Nour Hadidi (BCom’10) is a comedian and TV writer who grew up in a family of doctors, earned a BCom, and spent a half-decade as a financial analyst before leaving Montreal for the comedy stages of Toronto.
In an interview with Flare Magazine, Ms Hadidi says that she got her big break in the form of an appearance on a CBC Radio special. That event led to other CBC appearances and gigs at comedy clubs.
Mark “Jappy” Gonzalez is thrilled to be included on BoF 500, the list of people moving and shaking the fashion industry. Mr Gonzalez says that being included on the list can only open doors, and maybe even  “create a retail environment that evolves into Manila as a retail centre.” After nearly thirty years of experience in Philippine shopping, he knows just what the country needs. In 1995, he brought that knowledge to life in H&F Retail Concepts, which runs several stores known for impeccably curated product lines, as well as franchises for big-name labels.
TerraCycle Marketing Manager Jessica Panetta (BCom’16) recently appeared on Toronto’s Breakfast Television to talk about recycling “non-recyclable” waste, specifically used cigarette butts.
TerraCycle collects them, composts the tobacco and the paper, then recycles the plastic filters. Members can package their used butts in a TerraCycle box and send them in via an included UPS label, but that is not the only solution: the company has collection receptacles on street corners in several Canadian cities.
Terry Kocisko (BCom’87) has been appointed to the audit committee and Board of Directors of Quebec-based mining company Yorbeau Resources. He comes to the job with three decades-plus of experience under his belt, as well as a degree in Accounting and Finance from Desautels. Yorbeau is a gold mining company that operates in Quebec and is currently concentrating on its Rouyn Property, which is 4 km south of Rouyn-Noranda in the Abitibi region. The 12-km property boasts promising underground gold deposits.
Brianna Mendes (BCom’20) is no ordinary student. The Bermuda High School graduate comes to Desautels with the kind of academic background that most of us can only dream of: She received the Doris Trott Butterfield Scholarship, which awards those with the highest attainable GPA, as well as the Dudley and Deborah Butterfield Scholarship, which brings high-performing Bermudan students to study at McGill.
Quebec celebrity news site envedette.ca recently posted a list of stars who hold degrees that have nothing to do with show business. Some of the stars are pure over-achievers (James Franco has BA in English from UCLA, a doctorate from Yale, and has done arts and writing studies at NYU and Columbia), while others are head-scratchers (Brad Pitt quit journalism school two weeks before graduation to become an actor).
A piece in Breaking News Pakistan announces the appointment of Nadia Rouchdy (BCom’09) as Head of Sustainability & Social impact at Careem, the Dubai-based rideshare company. Her appointment shows the company’s interest in sustainability as a business practise. Ms. Rouchdy has experience in environmental and social development, including climate change, energy efficiency and sustainability practises.
Canadian Jewish News profiles William Shatner (BCom’52, DLitt’11) as part of its series on prominent Jewish Canadians. The Shakespearian actor’s career was catapulted into the stratosphere when he was hired to skipper the USS Enterprise on Star Trek. The profile traces his history from a McGill BCom student through his early stage work at the Stratford Festival and Broadway before the role that changed his life forever. Mr. Shatner built on Captain Kirk to work in many TV shows, including his equally seminal T.J.
A recent piece at AdvocateDaily.com looks at the career of Toronto-area labour lawyer Stefan Rosenbaum (BCom’10). While Mr. Rosenbaum’s Desautels education equipped him well for boardroom work, his professional development left him with a major interest in social-justice. He learned the value of unions and worker’s rights early, and continues to love working on labour-related cases.
Aldo Bensadoun (BCom’64) founded Aldo Shoes as a Le Château exclusive in 1972, then opened the first standalone ALDO store in 1987. Today, the ALDO Group is a major player in the shoe field, with locations in 95 countries. Throughout, Mr. Bensadoun has maintained an interest in corporate culture as an engine for doing good.
A piece in Forbes co-authored by Desautels professor Karl Moore and Sandoz executive Vincenzo Ciampi (BCom’94) says that it takes a sense of purpose to realise one’s career potential.
The article makes the case that spending your early career chasing bigger job titles and paycheques is all well and good, but at some point it’s not enough. The authors point to their own experiences of changing vectors mid-career, and how friends who never made the jump often show the signs of burnout.
According to a recent piece in the Ottawa Business Journal, David Segal (BCom’04) knocked one out of the park with DavidsTea, and he bets he can do it again with salad. His new venture, Mad Radish, brings premium salad to the fast-food scene, where Canadians currently spend $24 billion per year. There’s a growing hunger for healthier choices, which is why big-calorie chains like McDonald’s have started adding salads to their menus, but Mr. Segal believes that quality will make Mad Radish stand out.
Clipper Round the World is an epic endurance event, a race that crosses 40,000 nautical miles and hits six continents. It’s unique in that there is no requirement to have ever stepped on a boat to crew one of the twelve 70-foot yachts. Simon DuBois (BCom’10) is on a mission to be the first Quebecer to complete a round-the-world yacht race. The last attempt by a Quebecer was when solo racer Gerry Roufs disappeared in 1997 while racing in the Vendée Globe.
Geoffroy Sauvé (BCom'10) built on his 2014 stint on Quebec’s La Voix music competition show to make music his full-time job and land a record contract. But he’s not exactly a newcomer: Geoffroy worked on the music scene’s business side for a decade, and still hires composers for advertising and film work.
According to a Financial Post article by Desautels professor Karl Moore and BCom undergrad Sara Avramovic, New York Times journalist Adam Bryant has spent the past eight years interviewing some of the world’s biggest-name CEOs for his column, Corner Office.
