David B. McNab (BCom), having successfully patented a solution for measuring cross-sales, product substitution, incremental sales and retention in multiproduct companies (“An age old problem; ask your banker,” he says), has joined IBM as a Senior Managing Strategy Consultant in their Business Analytics and Optimization practice in Toronto. Married, with two cats, no kids, Dave gets his kicks from art (“Wife Karen is an artist; Google her,” he suggests), blogging, playing with his guitar collection, and enjoying rock and roll and the blues.
Dave adds, "Anyone into 21st century analytics is welcome to ping me on LinkedIn. My work helps clients integrate their business deeper into customer, consumer and supply chain relationships and optimize decisions through analytics to increase revenue and margins. Cool stuff like monitoring brand on the web in real time, predicting micro-weather to optimize wind energy supply, advisory decision engines and the like. Sound interesting? IT IS!!!
Look out for a future where knowledge is ubiquitous and asking the right question is the where the value lies. Knowledge is on the way out... philosophers are on the way in. THINK is still a great slogan."
Alumni Notes
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Douglas George (MBA) was named Canada’s Ambassador to the State of Kuwait by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in July. He joined the department in 1982 and has had a varied career there, including stints in the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as Director of the Softwood Lumber Task Force, Director of the Intellectual Property, Information and Technology Trade Policy Division, and Director of the Tariffs and Goods Market Access Division. His previous foreign postings were to Jamaica, Belgium, and Switzerland.
Published in: Winter 2012
Mary Wilson Trider, BCom, has been elected as a Fellow of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario. President and CEO of Almonte General Hospital since 2010, Mary is now also President & CEO of Carleton Place and District Memorial Hospital. Classmate Dean McCann, EVP, Finance & CFO of Canadian Tire Corporation, was also elected as a Fellow. The BComâ82 class was well represented at the November award dinner: from left, Dean McCann, FCPA; Mary Trider, FCPA; Bill Blair, CPA; Carol Devenny, FCPA; Grant McDonald, FCPA; Ian Ray, CPA; and Linda (Abbott) Ray.
Published in: Winter 2017
On Tuesday, September 10, Men’s Hockey alumni, players, coaches and friends gathered for the first annual Paul Stothart Memorial Golf Tournament. The event supports the Gaels’ Men’s Hockey program and honours Paul Stothart (MBA’82, BSc’80), who passed away in 2012. Paul was a member of the 1981 Championship team that captured the OUA title and his record as the Gaels’ all-time leading scorer still stands. He played for Team Canada in 1983.
Members of the 1981 team came out to remember Paul, reminisce with former teammates and coaches, and golf at Deer Creek Golf Course in Ajax, Ont. The tournament and reunion brought together 144 members of the Men’s Hockey community, and funds raised will support the Men’s Hockey booster club. Taylor Clements, a 2nd year player from Toronto, was the first recipient of the Paul Stothart Memorial Award for athletic excellence and academic achievement by a varsity men’s hockey player.
Published in: Winter 2014
Sheila (Nikki) Croft, B’Com, died in October 2016 in Calgary, aged 57. Her last role was Co-director of Returning to Spirit, a Winnipeg-based organization that runs Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal reconciliation workshops. She is survived by her husband Ken Wawro; daughter Mahni Bruce; mother Elizabeth (Bastedo) Croft, ArtsSci’54; sister Karen Caskey, BCom’78; and her extended family.
Published in: Winter 2017
Carol Devenny (BCom) has been appointed Office Managing Partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Ottawa practice. Over the past 30 years of her career with PwC, Carol has played a leading role in providing audit and assurance services to many clients. She has given back to the community by serving on several high-profile boards. As part of her new role, she is focused on increasing market awareness of PwC’s vibrant local office, and its thriving practices in the federal government and private sectors.
Published in: Winter 2013
Carol Devenny (BCom) was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in July. The Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA) designation is the highest that the Institute confers in recognition of career achievements and leadership contributions to the community and the profession. Carol leads the audit practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Ottawa where she lives with her husband Grant McDonald (BCom’82), Tax Business Unit Leader, East, for KPMG LLP, and son Braden (17).
Published in: Summer 2009
Classmates Carol Devenny and Grant McDonald (both BCom) recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with a visit to Ireland. One highlight was a stop at the “other” Queen’s University in Northern Ireland, situated “on a beautiful campus in central Belfast, much like its sister university in central Kingston.” Irish and Scottish Gaelic being so different, “unfortunately, no one there knew what an Oil Thigh was,” they say. They’re back to enjoying life in Ottawa with their son Braden. Carol is a partner and leader of the audit practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Grant is partnerin-charge of the tax practice at KPMG.
Published in: Winter 2009
Bill Morris, BCom, received the 2017 Inclusion Vanguard Award from Women’s Executive Network. WXN honoured Bill, the President of Accenture, for leading the company’s efforts to reach gender parity in Canada by 2025. Under Bill’s leadership, Accenture has been named one of Canada’s top employers and is ranked second on Pride at Work, Canada’s LGBT workplace inclusion index.
Published in: Winter 2018
Michael Nowlan (BCom) in January was appointed CEO of Primus Telecommunications Canada, Canada’s largest alternative telecommunications service provider. Previously, he led Marketwired as its President and CEO for 12 years, transforming it from a traditional newswire service in a slow-growth industry to a high-growth social-media leader. He continues to reside in Toronto, where Primus is based.
Published in: Summer 2014