2010
Based in: Calgary, AB
“We tend to deal with what’s in front of us—serving this youth,” Blair said. “But we don’t take the time or the resources to grow the business. An MBA seemed like a good next step for me.”
Learn more about DeniseDenise Blair, MBA '10
In 2008, Denise Blair had spent 12 years as executive director of the Calgary Youth Justice Society (CYJS), providing support to at-risk youth and offering them opportunities that would divert them from criminal behaviour. The CYJS was a small organization, and Blair wore a lot of hats in addition to her role as executive director, she was also the charity’s de facto CFO, operations chief, HR manager, marketing lead, and head of strategic planning.
“We tend to deal with what’s in front of us—serving this youth,” she said. “But we don’t take the time or the resources to grow the business. An MBA seemed like a good next step for me.”
Blair attended an information session on Athabasca University’s (AU) MBA program, which would allow her to develop her business acumen without sacrificing time on the job. The CYJS didn’t have the funds to pay for her degree, but she found out that the school was offering a one-time scholarship reserved for students involved in leadership and community service. She submitted an essay, outlining her career path and her ambitions for her organization, and won the scholarship. It paid for her full tuition.
“It was like winning the lottery,” she said. “When I heard the news, I knew I was going to do whatever I could to pay it forward and use my education to benefit the community. This wasn’t just about me and my career.”
People had warned Blair that doing her MBA online could be isolating and might prevent her from building networks. But Blair had no qualms. In fact, she found studying at AU to be just the opposite of isolating. Unlike in her undergrad, where she sat in large lecture halls and didn’t speak to anyone, discussions and group work were built right into the MBA’s curriculum. Blair found that she had access to a more diverse cross-section of students than she would at a traditional university.
“Where do you get access to so many people who have unique and different challenges in one place? The conversations were extremely rich,” she says. One of her classmates was a soldier serving in Afghanistan. Another woman was an Indigenous trapper living in a log cabin in rural Canada.
She wanted to use her degree to improve her community. All of her classes were applicable to the non-profit sector, but the one she found most useful was her marketing course. For one of her assignments, she was tasked with developing a marketing plan. She decided to base her strategy on an idea for a leadership program for vulnerable students she had been mulling over.
Her new business aptitude helped her look at the idea of corporate partnerships in a fresh way. She envisioned a program that would generate a tangible return on investment for companies that got involved with CYJS. In addition to asking for funding, she would ask employees of a corporate partner to volunteer as coaches for the kids.
“We wanted to measure how the employees and workplace would be impacted by this experience,” she says. “We wanted to measure the coaches’ engagement with their corporation and their skills as employees and supervisors, and help build a mentoring culture in the company.”
A few weeks after drawing up the plan for her class, Blair described her idea to a woman who turned out to work in community investment at a large energy company. That company ended up committing to three years of partnership, turning a marketing-class assignment into a fully realized program.
Blair graduated from AU in 2010. Her leadership program, called “In the Lead,” has run for about eight years and mentored hundreds of kids. They’ve worked with five corporations and deployed the program in school and community settings. And that original corporate partner is still with them.
“When I first graduated, I was already equipped with skills and tools for a running start,” Blair said. “As the years went on, it evolved into changing the way I thought and who I was as a leader.”
Doug Schindel
Forging growth in the steel industry
Graduated: 2005
Based in: Edmonton, AB
“I believe that education is key to correcting a lot of the short falls we see in our communities today. It’s not just a post-secondary education, but education in general. If we can find a way to improve the level of education, then that will be better for everyone.”
Learn more about DougDoug Schindel, MBA '05
Doug Schindel has had what would now be considered an unconventional career. For 42 years, the longtime engineer worked for Weldco, a company that creates heavy steel implements for the construction and mining sectors. He worked his way up, and decided to get his MBA only after he became president of the company—an experience that helped him determine which aspects of the business suited his expertise, and which would be better served by hiring talented personnel. Now retired, Schindel explains why he stuck with the same company for so long, and his decision to get an MBA from Athabasca University (AU).
You worked for the same company for nearly your entire career. Why?
That’s right. I was working at a steel supplier and Weldco was a customer. They had a job opening for an engineer that looked interesting and so I applied and got it. This was 1973. I retired in 2015 after working my way up to president. I stayed because I really enjoyed what I was doing. I was also advancing a little bit every year. I started designing equipment parts then moved into management positions and there were always opportunities to go further.
When did you decide to get your MBA?
It was 2001, the year after I became president. I hired a new CFO who said to me that he wanted to do his MBA at AU and asked if I’d pay for it. We worked out an arrangement, and after he signed up and was accepted he came to me and said, “Why don’t you do it, too?” I thought I’d try and I found it really enjoyable.
Most people get their MBA to move into senior positions, but you were already at the top.
Yeah, that is interesting, but it helped in a lot of ways. One thing it showed me was what I had a natural affinity for and what I was clearly not very good at. For example, human resources is not my thing, but I did learn the importance of doing it well. I realized that if I’m not good at it then I better find someone who is, and so I did find someone who was extremely talented at it. I also learned about the importance of post-secondary learning and I met a lot of people. At one time I had four other AU MBA grads working for me. I also discovered that because I entered the program later in life, I had a better sense of what I needed to learn and where the gaps were—and I had more incentive to learn.
Did you having an MBA have an impact on the company?
I believe it did. I can’t point to one specific thing because an MBA touches a bit of everything you do as a senior executive, from strategic planning to financial management. It improved my business acumen, my decision making, my risk tolerance, and it gave me more confidence.
What sort of a difference did you make at the company?
My team and I grew the business by 250 per cent within about five years. The Alberta economy was starting to take off then, so that helped, but we also developed new products, expanding into the U.S. and Ontario, bought businesses, so it was a lot of expansion.
You’re on the board of governors at Athabasca. Why stay involved in the school after you retired?
I believe that education is key to correcting a lot of the short falls we see in our communities today. It’s not just a post-secondary education, but education in general. If we can find a way to improve the level of education, then that will be better for everyone. We’re a governance board, but we do give guidance to senior executives and the president and I think we do a good job.
How’s retirement?
I’m enjoying it. I have four grandchildren so I’m having a lot of fun with them. I’m also still designing things— built a little backhoe for a tractor and steel gates to my house. It’s a good time.
Cathy Cummings
Leading non-profits through change
Graduated: 2002
Based in: Toronto, ON
Cummings credits her MBA with preparing her for strategic challenges in her career. Along the way she has picked up a useful “hobby” in non-profit governance, and some industry recognition—including a 2016 award for a program she helped launch at the CCCA.
Learn more about CathyCathy Cummings, MBA '02
Years ago, Cathy Cummings’s kids had a talk with her.
“I get frustrated easily in retail environments when service doesn’t go my way,” Cummings said.
“A little too critical” was how her kids put it. Cummings, entirely to her credit, listened. In response she launched a personal effort she calls the “bouquet project,” in which she registers praise for work well done rather than complaints when something goes wrong. Bucking the trend of Yelp revenge, Cummings began singling out people for praise, and in the process of giving back, found a generally rosier outlook on the world.
Her new job is, in a sense, a perfect expression of that philosophy. Cummings, a graduate of Athabasca University’s MBA program, was recently named executive director of the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations, a global body with its roots in the U.K., which aims to provide a support network and shared information for ALS organizations around the world.
Cummings has a personal connection to Lou Gehrig’s Disease (known outside North America as Motor Neuron Disease). Her mother died from ALS, a condition in which nerves lose the ability to communicate with muscles, leading to a loss of speech, mobility, and eventually functions such as breathing. Post diagnosis, the life expectancy for patients typically tops out at five years. ALS became a personal cause for Cummings; she served as chair of ALS Ontario and as board member of ALS Canada, two organizations she then helped to amalgamate successfully.
