Karly Campbell

After completing my HBA, I joined Info-Tech Research Group as a Consulting Analyst, writing research and advising clients on mobile and consumer technology. I was eager to put the business and strategy skills that I learned at Ivey to use and quickly moved into a strategy role as Chief of Staff. In this role, I had the opportunity to gain incredible strategic experience working directly for the C-Suite on cross-departmental projects that had an impact on the entire firm like strategic planning, leadership development, and employee engagement. The variety of work, talented colleagues, and excitement of working for a smaller organization kept me at Info-Tech for five years; however, I began to wonder if my HBA would be my last educational pursuit. I had always been interested in entrepreneurship, but never had the confidence to pursue something on my own. I decided to go back to do the Accelerated MBA to flex my entrepreneurial skills while also honing my broader leadership and business skills. 

The Accelerated MBA experience has been completely unlike what I was expecting. Upon returning to Ivey, I was able to reconnect with Matt Boswick and Tanya Moryoussef, former HBA classmates of mine. Tanya and Matt were working on a business together, North Strong Collective, a patriotic apparel company that helps high performance athletes close the funding gaps they face, donating 25% of proceeds to athletes. Being an athlete myself, I was inspired by Matt and Tanya's work and decided to join them on their entrepreneurial journey through the New Venture Project component of the AMBA program. I have also joined them full-time at the Western Accelerator — Western University’s start-up incubator. Being a social enterprise entrepreneur is terrifying, inspiring, exhausting, and empowering — but the opportunity to try entrepreneurship in an environment full of supportive mentors, resources, and colleagues has been a once in a lifetime experience.