Alumni Office Hours: "Oh the Places You'll Go"- An Alumni Career Panel

5 individuals i hexagonal frames, 4 women, 1 man against a black background with the title "oh the places you'll go; an envbus career panel", alumni office hours

Curious where a UWaterloo Environment degree can take you? Join 5 Environment and Business alumni to learn about their different career journeys, from law and investment to energy and sustainable agriculture. Margaret Wu, Rada Medic, Micheal McCubbin, Kausar Ashraf, and Christine Schmalz tell it all about the places their degrees have taken them, and you don't want to miss it.

All students from the Faculty of Environment are invited to attend this event.

Spots are limited, register today!

Our Panelists

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Margaret Wu, Lead Investor at Georgian

Margaret Wu is a Lead Investor at Georgian, a growth equity fund investing in B2B software companies leveraging applied machine learning and artificial intelligence. In her role, she is involved in deal selection, due diligence, post investment support and board governance. Prior to joining Georgian, Margaret was a Senior Product Manager at Amazon and previous to this, she co-founded a biotech company called Uma Bioseed and served as the Chief Operating Officer at OneSpout.com. Margaret completed a double degree in Environment and Business and Chemistry with an Economics Minor at the University of Waterloo in 2007. She also earned an MBA at Cornell Johnston Graduate School of Management in 2015.

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Kausar Ashraf, Senior Manager, Energy Transition at Power Advisory LLC

Kausar Ashraf is a Toronto-based electricity sector professional with over 15 years of experience in the energy industry. She supports clients at Power Advisory as the Senior Manager, Energy Transition by helping them understand the impacts of growing electrification trends on energy systems. She has extensive experience bridging the technical capabilities of energy systems with policy and regulatory frameworks. As an electricity system planner Kausar has developed electricity plans across short, medium, and long-term time horizons. These plans include an understanding of transmission, conservation-demand management programs, distributed energy resources as well as traditional generation assets. Before joining Power Advisory, Kausar worked for the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) for over ten years. While at the IESO she held various management roles in System Planning, Operations, Conservation-Demand Management, Operations and Market Renewal. She has also held positions with Ontario Power Generation and Enbridge Gas as well as conducted research on behalf of think tanks including; the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Carleton Sustainable Energy Research Centre and the Centre for Trade Policy and Law. Kausar holds a Bachelor of Environment and Business and a Masters in Global Governance from the University of Waterloo.

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Christine Schmalz, Executive Director, Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust

Christine Schmalz is the Executive Director, Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust, a non-profit dedicated to helping farmers implement sustainable agricultural practices to improve productivity, and to maintain areas of wildlife habitat on their farms. Christine has over 15 years of experience working with all levels of government and non-profit organizations on problems at the intersection of agriculture and the environment – including species at risk, water quality, and energy conservation issues, among others. Christine completed her Environment and Business degree at the University of Waterloo in 2007 and her MA, School of Public Policy and Administration with a specialization in Sustainable Energy and Engineering and Policy at Carleton University in 2012.

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Michael McCubbin, Principal at McCubbin McGarvey

Michael McCubbin is a 2007 graduate of the Environment & Business program, during which time he was also captain of the men’s varsity rugby team. He obtained his law degree from UBC in 2010 and was called to the British Columbia bar in 2011. He is a litigator who has appeared as counsel before all levels of court in BC, the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal, and numerous administrative boards and tribunals. After practicing in Vancouver for several years, he and his family now reside in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, where he is a principal with the firm McCubbin McGarvey.

Rada Medic, ESG Market Sector Lead, Avaanz

Rada Medic is a leading expert in the interdisciplinary field of ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) having worked on projects in Canada as well as Globally. Rada is currently the ESG Market Sector Lead at Avaanz Ltd., a human environment consulting firm specializing in socio-economics, environmental services, facilitation and engagement to advance community well-being. She helps clients alleviate risk and increase corporate performance through integrating ESG standards and best practices into strategy. Her scope of work spans over multiple sectors such as infrastructure, construction, energy, telecommunications, transportation (aviation, rail), agri-food, and retail. Many of Rada’s clients are in the infrastructure and construction sector, as such Rada has always been on the leading edge of health & safety. She is one of the few females to have her Construction Health & Safety Officer designation in Canada. Rada earned her BES in Environment an Business in 2007 at the University of Waterloo and her MSC in Strategic Environmental Assessment, ESG at McGill University in 2010.