Alumni: 2013-14 Students

Zia-Ur-Rehman Ahmed

Zia Ahmed

Zia Ahmed has served over 17 years as Joint Director, PAEC AGENCY and as a senior staff member at Public Affairs Federal Agency of Pakistan, providing services for intergovernmental relations and managing the administrative affairs of the agency. As a senior-level manager, he provided consulting services for homeland security, crisis communications, and external affairs-related activities for public sector clients. As a Chief Liaison Officer between the Federal Agency of Pakistan and other Member States, he helped enhance the sharing of information and experience among other Member States.

Ahmed holds a Master of Science and Executive MBA and MA in Political Science Degree from Pakistan. Recently in 2012, he completed a LL.B. degree from Islamia University Bahawalpur-Pakistan, securing second position in the university with Silver Medal.

BS Baidwan

BS BaidwanBS Baidwan is an internationally trained lawyer from India with extensive corporate and legal work experience of more than 20 years. He has handled legal matters related to business such as mergers, acquisitions, corporate restructuring, direct and indirect taxes etc. He has been the president of Mohali Industries Association, a member of the State Planning Board, Punjab and a member of the Juvenile Justice board for district Mohali, Punjab. He has worked in different industries ranging from automobile to private equity and investment and held the highest position as CEO. He has also worked as a consultant and associate lawyer.

Baidwan is a member of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, India. Baidwan completed all his education in India. He holds a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Laws degree, Diploma in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management, and has also passed Intermediate level of Cost Accountants.

Frank Cerrone

Frank Cerrone

Frank Cerrone is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Revera Inc. and its subsidiaries. Revera Inc. is the tenth largest owner/operator of seniors care and housing in North America with revenues in excess of $1 billion annually, with over 30,000 employees and home to almost 30,000 residents.

From 2002 to 2008, Mr. Cerrone was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Retirement Residences Real Estate Investment Trust (formerly, TSX: RRR.UN). From 2004 to 2012, Mr. Cerrone served as a Director and member of the Audit Committee and Chair of Corporate Governance and Compensation Committee of Medical Facilities Corporation (TSX: DR.UN). He also served as a Director and member of the Audit and Corporate Governance Committees of Keystone North America Inc. from 2005 to 2010 (TSX: KNA.UN).

Mr. Cerrone attended the University of Toronto and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School.

Ovidiu Corbu

Ovidiu Corbu

Ovidiu Corbu has almost 9 years of experience in business management and engineering. As Manager, Vendor Management in the Business Management Office of one of the major Technology groups at CIBC, Ovidiu plays a key role in negotiations with strategic partners and is actively involved in vendor relationship management, governance as well as contract management. By leveraging his multi-disciplinary expertise he supports and works effectively with Executives, Senior Management, Legal Counsel and technology experts. 

Ovidiu holds an MBA from Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto with a Double Major in Consulting and Innovation & Entrepreneurship and a Specialization in Strategic Management. He also holds a Masters of Engineering in Telecommunications from the University of Toronto and he is a Professional Engineer with PEO as well as a Registered Communications Distributions Designer with BICSI. Additionally, Ovidiu completed several courses in executive development, finance, real estate and IT in order to broaden his understanding of the existing and future business environment.

Noelia Cornejo

Noelia CornejoNoelia holds a JD degree from the Catholic University of Peru in Lima, Peru, a Master’s degree in International Legal Management from the Ecole de Management de Lyon, in Lyon, France and a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York, United States of America; Called to the Bar in Lima, Peru in 2007 and in Rome, Italy in 2012.

Since February 2013 she works as a Project Manager- Legal Affairs at SkyPower Global, a Solar Energy developer based in Toronto, with projects at various stages of development worldwide. She is mainly responsible for reviewing term sheets and definitive agreements, providing due diligence support for Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), contract management and coordination and compilation of tender submissions.

She has been awarded the 2009 Leous/ Parry Award for Progressive Sustainability, granted by “The Earth Institute” at Columbia University, New York, United States for her work on promoting social dialogue on the impacts of mining company operations in Pará, Brazil amd the NUFFIC Fellowship by the Government of The Netherlands to research and produce a working document on Socio-Economic Securities for the Poor in Gujarat and Kerala states in India.

Barbara Cox

Barbara CoxBarbara is a lawyer and member of the Law Society of Upper Canada with over 20 years of experience practising in the financial services sector. As a senior lawyer in an in-house department with a Schedule I bank, Barbara handled a broad range of legal matters relating to capital markets, retail banking, and wealth management businesses. Barbara developed particular expertise in international country sanctions law, systemic risk relating to payment systems, securities settlement systems and correspondent banking, as well as international commercial law relating to trade finance and capital markets financing transactions.

