Taking Root

John McIntyre, BCom, received the Queen’s University Alumni Association’s (QUAA) Alumni Humanitarian Award on April 8 in recognition of his work with Aboriginal youth and various charities. The award is given to a Queen’s alumnus/alumna for distinguished work or volunteer service that has made a difference to the well-being of others. (See p. 6 of the summer 2016 issue to read more about John’s philanthropy.)

Gord Nixon, BCom, LLD’03, received the QUAA Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honour bestowed by the Alumni Association. The Chair of the Queen’s Initiative Campaign and former Royal Bank of Canada CEO was recognized for his impressive career and dedication to Queen’s.

Grant Lawrence, BCom, recently took the helm of VA Angels Kelowna, an accredited investors group, which, since 2003, has been one of Canada’s most active such enterprises. The group offers investors a variety of ways to connect with entrepreneurs: as investors, mentors, and community and networking supporters. More details

Bruce Sellery, BCom, has launched a new radio show, Moolala: Money Made Simple, on SiriusXM. This is in addition to his regular appearances across Canada as the personal finance expert for Cityline and CBC Radio. He is also leading the design of a new financial-literacy program for Carrot Rewards, an app that uses loyalty points to nudge users to improve their financial well-being.

Dorrie (Block) Manu, BCom, has recently moved with her son to PEI to be closer to family. While continuing her work as Associate Director of Global Missions, Power to Change – Students, she will be spending more time at the family’s B&B, Victoria Inn.

Monica Dingle, BCom, received the 2017 QUAA Marsha Lampman Branch Volunteer Award in recognition of her leadership role in reviving the Montréal branch and serving as its president for six years. One of her proudest accomplishments was relaunching the John Stirling Montréal Medal in 2013 that honours outstanding alumni in the community.

Ethan Pancer, BCom, MSc’08, PhD’13, an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Sobey School of Business, has been named as one of the world’s top 40 business professors under 40 by Poets & Quants. In this academic year, he received two university-wide teaching awards (undergraduate and MBA), coached three MBA teams to three national business championships, and published one of Ivey Publishing’s best-selling cases.

Neeraja Ramjee, MBA, is producing and appearing in the play Broken Images at Toronto’s Red Sandcastle Theatre from August 11 to 20. Neeraja is a Principal (Knowledge Expert) at Boston Consulting Group, based in New York City, currently working in Toronto. She describes the play as a psychological thriller that rips the mask off a celebrity and focuses on the conflicts and desire for fame within us all.

Robin (Greschner) Lee, BCom’08, AMBA, and husband Paul in August 2016 welcomed Grace Lee, a future Queen’s grad, Robin hopes, having already shown off the campus to Grace during a visit to Kingston.  

James Austen, MBA, and his wife Jennifer welcomed Niamh Elizabeth Austen in March. 

Rajesh Lakshmanan, MBA, and his wife Pradeepa welcomed Deeraj, a brother for their four-year-old daughter Deeksha, in November 2016. The family continues to reside in Toronto. 

Tanvi (Jain) Manser, MIB, and Armin Manser, met in the MIB program during Armin’s semester as an international exchange student. Several MIB alumni and exchange classmates traveled to India from around the world to celebrate the couple’s wedding in November 2016. 

Johnny Chen and Wenting Gao, both MIB, welcomed their daughter Scarlett in the fall of 2016. Chen and Gao were married in Goodes Hall in April 2016.

Michelle Chow, EMBA, and husband Jason proudly announce the March birth of their daughter Livia Yael Chow. 

Luxmi Jeyavel, MBA, and her husband Mano welcomed a baby boy in December 2016.

Nadiya Abbas, MIB, married Abdul Mughees in March in ceremonies that took place in Islamabad and Lahore, Pakistan. 

Elias Beetz, Alex Herrera and Piero Ramos were hosted by fellow MIB classmate Jordan Cattaruzza at a reunion in Italy; they took in a EURO16 match between Italy and Spain in Milano.

Hema Dhamodaran, MIB, and Arvindan Sridharan were married in India on May 18.

Erica Hamel and Joshua Hamilton, both MBA, got engaged in February in the mountains of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Their wedding is planned for September 2017 at a family cottage in Muskoka, Ont.

Erik Jensen, MMA, BSc’99, MSc’04, PhD’13, is celebrating his one-year anniversary as an analytics consultant at the Toronto office of Pricing Solutions, a global pricing-strategy and -research consulting firm. In April, he presented some innovative modeling work from a recent project in the food-service industry at the INFORMS Business Analytics conference in Las Vegas.

Abhishek Mangipudi, MBA, and his wife Swathi are happy to announce the arrival of their daughter Mihira in January. 

Raashee (Raina) Reddy, MBA, and Dinesh Reddy were married in March at Neemrana Fort-Palace in Rajasthan, India.

Heather (McDonald) Geiger, BCom, was named 2017 Emerging Training Leader by Training Magazine, after being nominated by her INSEAD business partners for stellar leadership of the INSEAD-Accenture Online Strategy Certificate Programme.This programme had earned the Gold Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Business Partner Award in 2016. Heather celebrates 25 years with Accenture in June.