Her new job is also the culmination of a fruitful career leading non-profits. Cummings started out handling payroll and benefits at the Canadian Auto Workers, now Unifor. While there she enrolled at Athabasca. She had two young children, and the school’s flexibility and its well-developed online modules appealed to her. She still recalls an influential AU workshop on knowledge management, held in Halifax.
“The focus was not on technology, which is what a lot of people think of,” Cummings said. “It was more about the human interactions, and how they can play out in the workplace—for example how to change the way sidewalk conversations happen.”
Cummings said the course shaped her management style. When she started her next job, as a vice president at the Canadian Payroll Association, she saw how physical space affects corporate culture.
“One of the things I noticed is that we worked in a building shaped like an H,” she said. “The elevators were the bar of the H; the president was on one side and the rest of the staff on the other side.”
Cummings was struck by the remoteness this signaled and resolved not to repeat it if she one day found herself running an organization. She soon was, as head of the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA), a subsidiary of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA).
She stepped into an organization undergoing significant change. The group had just dissolved its board and staff after disputes over funding and the group’s relationship to the CBA. She was hired as interim executive director while they searched for a lawyer to lead the group.
“I said to them in that first interview, ‘With all due respect, you don’t need a lawyer to run an association; you need an association manager,’” Cummings said, and it didn’t take long for them to be convinced. “We had to rebuild the board and rebuild the operation, and we had about eight months. It’s a great learning opportunity to work through a crisis like that.”
The legal sector, too, has gone through upheaval, a reality she saw when she became executive director of Shared Service at the CBA, working with regional offices and subsidiaries to coordinate administrative resources, programs that support member lawyers, and more. Just as outside the law debates swirl about questions of access and affordability, within it, businesses—the biggest consumers of legal services—are demanding change and efficiency.
Some scholars including the legal authority Richard Susskind, with whom Cummings has worked, have explored online courts inspired by eBay’s dispute-resolution mechanism, which has settled some 60 million disagreements without the need for court appearances. A colleague of Cummings’s saw a good model for the legal profession in “unbundling” services the way dental clinics do: when you go to see the dentist, you also see a hygienist, perhaps an X-ray technician, someone in invoicing.
“There are transactional pieces that can be done by a different group or by artificial intelligence,” Cummings notes—changes that would, of course, bring their own set of questions,” she said.
Cummings credits her MBA with preparing her for such strategic challenges in her career. Along the way she has picked up a useful “hobby” in non-profit governance, and some industry recognition—including a 2016 award for a program she helped launch at the CCCA.
The professional certification, offered with the Rotman School of Business at U of T, aims to give in-house corporate lawyers the sorts of business skills that law school doesn’t teach. That project is what she’s proudest of in her career, she said.
Well, so far. One gets the feeling that Cathy Cummings isn’t done collecting bouquets—any more than she’s done giving them.
Heather Buffalo
Bring business principles to the delivery of social services at the Samson Cree Nation
Graduated: 2014
Based in: Maskwacis, AB
“You can’t go home again,” the saying goes—proving only that clichés can persist despite being untrue. The idea is that it’s impossible to return to your past. But you can go back to your roots, of course—and quite happily, as Heather Buffalo will tell you.
Learn more about HeatherHeather Buffalo, MBA '14
“You can’t go home again,” the saying goes—proving only that clichés can persist despite being untrue. The idea is that it’s impossible to return to your past. But you can go back to your roots, of course—and quite happily, as Heather Buffalo will tell you.
Buffalo grew up in Samson Cree Nation, in Alberta, but left to pursue studies in Calgary and then Los Angeles before coming home to Maskwacis, where she has spent the last two decades working to bring change and innovation to community programs.
Buffalo, who has an MBA from Athabasca University, is senior manager for Nipisihkopahk Wellness and Social Development on the Samson reserve. The value of education was instilled by her father, a five-term Samson Cree chief, and founder of an education trust that brought the first on-reserve schools to the community in the 1980s.
As a teen Heather went to Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, a top-notch Catholic high school in Wilcox, Sask., with an emphasis on academics, athletics, and faith. Post-graduation, she started with modest ambitions. She took a few courses at Mount Royal University in Calgary, then returned to Samson to work a series of clerical jobs, in customer service, and payroll. In 1994, she returned to school, leaving home for Glendale Community College, in California.
“I needed something different in my life, and I had friends down there,” she says.
California was certainly different; on her first night in her own apartment the famous Northridge earthquake occurred. But she settled into her new life. At first, she says, “my aspirations weren’t high at all.” Then she met a student counselor, who reviewed her coursework and encouraged her to apply to California State University.
“She was really good and really patient,” Buffalo says.
So Buffalo did, and was accepted. She earned her bachelor of science in business administration from Cal-State, then headed back to Canada after graduating in 1999. It was not a struggle to leave sunny L.A.
“I was going home,” she says. “I got a U-Haul, and family came down and helped me move.”
For a time she worked at Peace Hills Trust, the First Nations-owned bank, then moved on to a position as manager of human resource training and development for Samson Cree Nation. Her role involved helping low-income individuals participate in training programs and opportunities to employment.
In 2007, hungry for another challenge, she enrolled at Athabasca. She continued to work, and a couple of years after she enrolled, she was promoted to her current position. She now oversees various departments in the area of social development focusing on service delivery to Samson Cree Nation members and residents.
Her MBA proved useful from day one, she says. Her coursework focused on areas such as leadership, change-management theory and team building, which were entirely relevant to her new position.
“What benefited me the most was (studying) negotiation,” she says, explaining that she deals a lot with provincial and federal governments on funding arrangements.
Her MBA program also helped her in “changing the culture in the organization,” she says. In her work, Buffalo found herself confronting some staffing issues.
“At one point I was overseeing 15 managers, and I thought that was ridiculous,” she says. “Some of the work was redundant and some of it was duplication. They all knew changes needed to be made, and we were going to streamline.”
The challenge was getting people onside.
“I brought them all together and we did kind of a retreat. It took time, but we compromised and agreed to five managers,” she says.
The focus of the social services she oversees is, she says, “building capacity among community members to help each other.” There are funding constraints, of course.
“One of the biggest challenges is in not meeting the needs of every person,” she says.
But she aims to bring a solid grounding in business principles to the administration of programs and resources on the reserve.
“With the new tools, my team and I have worked to integrate programs and departments and break down silos. With limited resources,” she says, “we do our best.”
Michael Martin
From satellites to AI, a life on technology’s cutting edge
Graduated: 2007
Based in: Toronto, ON
While it wasn’t intentional, Michael Martin has been on technology’s cutting edge since his first job in video in 1976. The Toronto-based executive who built Bell ExpressVu, was a behind-the-scenes tech producer on SCTV, and is now working in the office of the CTO at IBM Services, responsible for Internet of Things (IoT) and broadband networks. He helps clients navigate often-bewildering new technologies like AI and blockchain. As big of a tech guy as he is, he wouldn’t be where he is today without his Athabasca MBA—the degree that kick-started his appreciation for lifelong learning. Martin discusses his fascinating career and how he became “addicted” to higher education.
Learn more about MartinMichael Martin, MBA '07
Were you always interested in technology?
I was. My first educational pursuit was photography. I lived in Tokyo and went to school there. When I came back, I got a job in video at a time when there was no video industry. I was working as a systems integrator at the corporate and enterprise level and would help set up all sorts of corporate videos. I then went to Global Television where I worked as a technical producer, basically participating in television programs, like SCTV. I worked on Expo 86 and several Olympics. I also built the teleport systems for Bell ExpressVu, Bell’s satellite TV service; I put together four 5.6-metre satellites that transmitted signals. It was pretty cool.
How do you go from that to the Internet of Things?
Bell ExpressVu was the first IoT network I built. When you think about it, it was a real-time network that went out to millions of homes. I joined IBM in 2005 after a friend said I should come there. Because I knew radio frequencies, I moved to the telecommunications division and started helping utilities do smart metering and things have progressed from there.