Barbara also served as the Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer at a Schedule I bank, an executive role with accountability for oversight of the organization’s anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing, and international sanctions compliance programs on a global basis. In this role, Barbara regularly interacted with regulatory agencies and lawmakers in numerous jurisdictions.

Barbara’s extra-curricular activities include serving on the board of directors of the Toronto Children’s Chorus, an internationally-esteemed treble choir.

Karim Gillani

Karim Gillani

Karim has an extensive background in mobile technology, engineering, finance, venture capital and strategy. He is currently the Director of Business Development at Xoom Corp., a San Francisco tech company specializing in digital cross-border remittances. Prior to Xoom, Karim led all M&A and strategic investment initiatives for BlackBerry in Silicon Valley. Karim was responsible for establishing BlackBerry's largest partnerships, including those with PayPal, Digital River and Thomson Reuters, and he developed the company's overall strategy in mobile payments and commerce. Karim spent several years working for Redknee Solutions in the UK where he designed network infrastructure for mobile carriers in East Africa and Western Europe.  

Karim has a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo and a Masters of Science in Finance with a Major in Economic Policy from the University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies). Karim is a Charter Member of the C100, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Canadian technology entrepreneurship and investment.

Nav Grewal

Nav Grewal

Nav Grewal is an internationally educated lawyer from India, whose experience includes litigation and consulting; civil, criminal, and business Laws. He has represented individuals, businesses and government agencies before various consumer forums, administrative tribunals, subordinate courts, and the Punjab and Haryana High Court, India. He has also advised clients, banks and non-banking financial companies in the financial disputes by means of negotiation, arbitration, and conciliation. Prior to law practice, Nav was State Marketing Manager – Fullerton India Credit Company, a Temasek Holding subsidiary employing more than 12000 employees in 700 branches across India. He was responsible for market research, branch feasibility study and business development in the region. During his stint with Fullerton India he developed Mass Distribution and Alternate Channel piece for the sale of financial products and services throughout Northern India. He also worked for Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd India (Global Pharmaceutical Company) in the Project Imports Division and facilitated eight new manufacturing plant setups.

Nav received his Bachelor of Laws and Master of Business Administration degrees from Punjab University, Chandigarh, India. He is enrolled as lawyer with The Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, India and a member of All India Management Association. He is also pursuing the Internationally Trained Lawyers Program at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.

Brian Hutchings

Brian Hutchings

Brian Hutchings has 20 years of senior management experience in the public sector. Currently, Brian is the Vice-President of Finance and Administration at Brock University in Niagara. Previous to his current position, Brian was the Commissioner of Corporate Services and Treasurer of the Niagara Region. Other roles in his career include Director of Corporate Services at the Community Care Access Centre and Comptroller/Treasurer at the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.

Brian has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Saint Mary’s University, is a Certified General Accountant (CGA), holds a diploma in Human Resource Management and is a graduate of the Queens Executive Leadership Program in Public Sector Leadership.

Hutchings is an avid volunteer and has had volunteer leadership positions with organizations such as the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Leadership Niagara, Niagara Sports Council, United Way of St. Catharines, Hamilton Tiger Cat Alumni Association and various coaching roles in football.

Adam Jurczak

Adam Jurczak

Adam Jurczak is an Investment Analyst with the Alternative Investments group at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Canada's largest single-profession pension plan with $129.5 billion in net assets. He focuses on investment origination and portfolio management across a number of global investment strategies including private lending, distressed opportunities, special situations, intellectual property, and event-driven investing. Prior to joining Ontario Teachers’, Adam worked as an Investment Banking Analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

Adam holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and Economics (with High Distinction) from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He also holds the Canadian Investment Manager (CIM) designation.

Ryan Kang

Ryan KangRyan currently serves as the Strategic Planning and Performance Manager on the Corporate Strategy & Business Integration team at Teranet Inc. In this role, he leads the corporate strategic planning process and manages national as well as international acquisitions in the land registry information industry. Prior to joining Teranet, Ryan held progressively senior roles in management consulting. He specialized in strategy, project management and analytics in a variety of industries including financial services, utilities and IT. He also gained policy, research and communication experience working for government agencies such as the Embassy of Canada to Korea and the International Whaling Commission.

Ryan holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University. He is a Project Management Professional (PMP) and holds certifications in change leadership with Cornell University and balanced scorecard with the Palladium Group.

