Curious about what you can do with a BA? Wondering how you can stand out to employers? Don’t know what kind of career you want after graduating?
Join us as we bring you four alumni who will be sharing their first-hand experiences on finding their first jobs, figuring out what they wanted to do after graduation, and the things that you can do now to prepare for your future. Learn from Arts Alumni about Marketing Yourself with an Arts Degree!
The event will be a panel followed by breakout sessions where individual alumni can connect with students, share stories, and answer questions. Students can submit their resumes and the alumni speakers can review them and share their feedback and advice on how to stand out to employers. Alumni can share general resume tips during the panel and breakout groups. Students and alumni are encouraged to connect on LinkedIn to go over specific resume advice individually.
Meet your Alumni!
Adrienne Chau (BA '04, English)
Adrienne Chau is a Faculty of Arts alumni with an Honours Bachelors Degree in English Literature and a Post-Degree Diploma in Human Resources Management. Over the past 14 years, Adrienne has worked in HR for one of Canada's Best Managed Companies, Adastra Corporation, and has specialized in resume writing for many years, helping Consultants within the organization land new roles for their clients. She first started off as a Technical Recruitment Specialist, working as an in-house Recruiter and throughout her tenure, grew her career within Adastra Corporation taking on numerous roles from Resource Lead to Employee Programs Lead. Adrienne is now a Talent Acquisition Manager, managing a team of four Talent Acquisition Specialists and leading the company's employee benefits program and staff events. She is dedicated to her craft and finds opportunities within her current role to be creative and to have fun.
Ivanna Ramnath (BA ’12, Arts and Business)
Ivanna Ramnath currently works as a Senior Product Marketing Specialist for Mary Kay Global. In this role, Ivanna has many responsibilities including: promotional management, generating go-to market plans and quarterly product launch strategy, finalizing product positioning and managing product lifecycle with Brand and international partners, creating promotions and price products, keeping a pulse on industry trends, competitive product analysis, and quarterly performance reporting.
Throughout her career, Ivanna has had many professional roles. During her undergraduate degree in the Arts and Business program, Ivanna worked as a Research Assistant, Technical Writing Consultant, Copywriter, and Communications Coordinator. After graduating, Ivanna got hired in the role of Technical Editor working for the University of Waterloo.
Ivanna also has extensive marketing experience gained through her role as Online Merchandising Coordinator at Indigo, her role as Digital Marketing Manager at Microsoft, and the role she currently has at Mary Kay Global.
Kevin Royal (BA '07, Political Science)
Kevin Royal is the Head of Foodservice for Kraft Heinz, reporting to the President of the Canada Zone. In this role, Kevin has full responsibility for the Canadian Foodservice business including Sales, Marketing, Service Operations and Finance. Previously at Kraft Heinz Canada, he was Head of Sales Strategy and Insights, leading Category Management, Analytics and Data Science, Shopper Marketing and Sales Strategy for both the Retail and Foodservice businesses. Kevin first began his career with Maple Leaf Foods in Sales and Marketing roles, before living abroad in South Korea for 4 years, working in the Chairman’s Office for Samsung in Corporate Strategy, and supporting the global roll-out of Samsung’s services business (Samsung Pay, Bixby, etc.).
Kevin holds an Honours BA from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from London Business School, and lives in Innisfil, Ontario, with his wife Andrea.
Diana Wright (BA, '09, Economics)
As Associate Vice President, TD Securities, Change Delivery, Diana Wright leads complex change initiatives that impact a broad range of TD's operational imperatives. Diana joined TD Securities in 2007 out of the University of Waterloo as a Co-op and joined full-time after successful completion of her degree.
In her current role, Diana uses her vast experience from Capital Markets Operations to Risk Management to shape and drive solutions that focus on scaling business and creating efficient regulatory and cost structures. Diana values a focused, cross-functional, and creative team environment. She embraces diverse viewpoints and solutions to optimize outputs for clients, colleagues, and shareholders.