Sounds like you had enough work on your plate. Why get an MBA?
I was having a successful career. When I was at the company that did ExpressVu, I became a vice-president and we started acquiring all these companies. I knew the technology side very well, but I was constantly struggling to understand the business stuff. I was embarrassed by my lack of knowledge, so I decided to get that knowledge and be better equipped for success.
How did your MBA help?
I knew about half of the things I needed to know, but didn’t know the other half. The MBA backfilled that half I didn’t know much about. The most important course I took was statistics, even though I was so out of my depths taking it—it was painful—but I fell in love with it. Artificial intelligence, which I do a lot of work with, is built around statistics. It opened the world of AI to me. I’m more comfortable with AI today compared to some of my colleagues because I embraced it.
How did you find being back in class after so many years?
I learned how to learn. And I got addicted to learning. I’m 62 and still going to school now. Since the MBA I’ve gone to other schools to do a master in communications, a master of education, and I recently completed an Internet of Things course at MIT. I’d love to do more; there are so many great degrees out there. Athabasca gave me that desire to learn.
What are you doing with all that knowledge today?
As much as I can. A lot of people find this new stuff, like AI and IoT, scary and challenging. Well, I’m meeting with a university to help them figure out how they’re going to better serve their students, faculty and staff over the next five years. I’m working with a mining company on mine automation. I’m working on another project that involves blockchain technology. I’m still working with utilities, too, where we’re using IoT to build the next generation of smart metering. Technology is becoming so intermingled, it’s quite fascinating.
Sounds like a big change from photography.
You might think, but it’s not. A photographic lens has the same physical properties as a satellite antenna, which is also a lens, just at a different frequency. A lot of that knowledge is transferred to IoT as well. I’ve been in the same universe for 40 years. But education has helped. If there’s one thing I’ve realized it’s that in today’s society, we need to be lifelong learners.
Michael Nagel
Reaching new heights in the aviation sector
Graduated: 2001
Based in: Vancouver, BC
Michael Nagel was bit by the aviation bug at an early age. From flying helicopters to managerial positions within the airline industry, he wanted to climb even higher, so he enrolled at Athabasca University, poring over books in hotel rooms at night as he traveled for work. Today, Nagel is an aviation consultant for major oil and gas companies and shares how his Athabasca University MBA got him where he needed to go.
Learn more about MichaelMichael Nagel, MBA '01
You began your career as a helicopter pilot. What made you want to stop flying?
Flying an aircraft with a whole bunch of people on board was very much like a dream. It was exciting and a very important part of not only my growing up, but also my career development in business. I just wanted to get to that next step in more of a management role rather than a flying role. It does have a limitation; it’s exciting but you may not want to be away from home that often, and it also has a degree of risk to it. I went back to school at the end of my flying career, and thereafter joined the airlines in management. I went to Capilano College, which is now Capilano University, in Vancouver, and took business administration courses. I wanted to step up my business acumen and figure out my next steps.
What did you do after you finished college?
I ended up at Canadian Airlines. I had a fantastic career at Canadian in sales management—a sizeable portfolio of about $250 million. I managed all of Southeast Asia and China. Then Canadian ended up in some financial turmoil. Around that time, I had that mental wanderlust again to take it to the next step and I developed a vision that I wanted to get an MBA. I loved the airline industry, but I couldn’t see myself continuing in it. After researching, I picked Athabasca.
Why did you choose Athabasca?
The really important thing was the flexibility, the online capability to work 24/7. I was traveling quite a bit so I found myself in hotel rooms, doing work at night, in different cities. That whole online model at the time, around 1998-99, was still an innovative application. That suited me really, really well. And there was also enough of a mix; we were attending school in cities all over the world for a week or two to do face-to-face studies and workshops. That was another box to tick off: the diversification of the people, the broadness of the industries, and the type of managers that were in the cohort. I stay in touch with a few of them.
What did you hope the program would do for your career?
I really wanted to step up the academia. I had a vision that I would end up with a much better career that paid more money, gave me more accountability, and more responsibility. That was definitely fulfilled. The other thing was to get out of my box of aviation. As I recount this, it all sounds so strategic and mapped out. But that’s not quite the case. A lot of it just fell into place. I had a direction, and in some cases, a very strong vision. It worked out for me very well. I have an awful lot to be thankful for that I made the decision to go to Athabasca.
Were there any courses you found particularly helpful or interesting?
Operations management is one that definitely sticks out—that scientific thinking on operations, on logistics management. By coincidence, the prof that was teaching it, Anshuman Khare, is still a friend of mine whom I stay in touch with and try to visit when I’m dropping through Edmonton. He was quite influential.
How have you applied what you learned at AU in your work?
The one thing that comes up is just being really good at multitasking. That in effect is something you have to deal with as a manager; you have to work smart and be a good leader of people, and not be intimidated by deadlines. I’m very comfortable at senior levels dealing with a multitude of challenges and problems and opportunities. These were new skills that I developed at Athabasca.
Rae Shungur
Bringing a holistic approach to the recruitment industry
Graduated: 2013
Based in: Calgary, AB
“Multinational organizations have many departments that all interface with each other internally. I wanted to be a more holistic provider and more engaged listener.”
Learn more about RaeRae Shungur, MBA '13
From the time Rae Shungur graduated with his bachelor of arts from the University of Calgary in 2000, he knew he wanted to one day pursue an MBA.
“I always felt like there was going to be a sequel to what I’d just finished,” he said.
He spent much of the next decade travelling through Asia, working in the gem trade, before returning to Alberta and landing a job as an account manager at a recruitment firm. He had a knack for the work right away, but he always felt he was missing the business background that he required to properly serve his clients. He was working with massive oil and gas companies, and he needed to understand how they worked.
“The people I was speaking to were talking over my head,” he said. “These multinational organizations have many departments that all interface with each other internally. I needed to be a more holistic provider and more engaged listener.”
One day in 2010, Shungur was chatting with a friend of his, a professor in northern British Columbia, who asked, “So, what are you going to do with that cute little degree of yours?’” He told Shungur about the MBA program at Athabasca University (AU), and took the liberty of signing his friend up for the program that night. Within weeks, Shungur was starting his courses.
Many AU MBA students enter the program hoping to develop expertise in a particular area, but Shungur’s goal was to understand how businesses worked as a whole. That meant deep dives into operations, human resources, accounting, finance, managerial economics, IT, and security. One of his favourite courses focused on supply chain management, since supply chain managers are the ones buying parts and raw materials for an entire company.
“They want to achieve a level of stasis in buying. Their big four motivators are reliability, consistency, quality, and cost,” he explained.
Another course he enjoyed was on IT, which focuses on making sure communications are fluid, information is secure, data is available, and operations are managed efficiently.
“They sit down every day and the only way those goals are achieved is if nobody knows they exist,” Shungur said.
He describes a business as a body, where IT might be the nerves and veins, operations is the brains, and so on.
“They all have to interact to create a system of behaviour, and I was excited to see how these bits became parts of the whole,” Shungur said.
He had expected that one of the drawbacks of distance education would be a lack of network development—that he wouldn’t be able to get to know his classmates, to go for a coffee or beer with them after class. But he was pleasantly surprised to discover the extra measures AU takes to make sure its students develop relationships.
“You’re interacting at a heightened level,” he said. “You have to comment on what other people write, contribute to discussions. It’s all in the spirit of ‘let’s do this better.’ And the mentors are so involved in fostering conversation.”
He was impressed by the range of perspectives he found in the virtual classroom: his cohort included oil and gas executives from Alberta, doctors, medical sales people, a man in the German auto industry, and another who spent his days surfing in Bali.
When Shungur graduated from the program in 2013, he found himself equipped with a new vocabulary, and a new high-level understanding of the mechanics of business that he could bring to his work at Design Group Staffing, the recruiting company.
