Alumni Stories

Build Greater Self-Awareness To Improve Your Leadership

Dimitry Shlyonsky | Ivey Executive Program

Dimitry Shlyonsky, Senior Director, PMO at Crossfuze shares his experience in the Ivey Executive Program and how he’s been able to take concepts from the classroom back to his workplace, altering his leadership approach to better support his team and be more effective in his role.

• Leadership
• Performance Management

Influence and motivate your team

Valery Brennan | Ivey Leadership Program

Valery Brennan, Registrar of Canadian Citizenship and Director of Citizenship Program Delivery at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, describes how the Ivey Leadership Program allowed her to understand her leadership style so that she could determine how to effectively influence and motivate her team.

• Communication
• Innovation
• Operations
• Leadership
• Strategy
• Performance Management

Solve your leadership challenge with executive coaching

Nick Spence | Ivey Leadership Program

Nick Spence, Regional Manager, Movati Athletic, details his experience in the Ivey Leadership Program and how the support of an executive coach helped him solve his most pressing leadership challenge.

• Communication
• Innovation
• Leadership
• Coaching

Shift your thinking with executive coaching

Emily Knight | Ivey Leadership Program

Emily Knight, Director, MS Knowledge Network, details her experience in the Ivey Leadership Program and how the support of an executive coach helped her solve her most pressing leadership challenge.

• Communication
• Innovation
• Leadership
• Strategy
• Coaching

Lead change and transform your future

Kunle Tauhid | Ivey Leadership Program

Kunle Tauhid, Vice President, Financing & Consulting at Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), explains how the Ivey Leadership Program's applicable tools helped him prepare his team – and organization – for a constantly changing business environment.

• Communication
• Innovation
• Leadership
• Strategy
• Coaching

Embracing Lifelong Learning in the Canadian Municipal Sector

Katrina Furlanetto, Alana Del Greco, and Amy Grose | Ivey Municipal Leadership Program

Explore the value of professional development and lifelong learning, drawing from the experiences and testimonials of three leaders who took the Ivey Municipal Leadership Program.

• Leadership
• Not-for-Profit
• Public Sector
• Strategy

Looking back at CPCIS: One year later

Maria Nsouli | Canadian Private Capital Investment School

Maria Nsouli, Vice President, Impact Investment Fund at BMO, shares her thoughts on CPCIS and how her career trajectory has changed since completing the program:

• Finance
• Leadership
• Innovation
• Private Capital

Discover your strengths and weaknesses as a leader

Justine Zavitz | Ivey Leadership Program

Justine Zavitz, Vice President & Advisor at Zavitz Insurance and Wealth, shares how the Ivey Leadership Program helped her deeply understand her strengths and weaknesses as a leader, and provided her with an actionable plan to improve – and stay accountable – with the help of post-program coaching.

• Communication
• Operations
• Leadership
• Performance Management

Shift your leadership perspective

Catriona Le May Doan | CommunityShift

Catriona Le May Doan, two-time Olympic gold medalist and President & CEO of Sport Calgary, was looking to advance her leadership skills in the not-for-profit sector. In this interview, Catriona shares how The Ivey Academy's CommunityShift™ program shifted her leadership perspective to allow her to become more of a team-focused leader.

• Not-for-Profit
• Leadership
• Communication

Deepen your understanding of executive behaviour

David Graham | Ivey LIFT Advanced Coaching Certification Program

David Graham, Chief Exploration Officer & Founder of EDGE3, explains how The Ivey Academy's LIFT Advanced Coaching Certification Program deepened his understanding of both executive behaviour and the ever-changing contemporary business landscape.

• Coaching
• Leader Character
• Communication

Taking executive coaching to the next level

Catharine Larkin | Ivey LIFT Advanced Coaching Certification Program

Catharine Larkin shares how The Ivey Academy's LIFT Advanced Coaching Certification Program helped her stay relevant in a rapidly changing business environment while taking her leadership coaching practice to the next level

• Coaching
• Leadership
• Leader Character

Putting theory into practice

Tom Eaton | Ivey Collaborative Negotiation Program

Tom Eaton, Senior Director - Sales & Operations Planning at Metrie, talks about how The Ivey Academy's Collaborative Negotiations Program allowed him to learn and apply the concepts of high-level negotiation.

• Negotiations
• Strategy

Make the shift from managing to leading

Claude Arbez | Ivey Leadership Program

Claude Arbez, Director, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, details how the Ivey Leadership Program developed his leadership skills so he could confidently make the transition from managing to leading.

• Communication
• Leadership
• Performance Management
• Negotiations

Amplify your leadership impact

Darren Sprod | Ivey Leadership Program

Darren Sprod, CEO of Central Coast Football in Australia, discusses how the Ivey Leadership Program has given him applicable tools and strategies to immediately impact his organization and positively influence his own leadership.

• Communication
• Leadership
• Performance Management
• Negotiations

Expand your financial acumen

Mark Hubner | Finance for Non-Financial Professionals

Mark Hubner, VP, Brand & Product at Baffin, shares how The Ivey Academy's Finance for Non-Financial Professionals program helped him to fully understand the financial implications of strategic initiatives executed by his own organization.

