The Macleans’s Power List ranks the 100 Canadians shaping the country each year.
The 2024 list features two alumni from Waterloo Engineering who have been recognized for their outstanding and innovative work advancing the country’s leadership in education and tech.
Martin Basiri (MASc ’13, mechanical engineering) is well-known for his successful startup ApplyBoard which he co-founded in Kitchener, Ontario in 2015. His new venture Passage continues Basiri’s work in democratizing education by facilitating opportunities for talent in the developing world to pursue studies in high-demand fields like STEM and health care in Canada.
John Baker (BASc ’00, systems design engineering) founded D2L (Desire2Learn), an online education platform, from his University dorm in 1999. Despite the return of in-person classes, D2L has grown from an online hub for university courses to a platform that also facilitates continuing education and workplace training modules.