“The clients felt that I got them, that I understood their challenges,” he said. “I went from being a salesperson to being a consultant.”
He quickly found better strategies for interacting with energy companies of all size and scope more strategically—he could speak their language, and convince them he was worth their time and spend. In the seven years since he finished the program, he has risen precipitously through the ranks, getting promoted first into a practice lead, then later into his current role as the Enterprise Solutions Executive at the national level.
“I have a general understanding of how businesses operate and make decisions, and what they spend their dollars on,” he said. “I have a better insight on that today than I ever did before.”
Angela Workman-Stark
Transforming the face of Canada’s police force
Graduated: 2001
Based in: Ottawa, ON
Angela Workman-Stark started out as a police constable with the RCMP and worked her way up to the rank of chief superintendent. Here, she reveals how Athabasca University’s (AU) MBA program helped her get where she is—and why she decided to return as a professor.
Learn more about AngelaAngela Workman-Stark, MBA '01
When you started at Athabasca University (AU) in 1999, you were a constable with the RCMP. Why did you want to get an MBA?
My journey to AU was a circuitous one. When I did my undergraduate degree at St. Mary’s in Halifax, I didn’t think I’d amount to anything. I’d had a lot of trauma in my childhood, and I didn’t have a lot of self-esteem. Then I joined the Mounties and moved out to Alberta. After a few years, I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of doing well. I felt safe in that MBA environment because I was anonymous, and I didn’t have to talk to people face-to-face. AU provided an experience that no other university had at the time.
What were you hoping to do with your degree?
At the time, I was a police constable. I was focused on operations and detective work. The program at AU opened my mind regarding strategy and leadership and culture and change. My day job seemed less relevant. I wanted to explore how we treated our people and how we led the organization.
How did you apply what you were learning at AU to your police work?
I was doing Strategic Human Resource Management. The strategy course was an eye-opener. It got me thinking about the Mounties’ relationship with the community and what kind of organization we wanted to be. What’s our identity? How do we want to be known? What kind of service do we want to provide? Everything I’d seen was about ‘we know best’, but I realized we needed to have big discussions with stakeholders to understand what kind of organization we wanted to be. I thought, ‘This is what I want to do.’
And what was it like to work on the program online? How did you interact with your classmates and instructors?
If I’d been face-to-face with them, I’d never have said a word. I’d have been too intimidated. We had senior people at the VP level, people in significant leadership positions in healthcare, and business leaders in other industries. But I felt comfortable interacting with them from behind my keyboard.
Where did you take your new skills after graduating?
I moved to Ottawa for more opportunity, where I continued working as a constable. And then I built a network of people who were in the kinds of roles I aspired to. I didn’t advance to those positions right away. It took about four years. But because of my MBA skills, I was able to jump the ranks. In my first leadership role, I was able to transform our regional recruitment model from Ontario-Quebec. I went back to what I’d learned in my strategy course—operations management, process improvement, and organizational change.
How did you transform that recruitment model?
We had a lot of redundancy. We were receiving 8,000 applications every year, but we didn’t have enough focus on proactive recruitment. We created a processing centre to process applications but also actively seek out more diversity, more visible minorities, and more women.
Over the years, you advanced the ranks at the RCMP, eventually serving as chief superintendent. What brought you back to AU as an instructor at this point in your career?
I started coaching in the MBA program in 2010, while I was doing my PhD at Walden University in public policy and administration, with an emphasis on organizational management. I’d done some teaching at the RCMP and I’d kept in touch with AU, and I wanted to give back. I was able to combine my professional skills and academic knowledge.
And what has your experience been as an AU faculty member?
I see an incredible calibre of students. They’re motivated to undertake positive social change in their community. The things students are interested in are creating inclusive organizations. I find it really enjoyable to engage the students and to support them in their applied projects. They’re often experiencing similar challenges that I faced in the Mounties. I can now dig into those issues and conduct experiments to deal with them. I can see everything from different perspectives and it’s so enriching.
Carter Yellowbird
Bringing industry and Indigenous communities together
Graduated: 2012
Based in: Maskwacis, AB
“I’ve always been a go-getter,” says Yellowbird, a 2012 grad of Athabasca University’s (AU) MBA and a consultant who advises industry and Indigenous communities on development opportunities. “I needed to do something with myself—I needed to take chances.”
Learn more about CarterCarter Yellowbird, MBA '12
When Carter Yellowbird was a teenager living in Maskwacis, Alta., he took a leap of faith. As a member of the Samson Cree Nation, in the community formerly known as Hobbema, he saw too many of his friends fall victim to alcohol and drugs. Some even lost their lives. Yellowbird knew he needed to forge his own path and that leaving home was the only way to go. “I’ve always been a go-getter,” says Yellowbird, a 2012 grad of Athabasca University’s (AU) MBA and a consultant who advises industry and Indigenous communities on development opportunities. “I needed to do something with myself—I needed to take chances.”
He quit school and with his father, Norman, a farmer and former chief who’d personally lobbied prime minister Pierre Trudeau for changes to the Indian Act, Yellowbird hit the road for L.A., with visions in his mind of sun and palm trees like he’d seen on TV. Instead the pair travelled as far as Riverside, Cali., just outside L.A. “I went with no money in my pocket,” he says. “No credit card, no health insurance. But I had a dream to get away and make something of myself, right?”
Though he had grown up riding, it was only in California that he began to take rodeo seriously, specializing in the roping tricks his father had taught him. Two years later he returned to Maskwacis, and used his “18 money”—the portion of oil and gas royalties distributed to reserve members at the age of majority—to buy the truck and horses he knew he would need to compete in rodeo at the highest level. Soon he was working his way up the ranks, from amateur rodeoing meets to the Indian National Finals Rodeo in Albuquerque, N.M. In 1991, he became the first Cree to compete in calf roping at the Calgary Stampede, something he’d dreamed of all his life.
While traveling through Edmonton with one of his brothers, Yellowbird learned that Euro Disney, just outside of Paris, was auditioning Indigenous rodeo stunt men for its Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. “They asked me if I could ride,” he remembers. “I jumped on a horse bareback and rode around easy and they loved it.”
He spent three years in Paris, and even performed the dangerous riding stunts at a special show mounted at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. But after an accident left him with a broken hip, he returned to Canada, where a second misadventure put him in hospital with a concussion. Things needed to change. “I always tell kids,” he says, “when your vehicle breaks down, when you get in an accident, the best thing to have is insurance—that will take care of you. In this case, the insurance I needed was my education.”
Yellowbird quit rodeoing, sold his truck and put his horse out to pasture. He earned a high-school equivalency diploma, then enrolled in the University of Alberta, securing a Native Studies bachelor and a minor in business. From there he became the business manager at Samson Oil and Gas and then began managing the $30-million Samson Education Trust Fund, which provides support for Samson Cree Nation community members studying at the post-secondary level.
His pivot from rodeo to community and business development leveraged Yellowbird’s longtime willingness to go outside his comfort zone and invest in himself—first through athleticism, then education.
He knew he wanted more, and turned to AU’s Online MBA.
“I wanted to get my MBA because I wanted to focus on business—First Nations are lacking in science, law, and business,” he says. “Essentially with my MBA I could get out there and see more, spread my wings more, and most importantly, be able to help First Nations in any capacity.”
After graduating in 2012 Yellowbird worked for a time with the provincially funded Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, as an aboriginal relations business partner, and helped implement programs that connected Indigenous land stewards with industry and government in support of environmental monitoring regimes.
He now has his own consultancy, and is currently undertaking a feasibility study for on-reserve, for-profit seniors homes that would cater to Indigenous elders, with traditional singing and foods, but would still be connected to the off-reserve geriatric care industry.
The bulk of Yellowbird’s work is looking at different strategies that bring industry and First Nation people together and get them ready for the world at large. He sees education as fundamental to that goal, and each year, his Carter Yellowbird Indigenous Bursary awards an Indigenous student at AU with $1,500.
