SPEAKERS 2019
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
Christine is passionate about identifying and activating talent, unlocking employee potential and helping shape what it means to be truly effective and productive at work. Her experience canvases full cycle recruitment, executive search, leadership consulting, career transition consulting, corporate learning & development, change management and corporate management. Armed with a background in law and medical sciences, and currently undertaking a Masters in Organizational Psychology, you can often find her locked into some form of a personal development book or course, dreaming and drafting up a new performance culture initiative, or out and about in Stanley Park, Vancouver.
Christine Deacon
Head of People & Culture, Plastic Bank
Kareem Sheikh
Head of Communications, Plastic Bank
Kareem is a writer and designer from Edmonton. Before beginning his career in communications, he worked as a music journalist in Vancouver, interviewing hip-hop's rising stars and penning editorials for thousands of readers. As an animal lover, nature enthusiast, and tech geek, Kareem was understandably drawn to the sustainability sector, where he now applies his passion for storytelling towards the conservation of our planet and the empowerment of vulnerable communities around the world. When he's not at work, he attempts to write screenplays and record his own music, with little success. He also holds a degree in finance for some reason.
Joti is an HR professional with over 7 years of experience in Vancouver’s tech space. Currently she is a part of the Human Resources team at Samsung R&D Vancouver. In her role, she looks after a full spectrum of HR responsibilities which includes managing talent acquisition, university relations, and culture branding. Joti holds an undergraduate degree in Human Resources Management from BCIT and is currently working towards her CPHR designation.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Joti Dhaliwal
Senior Specialist, HR & Talent, Samsung
OPERATIONS & LOGISTICS
Tom Rattray is the Richmond (YVR South) Base Manager at Harbour Air. Since graduating in 2013, Tom has amassed many experiences while working in multiple aspects of transportation. While completing his BCom, Tom worked as a Dockhand at Harbour Air, in early 2018 he rejoined Harbour Air in his current role. In his first year, Tom has been involved in many exciting projects including the revamp of Harbour Air's freight services. Tom serves on the BCIT Airport Operations Program advisory board and is involved in their practicum program.
Tom Rattray
Base Manager, Harbour Air
REAL ESTATE
Cindy MacMillan is Director of Asset Management at Anthem Properties and is responsible for the performance of Anthem’s more “unique” income-producing retail, office and mixed-use properties commonly referred to as their “cats and dogs” portfolio. She has worked at Anthem for more than a decade, first as a corporate accountant, before shifting gears in 2007 to pursue leasing and asset management. Cindy has been instrumental in creating value within Anthem’s IPP portfolio which is the foundation for its growth in other asset classes. In her downtime you can find Cindy taking on a new fitness class, exploring north shore trails or indulging in amateur foodie practices at one of Vancouver’s many great restaurants and lounges.
Cindy MacMillan
Director of Asset Management, Anthem Properties
MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
Grace Jin
Management Consultant, KPMG
Grace specialized in Operations and Logistics with a concentration in Sustainability. In her time at Sauder, Grace was a COMM 101 TA, COMM 202 TA, JDC West debater, and director of the UBC Strategy Consulting Initiative. A big part of her undergrad experience was competing in case competitions at the local, national, and international levels, winning NSCC in 2017 and placing 2nd at the Champion’s Trophy Case Competition in 2018. Her past work experience includes corporate development at Sandstorm Gold Ltd, finance and strategy at Best Buy Canada, and management consulting at KPMG. She will be continuing her career in management consulting with Deloitte in August after traveling Asia and taking part in SSE Kenya.
Alex Lee,
Business Analyst, 1QBit
Alex graduated in May 2018 from the BTM program from the UBC Sauder School of Business. During his senior year, he co-founded an online voting application using blockchain technology called, HyperVote. HyperVote is currently being used to conduct professional associations' votes, where ballots have been cast in over 15 countries. Alex works full time as a Business Analyst at 1QBit, a Quantum Computing software company building products and algorithms for the finance, advanced materials, and healthcare industries. While at UBC, Alex was the co-president of BizTech and highly involved with the CUS. Alex’s greatest accomplishment is developing the highest rated Owen Wilson app on the Google Play Store.
