Winter 2021

Monday, January 18, 2021

Tech industry thought leader turned diversity ally

by ROBIN MORDEN

Facebook’s Rico Mariani (BMath ’88) is taking action on diversity and equity—and he hopes others will follow his example. 

A recent gift from Waterloo alumnus Rico Mariani is creating a new scholarship for Black and Indigenous students in the Cheriton School of Computer Science. The gift extends Mariani’s commitment to diversity and equity. In 2015, he created similar scholarships to support female students in computer science.

Monday, January 18, 2021

Coming full circle

by KRISTA HENRY

Only a few years ago, KC Leong leveraged the skills he acquired from his actuarial science courses to land a co-op position at a leading professional services firm. Now, as a vice president of the company, he recruits co-op students from his alma mater. 

KC Leong (BMath ’16) is modest about his six-year meteoric rise from co-op student to Vice President for Analytics at Aon, a professional services firm with a presence in 120 countries. “I’ve found that as long as you’re eager to contribute, there’s always an opportunity to advance at Aon,” he says.