“You know, going to Paris as a kid was a big culture shock,” Yellowbird says. “Just think about a First Nations person at that time going off the reserve to work.” That experience has defined his work today: helping others jump into the unexpected.
Doug Grant
Rethinking the way food gets from farm to plate
Graduated: 2008
Based in: North Vancouver, BC
Grant says his work at Athabasca University also shaped his management style in overseeing a team of 150, in a company consistently recognized for good management and a healthy corporate culture. “I’m an introvert,” he admits. “I like to do things myself. But I realized that I can add much more value by involving other people and helping them develop their abilities.”
Learn more about DougDoug Grant, MBA '08
In late 2018, the fortunes of romaine lettuce took a hit as an E. coli outbreak sickened dozens across North America. A safety warning was issued the following month, but it took several weeks more to identify the single farm in California that was likely responsible. In theory, consumers could have still been awash in Caesar salads—if only we’d known the provenance of the problem lettuce.
Doug Grant is one of a group of industry leaders working on making that theory a reality. “Because they didn’t have traceability,” says Grant, “they stopped all romaine production, no matter where it came from. The amount of romaine lettuce that was either left to the fields or destroyed in transit is just a staggering amount of money.”
Grant is speaking as a board member of the Centre for Produce Safety (CPS) and co-chair of the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI), a position he took ten years ago, around the time he obtained his MBA from Athabasca University (AU). The goal, he says, is for every carton of produce to bear a bar code that traces it to its farm of origin and for every supplier and major retailer to trace that code through their systems. In the event of an outbreak, they can then respond with precision and speed, saving lives and millions of dollars. Most major suppliers have signed on, and many other retailers, led by Walmart, are starting to follow suit.
Better yet, is to minimize pathogens from entering our food supply chain in the first place. Over the last year, Doughas chaired the CPS Knowledge Transfer Task Force to share knowledge gained from scientific research with the industry.His ongoing monthly series of articles can be found here.
Grant knows the benefits of food safety and traceability from another perspective as the executive vice president and Chief Operation Officer of The Oppenheimer Group, a produce giant that brings 50 million cartons of fresh produce each year from farms to market. Oppenheimer—within the industry it’s simply called Oppy—is B.C.’s oldest company, a 160-year-old family business that first introduced Granny Smith apples and kiwi fruit to North America. Today, it represents growers from 27 countries with half based in North America. and means ever more complex operations systems.
Grant entered the business 24 years ago, when technology played a less central role. An IT specialist who had worked with the B.C. Automobile Association, he was charged with managing Oppenheimer’s computer systems. His job has expanded to oversee Oppy’s entire supply chain, including cold storages and freight (30 primary facilities across North America and hundreds of freight deliveries a day), as well as quality control, food safety and sustainability—as he puts it, “Everything it takes to move the product from their farms all the way through the supply chain to the retail or food service distribution centre.”
Grant credits his MBA with preparing him for this phase of his career. He enrolled at Athabasca while he was still overseeing IT at Oppy. The distance-education approach allowed him to continue in a demanding job while logging some 30 hours a week on his coursework. The two in-residence stints, in Calgary, Alberta and Guadalajara were invaluable, he says, providing key insights in doing business in Mexico. He oversees Oppy’s South American offices and works closely with growers.
Grant says his work at AU also shaped his management style in overseeing a team of 150 within a company that is consistently recognized for good management and a healthy corporate culture. “I’m an introvert,” he admits. “I like to do things myself. But I realized that I can add much more value by involving other people and helping them develop their abilities.”
He found the program so useful he recommended it to a promising associate, Steve Roosdahl. Roosdahl’s MBA thesis at AU, on building third-party freight services, became a blueprint for a new and very successful strategy at Oppy, Grant notes.
In 24 years, Grant has seen the business evolve, shaped by the disruptive forces impacting so many other industries, namely automation, trade challenges, climate change, and an increasingly integrated global footprint. Food safety and traceability—an interest of Grant’s since his early days at Oppy—matters more than ever. So does the technology to achieve it; today there are experiments in using blockchain rather than traditional e-commerce to track products more easily.
Grant notes that transparency on products in transit through the supply chain also means better planning and procurement. But ultimately, he says, it’s about inspiring confidence and trust. “Expect the world from us,” goes Oppy’s tagline, and when it comes to the food on their plates, consumers do.
James Swanson
An internet pioneer in the world of law
Graduated: 1997
Based in: Calgary, AB
“The first website I ever saw was a guy with a Unix programmer advertising his bait and boat shop in Florida,” Swanson says. “It was just a graphic with his toll-free number and a picture of the wharf. I had never seen anything like it, and I realized it was going to change everything.”
Learn more about JamesJames Swanson, MBA '97
James Swanson has always considered himself a computer geek. He bought his first PC in 1979: a boxy, beige Atari 400 where he could manage his chequing account and sequence and record synthesizer music. A decade later, he was one of the first people online, browsing Usenet groups and sending early emails. And by the early ‘90s, Swanson was working as a technology lawyer, trying to figure out how the World Wide Web would change the way he practised law. “The first website I ever saw was a guy with a Unix programmer advertising his bait and boat shop in Florida,” Swanson says. “It was just a graphic with his toll-free number and a picture of the wharf. I had never seen anything like it, and I realized it was going to change everything.”
In 1993, at lunch with a few friends, someone mentioned that Athabasca University (AU) was planning to launch an MBA program using Lotus Notes. “I thought, ‘You could do an MBA program on Lotus Notes. You could do anything on that platform,” Swanson recalls. It was the first online MBA program in the world and, a year later, when it launched, Swanson was one of its first enrollees. The technology was primitive—you’d have to wait for the dial-up to connect and the server to deliver information from other computers—but professors were able to upload lessons, and the first cohort of students were able to submit assignments and engage in (very slow) group discussions.
Swanson found he was able to gain a whole new set of technical tools without interrupting his growing tech law practice. He mastered the fundamentals of business—strategic planning, accounting, marketing, management—while both students and professors used the platform to better understand educational behaviour. “From what I understand, a lot of the courses were essentially rewritten after the first offering,” he says. “Because they were able to see how people actually dealt with them. It became an exercise, ‘how do people work virtually as teams?’” For his dissertation, Swanson designed and created a website for the Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers’ Association. In the era before Swanson’s site launched, a lawyer in Grand Prairie would have to drive to Edmonton to access physical binders that listed reliable expert witnesses. Swanson’s site included a digital Expert Witness Bank, where lawyers could provide contact info for the witnesses along with comments about their performance—kind of like an early Yelp for trial lawyers.
Swanson graduated from the MBA program in 1997 and quickly set about putting his new knowledge to use. As an Internet pioneer, he acquired dozens of domain names, which became ultra-lucrative as more companies set up their own websites and bought the domains from him. After learning about economic bubbles in the program, he was circumspect with his investments and remained successful when the dotcom bubble burst. He also set up an online directory of every firm in Canada that had its own website—at that point, there were only 12. He figured he’d get more traffic to his firm’s site than he knew what to do with, and law firms would be calling him, begging to get into his directory. And that’s exactly what happened.
Over the years, Swanson has worked at several large national firms, but this year, he’s planning to branch out on his own and launch his own virtual law firm from his home. He’ll have a physical drop-off location for couriered documents and packages, but he’ll mostly meet with clients through virtual boardrooms and offices. For one of AU’s inaugural MBA graduates, it is the perfect opportunity to combine the business skills he first began to develop more than two decades ago with his law practise today. “At my firm, I’m the CEO, the chief marketing officer and chief technology officer,” he says. “I’m a successful, leading-edge law firm, applying my natural abilities as a lawyer as well as the knowledge and skills I learned in the program.”
Vickram Minhas
How a family business entrepreneur found the confidence to drive change
Graduated: 2017
Based in: Grande Prairie, AB
Minhas’ journey from pills to plants includes such stops along the way as car salesman, real estate developer, hotelier and—crucially—Athabasca University MBA graduate, the distinction he believes gave him the confidence to go for it all.
