Graduate Success is our Success! - University of Ontario Institute of ...

Graduate Success is our Success!Ryan Clancy, 2010 Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) graduateDuring the final year of his undergraduate studies, Ryan Clancy acquired ahighly- regarded position with the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG). Ryanconcluded his final examinations and two days later departed to the nation’s capital tostart his professional life with an organization whose mandate is to hold the federalgovernment accountable for use of taxpayer dollars.While concurrently pursuing his professional accounting designation, Ryan isresponsible for a wide-range of financial audits. As part of the OAG team, Ryanperforms assurance engagements from the largest financial audit in Canada (theGovernment of Canada), to audits of Crown corporations, federal departments andinternational organizations.“I obtained my position through dedication and firm commitment to studying, proactive networking, and perseveringthrough strenuous times. By utilizing the expedient access to post-lecture office hours and highly esteemed academics atUOIT, I was able to challenge myself, strengthen my weaknesses and gain insight into the field of accountancy. Amongothers, my friends and family were crucial to the procurement of my career through the support and encouragementprovided.”Since starting his career at OAG, Ryan has yet to spend a full day in the office, as he has been traveling to a variety ofgovernment entities. “I am excited with the work/life balance I have with my employer, especially with the leisure andactivity that comes with living in Ottawa. The summers are great and Mont Tremblant is a short distance away, whichwill keep me smiling when the snow arrives.”Alex Pandelidis, 2007 Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) graduateGraduating from the Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in e-Commerce program in 2007, Alex Pandelidis has sinceobtained a position with Canadian Tire Corporation as an online content co-ordinator. Within this role Pandelidis hasbeen involved with: co-ordinating with buying teams to ensure information is accurate and up-to-date; managing onlinecontent for automotive and tool divisions on canadiantire.ca; writing content for new products available onCanadiantire.ca; coordinating website changes; writing and editing buying guides for automotive and tool division; andmanaging the Question and Answer tool on canadiantire.ca.

Amanda Paul, 2007 Bachelor of Commerce graduateAmanda Paul, a graduate of the Bachelor of Commerce program in 2007 has been accepted into theBachelor of Education program at York University.Elena Barone, 2008 Bachelor of Commerce graduateWhen Elena was in the final months of her fourth year, she posted her resume online. She wasrecruited by the Oshawa-Whitby branch of Investors Group when they found her resume. Elena’sdivision director was very pleased with the fact that she was in a Commerce program. Over thepast two years, Elena has consistently drawn on the skills and knowledge she learned in her fouryears at UOIT. Elena has found the leadership courses were of particular use as they taught herhow to adapt to meet the needs of her individual clients. The marketing courses were also of greathelp as they taught Elena how to get into the head of her clients, build a successful clientrelationship and relate to them on both a professional and personal level.Elena is entering her third year at Investors Group. As a consultant, it is her responsibility tomanage the financial health of her clients. To do this, she must provide her clients with comprehensive financial plansthat include multiple aspects, such as debt reduction strategies, mortgage planning, investment planning, insuranceplanning and tax/estate planning. Currently, Elena has over 150 clients with the expectation that she will have over 200by the end of this year. Elena has been nationally recognized by her company for her ability to build a successfulpractice through client referrals. She has been featured in a national podcast by her company where she wasinterviewed for her success and asked to give advice for new consultants entering the business. Elena has recentlycompleted a Field Trainer Program which allows her to train new consultants, and she may soon be considering enteringa management role as a division director.Elena says, “My schooling at UOIT gave me the tools to successfully pursue my dream career. I am blessed to be in acareer that allows me to build my own business. There is no ceiling in my business from a success and income point ofview. The sky is the limit! It is very rewarding to know that I can help my clients achieve their own dreams by providingthem with a roadmap to a bulletproof financial future.”

