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Omar Khalid, MIB, has joined Rothmans Benson & Hedges, a subsidiary of Philip Morris International, as a business-development representative. Omar says this is his “effort to be part of the ‘smoke free future’ that PMI aims to achieve.”

Neelam Sian, MMIE, was promoted to director of strategy and transformation in the technology and operations group at RBC. Neelam had been senior manager of investor relations and recently celebrated her sixth anniversary with the bank.

Beth (Corbett) Greene, EMBAA, was among the recipients of the 2020 Women in Rail Awards presented by Railway Age last fall. Beth works at Thales Canada, where she is communications manager for Thales’ Urban Rail Signalling line worldwide. Education was among the award criteria, Beth says, “so I think it is very likely that the EMBA from Cornell and Queen’s played a part in my receiving this award.”

Christine Chen, BCom, and Emily Liu, BCom, have launched Wandercolors, a travel-art shop. “As friends who went on exchange together during university, we wish to enable all travel lovers to experience the feelings of nostalgia and delight tied to the special places in their lives,” Christine writes. Every print is an original digital painting. Christine says alumni can shop art prints and phone cases at wandercolors.com, and stay updated on Instagram @wandercolorsart. Use the exclusive code QUEENS for 20 per cent off unframed prints, Christine says.

Jennifer Cabral Poejo, AMBA, has been working as the senior manager of corporate social responsibility at Manulife for over a year. Jennifer says the Certificate in Social Impact she earned at Smith “opened my eyes to a world of possibility, where giving back to the community has become my purpose.” In her spare time, Jennifer sits on non-profit committees for various women’s initiatives, such as Dress for Success and Women in Governance. She is also on the executive board of the Global Women’s Alliance.

Connie Lo, BCom, tells us her all-natural skin-care company, Three Ships, which was started in her apartment kitchen, can now be found in over 500 Target stores across the U.S. and on Target.com. “This is a launch we’ve been working on since 2019, and it’s incredible to see all our hard work come to life,” she writes.

Jessica Lui, BCom, was the recipient of the Vision Builder Award in the Universal Women’s Network’s 2020 Women of Inspiration Awards, announced in November. A management consultant at Deloitte, Jessica is also founder and CEO of GPP, a social enterprise dedicated to at-risk young adults pursuing STEM careers, recognized at President Obama’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

Joze Piranian, MIB, says that after spending most of his life avoiding speaking due to a debilitating stutter, he is now a TEDx speaker and a standup comedian. Joze has performed in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. In 2017, he was the recipient of the Inspirational Speaker of the Year award at Speaker Slam. More recently, Joze was the keynote speaker on diversity and inclusion at the HR Leaders Summit in Calgary and Toronto. He also spoke on resilience at the PRMIA Canadian Risk Forum in Montreal and the Hollywood Innovation and Technology Summit in L.A.

Michael Zhang, BCom, has been promoted to associate partner at IBM. Michael advises Fortune 500 companies on enterprise data strategy, artificial intelligence and machine learning, focusing on clients in the utilities, telecom, and media and entertainment industries. Michael lives in the Boston area.

Jason Tasse, EMBA, was named president of Lee Valley Tools in January. Jason retains his previous title of chief operating officer. He is a 25-year employee of the hardware and garden retailer and has been involved in a number of company initiatives, including leading systems implementations, strategic planning and design of Lee Valley Tools’ distribution centre.

Ben Hertzman, BCom, has been appointed president of Progress Luv2Pak, a provider of premium retail and gift packaging. Ben has held a variety of roles with the business, ranging from summer intern to chief operating officer. He says he is proud that since the start of the pandemic Progress has distributed to hospitals, long-term care homes and businesses nearly 50 million medical masks under its new FiltroLife line.

Louis Tsilivis, BCom, joined the mayor of Toronto’s office as director of budget and finance in April 2020, after six years in the commercial litigation department of the Bay Street law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt. He joined the mayor’s office just a week after Toronto declared a state of emergency due to COVID-19. He is tasked with managing the city’s 2021 budget through the pandemic, which, he notes, “has been described by the Toronto Star as the most challenging in modern Toronto’s history because COVID-19 impacts are costing the city $65 million a week.”