Watch Vickram’s story hereVickram Minhas, MBA '17
Vickram Minhas is only 31, but he’s already built a career as varied—and successful—as it is short. A pharmacist, he owns his own shop in Valleyview, Alta., 350 kilometres north of Edmonton. Now, he’s opening Valleyview’s first cannabis store, planning for a second in Slave Lake and a third in Grande Prairie, his birthplace. Minhas’ journey from pills to plants includes such stops along the way as car salesman, real estate developer, hotelier and—crucially—Athabasca University MBA graduate, the distinction he believes gave him the confidence to go for it all.
“I cannot exaggerate the value of what I learned through the MBA program” he says. It’s also the case that an appetite for the new and unknown runs in the family. Minhas grew up in a household of two patriarchs: his father and uncle, who both arrived in northern Alberta from Punjab in the 1970s and took logging jobs deep in the bush. Together, they set up house with their wives and parents, and collectively, they raised Minhas, his sister, and cousins. At the same time, the family built a stump-to-dump logging truck business that peaked in the 2000s at almost four dozen vehicles. It was 24-hour work, especially in winter when the earth hardens to accommodate greater loads. Minhas watched his dad and uncle work tirelessly, taking midnight calls and stamping out logistical fires. He’d inherit their drive.
Minhas moved to Edmonton to study pharmacy at the University of Alberta, returning home each summer to sell cars at another family enterprise: a Mazda dealership. The summer before graduating, he came back home to learn they’d fired the manager; suddenly, at 21, he was thrust into the demanding job of running the dealership. “I was thrown to the dogs,” he says. “It was the most stressful summer of my life.” But he flourished. Today, the family owns five car dealerships along with four hotels—“diversify” may be the family motto.
In 2009, Minhas began working as a pharmacist in Grande Prairie. Shortly after, his uncle died, forcing the family to look at who would inherit his management role. Minhas eventually filled the job, stewarding three major land developments, totalling 300 acres and valued at nearly $50 million, including retail malls, hotels, and a seniors’ home. “Give me a raw piece of farmland and I’ll develop it,” he laughs.
Still, the pressure was enormous, and with little business experience, Minhas says “I found myself with quite a few confidence and competency issues—it was a big learning curve.” He looked around for a good MBA program. When he saw the AU curriculum he knew he’d found the one for him. This was around the time he and his wife had their first of three children. Every night at eight, after the baby was put to sleep, Minhas worked on his lessons, often hitting the books until midnight or later. “It really helped me to believe in what I was doing,” he says, “and get a proper understanding of it.”
Minhas wasted little time putting his newfound confidence to work, and built his own successful Valleyview pharmacy. A second venture followed when Minhas opened Grande Prairie’s first co-working business, which lets out shared and flexible office space to other enterprises (and which at the same time became his own headquarters).
Then, in 2017, came news that Canada’s cannabis laws would be changing. “I don’t smoke, but it was a new industry and that got my juices going,” he says. He incorporated a business—URBN Leaf Cannabis Company—and submitted an application to Alberta’s retail cannabis licensing body the day after they began accepting them. He fashioned a brand and store design, located properties, and built the shops. The company opened its doors in December.
None of it came easy. “You’re disrupting a lot when you open a cannabis store,” he says. “There’s push back from the city and community members saying ‘No, I don’t want a cannabis store.’ You’re disrupting old ways of thinking and doing business.”
All along, Minhas remembered what he learned at AU about perseverance.
“There are a lot of times in your MBA when you feel you’re far from the light,” he says. “It’s just a matter of: Okay, put your head down, keep going, keep going. And you do, and you will succeed.”
Vickram Minhas, MBA '17
Denise Pothier
Connecting the dots between diversity and productivity
Graduated: 2018
Based in: Halifax, NS
A Nova Scotia native with French Acadian and Mi’kmaq heritage, Denise Pothier began her career in chemical engineering before shifting to a management track, working as a consultant for clients in the oil and gas sector. In 2007, her company was bought by Stantec, where Pothier now holds two titles: Vice President of Practice Services and Stantec’s first-ever Vice President of Indigenous Relations.
Learn more about DeniseDenise Pothier, MBA '18
You grew up in small town Nova Scotia. What did you envision yourself doing when you were in school there?
I come from a long line of schoolteachers so that seemed like a logical extension for me. But I was really interested in the sciences. And I was always very interested in helping people. My dad’s a carpenter, and he was like, “We need land surveyors—you like being outside, you’d use math.” Then my Grade 11 teacher threw out engineering. We often refer to engineering as the invisible profession. Everything you touch, every day, an engineer at some point in time had something to do with it. I knew electrical and mechanical weren’t my thing. Industrial, civil, it wasn’t resonating with me. But certainly, process flow and how things are interconnected, that really appealed to me, so I went into chemical engineering.
What did you do after you got your degree?
I worked at a refinery, which is a chemical engineer’s dream. I got to climb through every piece of equipment you can imagine, and did all kinds of very interesting environmental surveys and reports. Then I got to work in the offshore industry. That’s where I moved more into the management side of things. Then I went into consulting and developed quality health safety environment management systems for clients, particularly in the oil and gas sector.
You were employed at a small company that was acquired by a much larger one, Stantec, where you currently work. What was that transition like?
It was really scary going from a small company to a large company— the fear of just becoming a number. But really, I credit Stantec and my direct supervisor with this accelerated career trajectory in the last 11 years, when I went from doing quality management for a 200-person firm to all of a sudden doing it for a 7,000-person firm.
How did you approach that challenge?
The CEO at the time came and did a town hall meeting. I was feeling very vulnerable. Am I going to be a casualty of the acquisition? Am I redundant? I was a single mom at the time, so I was fighting for me and my daughter and our livelihood. The CEO indicated at that meeting that Stantec had a strategic objective to become certified to a quality management standard the following year. People who know me now can’t believe this, but at that time this was very out of character for me: I went up to the front of the room, introduced myself, and said, “This is what I do here, I want to help.” It really taught me a lesson about reaching out. If I had just sat back and said nothing, I might have ended up not having this amazing career.
You’ve been at Stantec ever since. Why did you decide to get your MBA?
I’d always thought that I would combine my engineering degree with something. The typical combinations are engineering and law or engineering and business. Law you can’t do part-time, and it really wasn’t where my career was going. I was getting more and more responsibility, leading teams, and leading strategic initiatives for the organization. With all of my travel, and with my crazy schedule, the online, asynchronous learning environment at Athabasca really resonated with me. I was learning the theory about why things I’d tried had worked or failed. You know, you read a certain textbook, and you’re like, oh my god! That’s why that didn’t work. Or here’s all the theory behind why this went really well.
You’ve helped develop Stantec’s Diversity and Inclusion Council. How did your experience at Athabasca inform this work?
For my first module I was being paired up with people in the hotel industry and the government and I was like, this is going to be weird. But it really reinforced the value of diversity. It was a rich learning environment, and we learned so much from one another. For every employee, I want for their work experience to be that they’re not compromising themselves when they cross the threshold of the Stantec office. I’m a firm believer that a diverse, inclusive, and equitable culture makes for a stronger organization. Why would we want to leave talent on the sidelines? The AU learning environment, where everybody’s coming from diverse backgrounds, diverse geographic locations, and diverse perspectives—it just reinforced that.
Larry Berglund
Changing how the world thinks about sustainable procurement
Graduated: 2003
Based in: Surrey, BC
“Ethical and sustainable procurement is about the principles that we adhere to when are buying anything. Particularly in the public sector, we shouldn’t be buying sweatshirts or t-shirts made in sweatshops.”
Progressive purchasing can ensure that we don’t.