Jawad Hussain, 2010 Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) graduateAfter graduation, Jawad Hussain was hired as a junior accountant for a jewellery company basedin Toronto. Due to recent economic struggles, the company decided to restructure its businessby entering the online market and expanding business on the internet: www.theglamroom.comwas launched.Jawad helped the company build strategic decisions and supplier relationships. Jawad feels hisexperience at UOIT helped him a lot during this period. “We were taught many quality courseswhich gave us an idea on how the real-world industry worked. We did many case studies whichhelped us to gain more understanding. From accounting courses to strategic management, everyknowledge was used and applied in the business.”One of Jawad’s roles was to analyze the business and create a business model. Jawad used the knowledge he learnedfrom his Strategic Management course and applied it to this project. “UOIT trained me and gave me enough knowledgeto apply everything in real world. Another good thing which I liked of UOIT is that we were just not restricted to in-classlectures but also professors were really helpful and gave me a lot of encouragement and suggestions with this project.”Jawad also credits his accounting courses as he felt they provided him with a strong background to succeed in his workenvironment. “We were given cases to analyze with real world situations and how would we resolve that. We had to domany cases which involved enormous accounting knowledge. At that time we all thought this was really challenging andinvolved a lot of work. But today I can say that these cases really helped me a lot. I am more prepared for real-worldindustry and can tackle any accounting issues.”Jawad has plans of moving forward to complete his CMA (Certified Management Accountant) and also to continuebuilding his current work project. Additionally, Jawad manages a music website with over 160,000 registered membersand he is an RJ for a radio station. “University is a lot of work, but at the end everything you do in life will give youexperience and make you better. Do not give up and keep working hard.”Lei Qi, 2007 Masters of Information Technology Security (MITS) graduateLei Qi completed the Master of Information Technology Security degree in 2007 at UOIT under the supervision ofDr. Miguel Vargas Martin. After his graduation, Qi worked for a year at Hoper Inc., UOIT’s first start-up company, underan Ontario Centres of Excellence internship program. At Hoper, he developed the first release version of an innovativeweb tool called Navdriver, which is now commercially available through a local company in Durham Region. After hisposting, Qi continued his career as a software design engineer for a multinational corporation where he worked in thedevelopment and testing of some of the main security features of a leading operating system. After this mission wassuccessfully completed and the operating system was released and deployed worldwide, he moved to a financialinstitution in Vancouver, Canada, to work on their online banking system.

Reid Campbell, 2007 Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) graduateReid Campbell graduated from UOIT with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree in 2007 and is currently runningVMG Cinematic, an online marketing firm specializing in video production and social media optimization. The companyhas been responsible for the creation of web video productions and digital signage content for clients including Harley-Davidson, Motorola, Intel, Hewlett Packard and Research in Motion. The company currently has six full-time employees,two part-time employees and more than 10 contract positions. Originally, VMG started out as a basement operation inOakville, Ontario but quickly outgrew its office. Fast-forward two years later and the company is now in its second officelocated in the west end of Toronto in the hip and creative area known as Liberty Village. VMG’s neighbours include YTVand Nelvana Studios.Ryan Bishop, 2008 Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) graduateWhile completing the final semester of his Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree in e-commerce,Ryan Bishop joined Toronto-based consulting and services company, Hlnext, as a part-time businessanalyst in January 2008. In just three short months, he quickly learned the business and became a keycontributor to the realization of several large electronic health-care projects. After graduating in April2008, Bishop joined the Hlnext team on a full-time basis, extending his job role to business and ITanalysis. Since this time, he has led and supported several leading edge health-care initiatives andprojects – seeing them through to completion. Some of his key accomplishments include being theproject lead of a successful large-scale web server and database migration from IBM data centres toPEER 1 Networks for millions of electronic health records. In addition, he has co-led multiple development projects tocreate new electronic assessment tools to improve patient care, both in Canada and the United States.Included in his achievements, Bishop successfully established a UOIT internship opportunity through ACCELERATEOntario, UOIT and Hlnext for two student researchers from UOIT to work in a co-op program at Hlnext.William Balfour, 2010 Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) - Marketing, graduateWilliam Balfour began his career as a marketing intern with Global Spectrum FacilityManagement at the General Motors Centre in Oshawa during the beginning of his third year atUOIT. He successfully managed the demands of school, his internship position and two part-timejobs for the duration of his third year.William interned at the 2009 Event and Arena Marketing Conference in Colorado Springs,Colorado. He built a strong community of networks and had demonstrated an impressive workethic. It was due to this that he was recommended to apply for the Ontario Global Edge programin the summer of 2009. William was accepted into this program and was sent to Hong Kong for

an eight-week period to work with an IT security consulting firm. His role during this placement was to aid in thecompany’s marketing efforts. When he arrived back in Ontario after this placement, Global Spectrum FacilityManagement offered him the position of Group Sales Co-ordinator – William was in his fourth and final year at UOIT.William credits his internship and global work experience in Hong Kong, along with his ability to balance life’s demandsfor his success.