• Finance
• Strategy

Extract meaning and understanding from numbers

Jessica Thiele | Finance for Non-Financial Professionals

Jessica Thiele, Director of Marketing at VL OMNI, explains how The Ivey Academy's Finance for Non-Financial Professionals program gave her the working knowledge to ask the important finance and accounting questions, and how to extract meaning and understanding from numbers.

• Finance
• Strategy

Handle any negotiation successfully

Dino Rinaldo | Ivey Collaborative Negotiation Program

Dino Rinaldo, Senior Advisor, Global Affairs Canada, describes how the Ivey Collaborative Negotiation Program helped him apply creative thinking and strategy to maximize value in negotiations.

• Negotiations
• Communication

Gain leadership self-awareness and initiate personal growth

Brian Aalbers | Ivey Executive Program

Brian Aalbers, Executive Vice President, People & Culture at Libro Credit Union, shares how the Ivey Executive Program's action learning and executive coaching helped him assess his strengths, gaps, and formulate the steps needed to realize his potential as an executive. 

• Leadership

Expand your strategic viewpoint

Rhonda Choja | Ivey Executive Program

Rhonda Choja, VP, Corporate and Advisory Services, at Libro Credit Union talks about how the Ivey Executive Program exposed her to new ways of thinking and helped her commit to continuous growth and learning as a leader.

• Leadership
• Strategy
• Finance
• Innovation

Challenge your status quo

Shawn Vording | Ivey Executive Program

Shawn Vording, Vice President, Sales at CARFAX Canada, discusses how the Ivey Executive Program (2019) pushed him to experience profound leadership realizations.

• Leadership
• Strategy
• Communication
• Finance
• Entrepreneurship
• Innovation

Discover a new kind of learning

Eddie Lopez | The Ivey Learning Experience

Eddie Lopez, barber, and owner of London, Ontario-based barber shop Elevated Barbers Inc., shares how The Ivey Academy’s teaching method exceeded his expectations and how he’s planning on implementing what he learned in his own business.

• Entrepreneurship
• Analytics
• Marketing

Building a valuable network

Cole Mason | Ivey Leadership Program

Cole Mason, VP of Strategy at Arcane, and past participant of the Ivey Leadership Program (ILP) discusses the benefits of learning from fellow program participants. Though two years have passed since Cole attended ILP, he remains in contact with many of his classmates.

• Communication
• Leadership

Leading with Confidence and Conviction 

Su Webster | Ivey Executive Program

As Director General in a major federal department, Su Webster is no stranger to complexity. Her team manages thousands of IT service requests across the entire Government of Canada, delivering large-scale solutions through triage, project management, and custom-built systems. Su came to the Ivey Executive Program hoping to build the confidence to speak with full authority in high-stakes rooms where her voice had too often been subdued. The experience helped her do just that—and more. 

• Leadership
• Leader Character
• Communication

A Leadership Reset for Rediscovering Her Strengths

Karrie Van Belle | Leading Digital Innovation and Change

After years of executive experience at top firms like BlackRock Canada and AGF Investments Inc. (AGF), Karrie Van Belle found herself at a professional crossroads. Through Ivey’s Leading Digital Innovation and Change program, Karrie gained not only fresh insights and practical tools—but also a renewed sense of confidence. Today, as she launches her own business, she credits her time at Ivey with helping her better articulate her value, expand her thinking beyond one industry, and step into entrepreneurship with purpose. 

• Digital Transformation
• Entrepreneurship
• Innovation

Developing Leadership Presence and Communicating with Confidence 

Matt Marcovitch | Ivey Leadership Program

After two decades at CIBC, Matt Marcovitch had built a strong career in data analytics and financial reporting. Yet when he joined the Ivey Leadership Program, it wasn’t technical mastery he sought—it was executive presence. For Matt, an introvert by nature, the program offered more than strategies for communication. It gave him the confidence to take up space, speak up with intention, and foster leadership growth.

• Communication
• Leadership

Building a Sharper Investment Voice

Yasmine Al-Hussein | Canadian Private Capital Investment School

As an Investment Associate with Yaletown Partners, Yasmine Al-Hussein spends her days evaluating high-tech startups and helping steer Alberta’s innovation economy forward. Working on the firm’s Accelerate Fund, she supports early-stage ventures through critical decisions on deal structure, strategy, and growth. Yasmine joined Ivey’s Canadian Private Capital Investment School with a clear goal: to grow her voice and sharpen her tools.

• Finance
• Leadership
• Private Capital
• Entrepreneurship
• Innovation
• Communication

Transform your coaching practice

Shakeel Bharmal | Ivey LIFT Advanced Coaching Certification Program

Shakeel Bharmal, founder and president of Ocean Blue Strategic Advisors, describes how Ivey's LIFT Advanced Coaching Certification Program supported his transformation as an executive coach and changed the course of his life and career.

• Coaching
• Leadership
• Leader Character