Learn more about LarryLarry Berglund, MBA '03
For many of us, the words “supply chain management” may sound more like a sleep aid than a hope-filled pathway to a better world. Larry Berglund, a Vancouver-area consultant, coach and speaker, would beg to differ.
Overseeing an institution’s supply chain, he says, means making or influencing decisions about all the goods and services it procures—from printer paper to construction materials and personnel for a major building project. If you have an interest in sustainability, that represents a tremendous opportunity to make change.
“Ethical and sustainable procurement is about the principles that we adhere to when are buying anything,” he says. “Particularly in the public sector, we shouldn’t be buying sweatshirts or t-shirts made in sweatshops.”
Progressive purchasing can ensure that we don’t.
Not much about Larry Berglund is typical. A man who didn’t bother with an undergraduate degree, he has worked at the University of British Columbia and taught at the B.C. Institute of Technology and Athabasca University, where he also did his MBA. A municipal worker who started out ordering supplies for the City of Vancouver’s sewers department, he eventually helped write the ethical and sustainable procurement policy that was part of Vancouver’s winning bid to host the Winter Games in 2010. His clients include school boards and mining companies, and his involvement with the Supply Chain Management Association of Canada has, intriguingly, led him to teach workshops on leadership and sustainability to UN peacekeeping staff.
Until about 2003, Berglund took a conventional approach to procurement. He fell into the field in the mid-1970s. Family life prompted him to give up his rock ‘n’ roll aspirations— “everybody was in a band in the late 1960s,” he says—and get a real job.
“My wife and I started with one dollar in the bank,” he says.
While at the sewers department, he took courses in purchasing at night. Over the next two decades, he handled procurement for Langley Memorial Hospital, a local shipyard, a sawmill logging operator, and a hospital regional group, becoming a “certified professional purchaser” in 1982.
“I was a traditional buyer, less concerned with where goods came from or how they were made. As long as it hit the price point, I would buy it,” he says.
In 2000, he turned 50 and began mapping a more entrepreneurial course. Thanks to years of work experience, he was able to enrol in Athabasca University’s MBA program as a mature student. His last course at AU, he says, was on the diamond industry.
“It was my first real encounter with the dark side of business,” he says. “I learned about blood diamonds, about exploitive practices. It raised my consciousness. That MBA made a dim bulb a spotlight.”
This nascent interest sprang to life in his new job as the City of Vancouver’s manager of materials management. Vancouver was crafting its Olympic bid and its mayor, Larry Campbell was emphatic that the Games should leave a positive legacy for the city. The Ethical & Sustainable Purchasing Policy Berglund crafted under his tenure made Vancouver a pioneer among Canadian cities.
Berglund notes that “social procurement” goes beyond environmental sustainability, applying ethical principles to all purchasing decisions. Vancouver became one of Canada’s first municipalities to bring in fair-trade-certified agricultural products and coffee in its facilities. The city required compliance with international labour codes—a growing factor in procurement policies that has required Berglund to beef up on trade agreements and labour and bid law.
Berglund also made it a priority to help people with barriers to unemployment find work. During his tenure the city awarded contracts to companies such as Starworks Packaging and Assembly, which employs skilled people from Vancouver’s downtown east-side struggling with alcohol or substance abuse.
“The idea is to help them regain their self-esteem and a pathway to meaningful employment,” he says.
Berglund’s interest in social enterprise has deepened through his work with companies such as Vancouver’s CleanStart, which has applied the idea of hiring disenfranchised workers to a franchise model not reliant on government subsidies.
“It works, it doesn’t cost anybody any more, and it reduces the burden on society to provide those social services,” Berglund says.
A cycle of give and take is built into Berglund’s view of doing business. He does pro bono work for social enterprises. He has written articles about the “circular economy,” which aims to eliminate waste from the supply chain rather than recycling it later, and authored two self-published books, most recently Good Planets are Hard to Buy.
He continues to coach and teach, and this summer will return to Italy to run a weeklong workshop for UN support staff from troubled spots in the world. Some have many years of experience in the UN. They are accomplished people with extraordinary stories, he says. Knowledge, too, travels in both directions.
“I’m fifty per cent teacher, fifty per cent student,” he says.
Michael LeGoff
A life of finding opportunity in disruption
Graduated: 1998
Based in: Plymouth, England
You could sum up Michael LeGoff’s career with a variation on an old gag: a physicist, an engineer, a Navy man, and a CEO walk into a bar—and they’re all Michael LeGoff.
Learn more about MichaelMichael LeGoff, MBA '98
LeGoff’s career has taken him to some interesting places: Samoa, Japan, and Peru while in the Navy; several years in Ottawa during its golden age as Silicon Valley North; and 20 years in Plymouth, England, where he bought and relaunched an offshoot of a major British electronics firm, making it a player in the global LED light business.
He has racked up some impressive degrees along the way: an undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Victoria, a master’s degree in engineering from Carleton, and an MBA from Athabasca University that he says had a strong hand in shaping the second half of an eventful career.
LeGoff started out squarely in science. After high school in Winnipeg he joined the Navy, which put him through university. He served for nine years as a naval engineer before doing a stint with construction giant in the early 1990s and obtaining a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. By the time he left that position, he was ready to act on his entrepreneurial ambitions, and enrolled at Athabasca University.
“Working in industry and with small companies I realized I was missing a big piece of my toolbox,” he says. “I was a quite strong engineer, but there’s a lot you don’t know about how a business operates, and at first you don’t even know what you don’t know.”
The MBA gave him a swift education and proved immediately useful. While doing the degree, he was starting his company, Dynex Inc., a semiconductor manufacturer.
“Every module, everything I was learning,” he says, “was directly applicable to what I was doing with my company.”
He set the firm’s strategy while doing the program.
“It was perfectly in sync, the learning at Athabasca and growing my first company, to the extent that I graduated in the spring of 1998 and listed the company in August,” he says.
Dynex launched in the thick of the dotcom boom.
“Telecom was going through the roof, we had mobile telephony taking off, public markets were flying, people were renting jets to get around,” LeGoff says. “It was an exciting time.”
A couple of years later, he acquired a facility in the U.K., which took Dynex from a modest operation with 20 or 30 employees and $5 million a year in sales to employing 400 and topping $50 million a year in sales.
“Our share price went through the roof,” he says.
And then the early 2000s happened. The dotcom bubble burst, markets collapsed, and that was even before 9/11.
“Again, the backing of the MBA gave me a solid base to rely on,” he says.
Dynex retrenched, closing its Canadian office and offices in France and Germany, and moving to the U.K. In 2006, it sold to a Chinese company; LeGoff used his share of the proceeds to acquire the U.K. firm Plessy Semiconductors, for around $1.6 million. He kept the technologies and sold the manufacturing tools, using those funds to buy a site in Plymouth. He raised more than $200 million in private equity to expand Plessy’s technological innovations in the realm of LEDs or light-emitting diodes.
LeGoff’s description of the company’s technology betrays his many years in science.
“The University of Cambridge had developed a way to grow gallium nitride in large-diameter silicon substrates,” he says, before the MBA in him jumps in to translate. “Most LEDs are made on little bits of jewel, either manmade sapphire or manmade diamond. We, with Cambridge, had developed a way to make it on silicon, i.e., a semiconductor product. So our LEDs could be, and still are, a tenth of the cost of even products out of China.”
Plessy focused on specialist applications. Its technology is used in lighting systems in warehouses and factories, and in circadian lighting, “where we control the wavelength of the light, so it doesn’t interfere with circadian rhythms, for those companies that employ a lot of shift workers.”
Another application was what LeGoff calls “horticultural lighting… for the indoor farming market,” including medical-marijuana operations. Plessy was also exploring branching into competitive consumer-focused areas such as wearable VR technologies. But while LeGoff was interested in continuing to build the company, investors wanted to prepare the company for sale. Confronted with the difference in vision, he sold his stake in the company last summer.