TECH PANEL
Hussein Hallak
CEO and Founder
Serial entrepreneur. Mentor and trainer for thousands of entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. Strategic advisor for several successfully funded tech and blockchain startups, and leading tech conferences.
CEO and Founder of Next Decentrum, funded by leading tech accelerator Victory Square Technologies, and creates effortless, automated, and adaptive education for emerging technologies.
Creator of multiple blockchain and tech education programs including Intro to Blockchain (intro.nextdecentrum.com) and the Lean Entrepreneur Acceleration Program (leap.launchacademy.ca), and currently working on the upcoming book "Intro to Blockchain.” Evangelist at Launch Academy, one of North America’s leading tech incubators with over 600 tech startups incubated and over $150 Million raised
Jose Hernandez
VP of Business Development
Jose Hernandez is the VP of Business Development at TTT Studios, an award winning Digital Innovation Studio that helps businesses re-shape their industries through technology. Jose has extensive experience in product creation and business development, he is responsible TTT’s strategic growth initiatives, including the new products lab. Jose holds both an MBA from UBC and a Law Degree from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.
Nathaniel Payne
Lecturer/Researcher, SFU and UBC
A business and technology leader, machine learning, artificial intelligence & information systems researcher, system architect, statistician, and big data engineer with 15 years of experience, Nathaniel is excited to be engaging in Me Inc.’s tech panel. Nathaniel is a Lecturer at SFU, and Doctorate Researcher at the University of British Columbia focusing on machine classification at scale which would include text classification, machine vision, finance, marketing, transportation & unmanned systems. This work supports the singular goal of creating intelligent machines & agents that can act autonomously.
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ACCOUNTING PANEL
David is a Senior Associate in Deloitte’s Financial Advisory group, with a focus on providing merger and acquisition services to clients for both buy-side and sell-side transactions. Prior to this, David was in Deloitte’s audit practice for 3 years, where he led audit engagements for companies in industries such as technology, real estate, and retail.
David was the 2018 valedictorian of CPA British Columbia and placed on the National Honour Roll as one of the top CFE writers in Canada. David studied at SFU, UBC, and most recently USask for his Master of Professional Accounting.
David Yuen
Senior Associate, Deloitte
Fred is a senior tax accountant at BDO, providing tax compliance, consulting and advisory services to domestic and international groups. Graduating from UBC Sauder in 2016, Fred remains engaged with the campus community through his involvement in BDO’s recruitment efforts, as well as JDC West. He is also a Communications Director with CPABC’s Vancouver Chapter, and a CPABC Member Ambassador. During his time at UBC, Fred was an engaged student and held numerous responsibilities with the CUS, the AMS, the UGO, and various university clubs.
Frederick Wong
Senior Tax Accountant, BDO
Jason is a manager at PwC, specializing in International Tax. He provides structuring and financing advice to private and public multinational companies headquartered around the world. He is also one of the recruiting leads for PwC's tax rotational CPA program.
Jason Yip
Manager Tax Services, PwC
Helena Lee currently works as a Staff Accountant in Assurance at Ernst and Young and is part of the core recruitment team. She graduated from Sauder School of Business in May 2018 with an Accounting specialization. She spent a semester studying abroad in Singapore at NUS, and travelled Europe for 3 months before starting full time. During her time at UBC, she worked for Futureshop and Tesla, and was involved in eProjects, the Me Inc. Conference, as well as UBC TACs. Helena hopes to help provide insight into all the opportunities that are available to CPAs.
Helena Lee
Staff Accountant, EY
Casey Chung
Staff Accountant, KPMG
Casey is excited to participate in Me Inc. 2019 as a panelist to share his experiences with you! He first attended the event in his second year at Sauder and was inspired by learning about the opportunities available ahead! Casey graduated from the Sauder School of Business with a double specialization in Accounting and Real Estate. At UBC, he participated in JDC West, Trek China, the Australian Business Case Competition, and did an international exchange in Vienna.
Casey is currently a Staff Accountant at KPMG Enterprise in Vancouver, working mainly with private companies in Vancouver. He also recently passed his CPA exam. In his spare time he enjoys cycling, playing sports, performing music, and traveling.