Abas Kanu

Abas Kanu

Abas Kanu is a Senior Counsel in the regulatory team of the Legal Corporate & Compliance Group at BMO Financial Group (BMOFG). In this role he analyzes the strategic and operational impact of regulatory change in Canada and the U.S. on BMOFG and advises on enterprise responses to regulatory developments. Before moving to the regulatory team he was Senior Counsel, Commercial, at BMOFG, managing the legal requirements for commercial lines of business at BMOFG. Previously he was a senior associate at Stikeman Elliott LLP where his wide-ranging practice included a full range of banking transactions, private merger and acquisition transactions, private equity, corporate governance, structured finance and derivatives,

Abas earned a B.A. (Hons.), English, from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, a LL.B. (Hons.) from the University of Essex, England and completed the requirements for the Certificate of Qualification, National Committee of Accreditation at the University of Ottawa.

Darryl King

Darryl King

Darryl King has over twenty years experience in the transportation and logistics industry. As President at Logikor Inc., a multi-national logistics firm, he directs and oversees the strategic and operational development of the company across operating divisions in the United States, Canada, and Hong Kong. Prior to Logikor, Darryl held senior leadership positions in Finance, Operations, Project Management, and Logistics Planning, within the Automotive, Defence, and Freight Fowarding sectors. Darryl has extensive experience in the Toyota operating environment and firmly believes in and practices the philosophy of TPS/Lean operations. During his career he has been instrumental in the successful planning, development, and execution of a wide variety of highly complex projects. His skills and exceptional experience runs the gamut from new manufacturing facility start ups, corporate re-engineering, supply chain design and operations, strategic global expansion initiatives, to advanced legal and regulatory compliance, both within North America and internationally.

Darryl holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario – King’s College. He has also attained industry leading credentials with the Logistics Professional designation (P.Log), CITT Certified Logistics Professional designation (CCLP), and his Professional in Materials Management designation (P.MM).

Ariel Liang

Ariel LiangAriel Liang is a Vice President and Portfolio Manager at BMO Global Asset Management (BMOGAM). She is responsible for managing a multi-billion dollar Canadian quantitative equity portfolio, and integrates deep fundamental analysis with robust quantitative process to generate consistent risk adjusted returns. Prior to BMOGAM, Ariel was a quantitative researcher in the Quantitative Investments team of RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM), where she gained hands-on experience in the full product cycle of quantitative equity strategy development for their award-winning QUBE funds (low vol, market neutral, core, 120/20) and ETFs (dividend, core) in Canada, U.S., Global and EM. Before that, Ariel worked at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) as an Associate Portfolio Manager, where she developed and managed two profitable algorithmic trading strategies on global equity and volatility futures. Ariel also worked at Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, where she built asset return forecast models, designed proprietary market indicators, and priced exotic derivatives. Coming to Canada as an international student, Ariel began her career in back office (as a quantitative risk analyst in Bank of Montreal and a quantitative developer in RBC Capital Markets), proved herself in every role and built solid technical skills before making her way into quantitative investment.

Before GPLLM, Ariel finished a Master of Mathematical Finance degree from University of Toronto and a Master of Economics degree from Simon Fraser University. Ariel is a charter holder of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designations.

Czeryll Longalong

Czeryll Longalong

Czeryll Longalong has over 7 years of experience working in the United Arab Emirates. Most recently she managed the administration department of an organisation specialised in the captive breeding of the endangered houbara bustard, overseeing five centres in four countries. Prior to that she worked as a Consultant in both the Operations and Human Capital sub-service lines for Deloitte & Touche Middle East.  She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

 

 

Jacob Murad

Jacob Murad

For the past 7 years, Jacob Murad has acted as part of the senior management team for MERE Investments – a family run, private equity firm. Today, MERE has successfully invested in three major industries: real estate, food and event planning, and intellectual property. MERE’s real estate portfolio includes several commercial properties in Brockville and residential properties in Barrie. Along with Kurtz Foods Inc. — a leading company in Canada for kosher foods, MERE has invested in 24 Carat Events, a catering and event planning business and partner of both Skyline Hotels and Resorts and The McEwan Group. MERE has recently sold a patent on WiFi marketing technology to ADCentricity, a business devoted to digital media advertising.

Jacob graduated magna cum laude from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto.