LeGoff is now considering his next move. One possibility is a return to Canada; he has young children, and family back home. In the meantime, never one to sit still, he has acquired part ownership of another lighting company and is investing in small start-ups with applications such as antibacterial lighting. He chairs Plymouth Science Park, a MaRS-style public-private partnership between the city council and the University of Plymouth, that has provided a home for innovative companies. He is also consulting, working with a couple of startups launched out of the University of Cambridge.
He says it’s an interesting time to be starting something in the U.K.
“During massive fluctuations, that’s when things happen, where the opportunity is. Brexit is one of these moments,” he says.
He credits his time at Athabasca, and conversations with the MBA program’s founder, Stephen Murgatroyd, in part for awakening him to the potential that exists in times of flux. He acquired the Plessy site in Swindon just after the 2008 financial crisis, when most investors were keeping their heads down. He bought the Plymouth site soon after, in the period between a steep decline and a sharp recovery in the semiconductor industry.
“The problem, of course, in these times is that there’s also risk,” he says. “My view is, you’ve got to do something. Do something.”
Roger Harris
Seeing the bigger picture in sustainable oil development
Graduated: 2002
Based in: Calgary, AB
“The real crux of the matter is that every company is in business to be profitable,” Harris says. With an MBA, “Rather than presenting elegant engineering solutions, you are better suited to provide practical solutions that fit the business drivers and the strategic goals of the organization and your department.”
Learn more about RogerRoger Harris, MBA '02
Roger Harris was just 21 years old when he emigrated from his native Guyana to Canada in 1971. Thunder Bay, Ontario, was a long way from home, but it was where his godfather lived—and where his godfather’s wife held a position at Lakehead University. They took Harris under their wing and gave him a place to stay while he worked toward his first undergraduate degree in the sciences, before entering the university’s chemical engineering program.
By 1976, Harris was a Canadian citizen, and two years later he completed his bachelor of science in chemical engineering. It would be another twenty years before he enrolled at Athabasca University’s MBA program, decades during which Harris would come to appreciate the importance of being able to present engineering solutions from a business perspective.
After graduating from Lakehead, Harris and his wife moved to Alberta’s oil patch, where he worked in field operations for a small drilling outfit called International Drilling Fluids. From there, he moved to Amoco, which soon merged with British Petroleum to form BP Amoco. Then Canadian Natural Resources Limited bought all of BP Amoco’s Alberta oil assets.
“I got sold twice,” Harris says.
All the while he was working on heavy oil field experiments, helping to develop efficient and cost-effective oil extraction methods. By the late 1990s, Harris was starting to feel hampered by his lack of knowledge of the oil industry’s business side.
“I was looking at my career,” he says, “and at that time a powerful combination would have been an engineering degree with an MBA.”
But there was no way for Harris to go to a bricks-and-mortar university. He was working in small oil patch towns like Fort McMurray and Drayton Valley, far from cities where he might attend classes.
“Athabasca was a perfect fit for me because I could do it long-distance,” he says.
He’d met others through his work who’d recommended Athabasca University’s MBA program, so he enrolled while on the job in Slave Lake, Alberta.
“The real crux of the matter is that every company is in business to be profitable,” Harris says. With an MBA, “Rather than presenting elegant engineering solutions, you are better suited to provide practical solutions that fit the business drivers and the strategic goals of the organization and your department.”
It wasn’t easy to complete an MBA while working full-time, but the program allowed Harris to see his job in a whole new light. For his final paper—which Athabasca awarded one of the best of the year when Harris graduated, and which was later published in the journal Technovation—he wrote about sustainable development for oil producers.
“(The research) was a real eye-opener, especially in light of the issues of today of petroleum development versus environmental issues, and the balance between the two,” he says.
Since his early days in petroleum production, Harris has seen an astonishing migration of thought in terms of how businesses, particularly in the energy sector, view issues of environmental impact. Thirty years ago, the emphasis was on producing as much as possible when the prices were right; now, companies take into account many more factors.
“Business decisions these days are going green,” he says, “even in the petroleum sector. That’s been a huge focus for engineering and petroleum companies in Alberta. Not only using technology but using strategies and efficiencies to reduce environmental impact.”
Harris’s time at Athabasca helped him reassess the work he had been doing as an engineer. With the help of a particularly fascinating finance course, Harris hung out his own shingle upon retiring from Canadian Natural Resources Limited in 2012, launching a growing private investment company that he runs from his home in Calgary. Looking back on his own undergraduate education, he believes engineering schools should split their curricula between technical issues and business and environmental concerns.
“There’s a balance to be made,” he says. “Nature has a way of repairing damage if it’s not overdone, but humans have a responsibility to limit that damage.”
Sharon Ritchie
Rethinking expectations in Canadian banking
Graduated: 1999
Based in: Toronto, ON
Sharon Ritchie was nervous about starting her MBA at first, but she was able to keep working full-time and raising her family.
“I was able to balance work and family and still get a high-quality education,” Ritchie says.
Learn more about SharonSharon Ritchie, MBA '99
Sharon Ritchie never pictured herself working past her 20s, so she’s just as surprised as anyone by how high up the corporate ladder she’s climbed. Ritchie, a Toronto-based vice president with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), was married when she was just 19 and wanted a family. Until then, she thought she’d get a job and be a secondary income for their household.
She remembers always being bored in high school, so she thought she’d try her hand at getting a good job and applied to be a bank teller at RBC.
“They hired me on the spot,” she says. “I didn’t think I needed a career, but then starting quickly working my way through new and ever-more challenging roles. It was an incredible opportunity to build my skillset and capabilities within the same company.”
Despite having no post-secondary education, Ritchie was being offered increasingly more senior jobs at her branch until, in 1996, she was asked to take a position at RBC’s head office.
“I was apprehensive,” she says. “I knew what I was doing at the branch. Head office seemed like a big black hole and I didn’t know what it would be like.”
She was only supposed to stay a year but ended up loving the challenges that came with helping grow RBC’s business on a national level. It also gave her a taste of the corporate life— and she wanted more. She wanted to continue growing at RBC, while protecting her family time and thought an MBA would be the best way to ensure that and give her the job security she was also after.
In 1997, Ritchie, who by this time had two young children, enrolled in Athabasca University’s online MBA program—she only needed a high school diploma and management experience to be accepted—in part, because it allowed her to continue working full-time at RBC and raise a family. Most of the work was virtual.
“They were ahead of their time,” says Ritchie about the university.
She had to put in about 15 to 30 hours a week, less than what other MBA programs demanded.
“I was able to balance work and family and still get a high-quality education,” she says.
Not surprisingly, Ritchie was nervous at first.
“I had been out of school for so long and I get bored very easily,” she says.
But her apprehension quickly faded. Every course was fascinating. She particularly liked finance, which surprised her, as she was more of an operations person. The Harvard case studies she worked on were riveting and the hands-on work helped prepare her for the real world. She enjoyed it so much that she doubled up on her courses.
One class in particular continues to stand out. She was asked to look at a U.S.-based company’s operations and then, in a week, come up with recommendations on how it could grow its business. Her group presented their findings via live video to the company’s executives.
“These things make it more relevant,” she says. “We were helping people in their business.”
Ritchie got a lot out of the program, including lifelong friends. But perhaps most importantly, it helped her land that vice president role, which she moved into in 2010. Now, as vice president, operations centre, Ritchie oversees 2,000 people across multiple divisions. Although the primary function of her group is to process work and support clients and partners, and are constantly looking to reskill staff with a strong focus on talent management.
Looking back now, she thinks Athabasca’s MBA made her a better banker and it helped her gain a love of learning that she didn’t know she had.
“I would not have traded this for anything,” she says.
What’s most surprising to her, though, is her MBA, along with her strong work ethic and constant drive, has given her a life she didn’t think could ever exist for herself.
“I ended up becoming the breadwinner and my husband stayed home,” he says. “That’s something I never imagined.”