Leslie Dunning, EMBA, has been elected to the board of directors of Parachute, Canada’s national injury-prevention organization.

Sana (Kazani) Bhaidani, BCom, and her husband, Shaheer, are overjoyed to share the news that baby Alyna joined their family on April 9, 2020. Big sister Nayla is already in love. They live in Markham, Ont., where Sana is a manager of strategic business partnering at Aviva Insurance and Shaheer is vice-president at SNZ Trading Inc.

Eric Simmons, BCom, was promoted to partner at EY Toronto. Eric provides accounting and assurance services to multinational clients in energy and mining. He previously spent time with EY’s professional practice group. He lives in Toronto with his wife, Danielle, and their daughter, Amelia.

Steven Nelson, BCom, was promoted to partner at EY Halifax, where he provides accounting and assurance services to public and private clients. Steven and his wife, Rebecca, live in Halifax with their daughters, Zoe and Grace.

Sanjiv Kalevar, BCom, has joined OpenView Venture Partners, an expansion-stage venture-capital firm, as its newest partner, after eight years with Battery Ventures. Sanjiv is working remotely from his home in Los Angeles for the remainder of the pandemic.

Jennifer Lovrics, BCom, and Connor Page, BCom, welcomed a second baby boy to their family. Carter was born on May 20, 2020 weighing 8 lb 4 oz. Big brother Finnigan is very proud! Carter is a smiley, loveable little guy.

Faizal Hasham, EMBA, tells us that he has been living overseas since 2016 with his wife, Safeena, and their three boys: Khaleem (13), Zahaan (11) and Nashaan (2). Faizal is the founder and general manager of AQM, an air-quality consulting firm and lifestyle-product distributor, representing such brands as Plume Labs (France), Flare Audio (U.K.), Haspro (Poland) and Roybi Robot (U.S). He is currently working on an air-quality monitoring plan for Expo 2020 that takes place in Dubai this October.

Jennifer (Scott) Campbell, BCom, recently published Talking Change: Must-Have Conversations for Successful Leaders. The book is based on Jen’s many years’ experience in leading change “from the boardroom to the plant floor” and made Amazon’s bestseller ranks. Jen says that in her book, “I demystify the world of change management and outline the pivotal conversations that create successful change.” Jen runs Action Impact Movement, a coaching and consulting firm in British Columbia. Visit actionimpactmovement.com for more information.

Andrew Cherwenka, BCom, has joined Vega as head of ecommerce. Andrew says Vega is “a premium, award-winning brand at the forefront of the plant-based, whole-food revolution.” He lives in Vancouver, with his wife, Afra, and their two young boys, Wolfgang and Volker. As a father of a 30-month-old and six-month-old, Andrew proudly says he rivals John Waters, BCom’93, and Ron Tite, PHE’93, for the “Latest-out-of-the-dad-gate award.”

Kristi Herold, BCom’93, is the founder of Sport & Social Group Inc. Since 1996, more than a million participants have joined one of her sport leagues for adults, where the focus is on being healthy and having fun. “Success to me means leaving a legacy that has positively impacted millions of people’s physical and mental health,” she says.

Gord Card, MBA, retired in February 2020 from the Bank of Montreal. There, he was senior vice-president and head of Ontario and Atlantic Canada in the corporate finance division. Gord and his wife plan to spend more time at their cottage in Muskoka, Ont. They also intend to travel frequently when it is safe to do so. He says he would love to hear from any classmates. He can be reached at gordonjcard@gmail.com

Mark Green, BCom, took a year off in 2018-2019 to travel with his wife, An Chi, in Asia and the Middle East. “Days featuring spontaneity and potential for adventure are the way to go from now on,” he writes, sharing that he is retiring from his position as a financial management adviser at Transport Canada in May.

Elliott Jacobson, MBA, has been elected national chair of the Canadian Liver Foundation. He had served as treasurer and vice-chair since 2011.

Alan Clark, BCom, retired to Bracebridge, Ont. in 2006 and recently told us that in 2015 he bought a chalet in the village of Thornbury in the municipality of The Blue Mountains. During his time at Queen’s, Alan was a member of the swim team. He would like to reconnect with any 1963 swim team members. Email him at alclark@live.ca