Tim Pervin

Tim Pervin

Tim Pervin is the Managing Partner of The Pervin Group Inc. He has consulted in strategy development, marketing, business planning, project management, and communications programs in consumer products and business categories. Prior, he was Partner & Practice Leader at Stevenson Kellogg, a multi-disciplined Consulting Practice and managed Canadian divisions for multinational communications companies. He serves on public, private, and not-for-profit Boards. Governance experiences includes: gold exploration, technology distribution, hospital, and various arts. He was Chair, Brigadier Gold Limited (BRG-TSXV).

He is a Certified Management Consultant and has a designation in Corporate Governance.

 

Kathryn Robertson 

Kathryn Robertson

Kathryn Robertson has over 20 years of experience in marketing management and business and corporate development experience in numerous business sectors including “Hi-Tech”, Information Technology, Financial Services, Government, Telecommunications, and Management Consulting. As Vice President, Marketing & Corporate Development at Worldlynx Communications Corp. (WCC), a national management consulting and investment firm, she is a founding member of the senior management team responsible for advising and implementing marketing strategy and corporate development at start-up” and “early stage” companies in the areas of technology development, corporate structuring, and mergers and acquisition. Prior to joining WCC, Kathryn held progressively senior marketing and corporate development roles at Lotus, IBM, American Express, Thomas Cook, and Bell Communications.

Kathryn holds both an MBA and HBA from the Ivey School of Business at Western University. In 2009, for the simultaneous purchase and integration of 10 telecommunications’ companies, she and her colleagues received the “Canadian Dealmaker of the Year Award” for the Mid-Market level.

Niloofar Sharif Bajestani

Niloofar Sharif Bajestani

Niloofar Sharif Bajestani is an internationally trained lawyer from Iran. She has worked in different areas of law including International Law, Human Rights, and Family Law. She has also participated in successful national legal projects in Iran such as creating Iran’s most comprehensive legal database. In addition, Niloofar has worked as the supervisor of different human rights research projects. These experiences led her to choose Human Rights and Immigration Law as her profession. After immigrating to Canada, Niloofar worked at a not-for-profit legal organization to help under privileged persons, giving her a practical picture of the legal system in Canada.

Niloofar has a Bachelor of Law from Ferdowsi University in Mashhad and a Master of Human Rights Law from Shahid Beheshty University in Tehran.

Richa Shivam

Richa Shivam

Richa Shivam is an internationally educated lawyer from India where she worked as in house counsel for the largest private sector bank of the country. Richa reviewed and drafted agreements, security creation and contractual comfort documents for term loans, working capital facilities, external commercial borrowing loans and project finance. She counselled and coordinated charge creation on fixed and movables assets in India, Dubai International Finance Centre, and United Arab Emirates. Richa negotiated with major clients including leading IT firm and automation company on product agreements and achieved favourable resolutions.  She also handled litigation on behalf of her employer in various tribunals and courts including debt recovery tribunals, consumer courts and Supreme Court of India and possesses extensive knowledge of banking products and policies in India.

Richa has a Bachelor of Laws degree from University of Pune and a diploma in Corporate Laws and Laws of Patent and other Intellectual Property from Indian Law Society.

Samih Talaat

Samih Talaat

Samih is currently employed as an Associate at Helmy, Hamza & Partners, Member Firm of Baker &McKenzie International with two years of work experience. However, he has been able to obtain a significant exposure from his past work experience. Samih attended training programs at DLA Piper Group (Egypt) and Baker & McKenzie (New York office) where he worked extensively on Mergers&Acquisitions, Loan Agreements, Share Purchase Agreements, labor and administrative law. He then shifted his attention towards a different field in law when he was appointed as a Public Prosecutor. During said period, he was able to gain different experience such as interrogating and/or investigating suspected criminals and interacting in criminal courts.

Samih holds an L.L.B Degree from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt, an LLM Degree from McGill University, Montreal, Canada and is a member of the Egyptian Bar Association.

 

Odette Uy

Odette Uy

Rhodora (“Odette”) Uy’s work experience covers project finance, corporate finance and private equity, primarily in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. She was a senior professional in the National Development Company, Guthrie Group, International Finance Corporation/World Bank Group, and the U.K. Government’s Commonwealth Development Corporation (“CDC”). Uy was CDC’s Country Head for the Philippines for over seven years, prior to her appointment as an Investment Director of CDC Capital Partners and Managing Director of a CDC affiliate. Following her early retirement in 2004 Uy began providing seed capital to a number of start-up family businesses. She has since relocated to Canada, where her main focus remains the management of her family’s investment portfolio.

Uy holds an Executive MBA from the National University of Singapore, and a Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree (Summa Cum Laude) and a Bachelor of Arts degree (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines.