OIC 2009 Participants

 

Team Definitely
Jad Saab, Sarah Maksoud, Muhammad Azam
ThinkSM

Jad Saab

Jad Saab graduated from the University of British Columbia in Mechatronics Engineering. Throughout his time at UBC, Jad made sure to get involved in some of the many opportunities available. His activities have included volunteering in the Downtown Eastside through a UBC Learning Exchange program, playing intramural sports, making films with the UBC Film Society Productions Club, and participating in the mentoring program for engineers. He also held several positions with the UBC chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and completed an EWB Junior Fellowship which included a summer placement in Ghana with a partner organisation that works to improve the standard of living of rural poor through self and wage employment.  Through his work overseas he developed an interest in the relevance of an entrepreneurial skill-set to some of the challenges facing the world today. In his spare time, Jad enjoys playing music, watching live concerts and improvisational comedy and playing sports.

Sarah Maksoud

Sarah Maksoud is currently a 2nd year Public Affairs and Policy Management student with a specialization in International Studies and a Minor in economics, maintaining a 10.45 GPA. Sarah is of Lebanese and Brazilian decent, born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. She felt inclined towards SIFE as it allowed her to exercise both her diplomatic aspirations and her interest in the field of economics and public policy. Sarah is fluent in English and French, semi-fluent in Portugese and Spanish, and has basic competency in Arabic. Some of her interests and pursuits include learning additional languages, traveling, international politics, visual arts competitions, economics, and writing.

Muhammad Azam

Muhammad Azam is an Electrical Engineer and a graduate of Carleton University.  He is a well-rounded individual with varying interests from high-tech to philosophy, religion and psychology as well as the sciences with astronomy being a personal favorite. Having achieved success in a boot-strapped Web 1.0 tech venture for the equestrian market, he is currently pursuing additional opportunities in the entrepreneurship arena.  He is passionate about business and the satisfaction that entrepreneurial accomplishment brings.  Muhammad is an intellectual on many levels and surrounds himself with like-minded individuals as he strongly believes that success breeds success.

Team Yes
Milad Dakka, Gordon Cameron, Sameer Valiyani
ThinkSM

Milad Dakka

Milad Dakka is a 4th year student pursuing an Engineering Physics Major with Minors in Economics and Mathematics.  Milad is interested in entrepreneurship, diplomacy and fiber optics research.  He is currently balancing scientific research and business-oriented ambitions as he plans to use his recent breakthrough research to open a start-up.  His pursuits in entrepreneurship and community involvement led him naturally to join Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) – a student organization at Carleton University.  Milad was born in Montpellier, France and is of Syrian descent.  He grew up in both Montréal, Québec and Ottawa, Ontario and speaks fluent English, French, Arabic and Spanish.

Gordon Cameron

Gordon Cameron is currently a 4th year Aerospace Engineering student at Carleton University.  His previous work experience includes working with the iPod design team at Apple Inc. where he was a member of a high-level engineering design team that exposed him to both engineering and corporate business interactions.   This experience peaked his interest in business and led him to TalentBridge where he is currently working on business development with Infonium Inc. a local healthcare IT company focusing on accountability reporting and patient access. Outside of his professional life William plays water polo for Carleton University and enjoys weight lifting and reading. His goals for the upcoming years are to finish school, continue learning in a small-company work environment and ultimately begin his own startup.

Sameer Valiyani

Sameer Valiyani has over four years of software development experience. He is certified as a ‘Software Development Associate’ by the IEEE Computing Society and received top position at the First Annual Innovation and Entrepreneurship Endowment Fund (EIEF) competition held by the Faculty of Engineering at University of Ottawa. He is adept at learning in a fast paced knowledge intensive environment, like that of the OIC. He is involved in entrepreneurship, community development, and cricket.  Some of his interests are reading, volunteering and international affairs.

Team Go
Tuhin Das, Mundeep Gill, Samrat Dhillon
Benbria

Tuhin Das

Tuhin Das is a recent graduate from Carleton University where he received his Bachelor of Honour’s degree in International Business majoring in International Marketing and Trade, with a minor in Spanish. His key strengths are in analyzing reports and company profiles by providing strategic analysis and recommendations for improved management. He is an excellent team player and enjoy working under pressure.  He has come from a diverse background having been born in India, and then lived in Ghana for ten years. He also spent a year abroad in Spain for his undergraduate studies. Presently he is living in Ottawa where he is exploring his entrepreneurial opportunities through his marketing background.  He enjoys travelling and learning new cultures.

Mundeep Gill

Mundeep Gill is currently studying commerce at the University of Ottawa and is entering his 3rd year of studies. He loves to see how people can take an idea of something they love, take a risk, and transform it into a business to make a living for themselves. That drive and dedication is true motivator for him. Having participated in many clubs and societies which promoted entrepreneurship, he can easily state that the entrepreneurial drive is truly alive within him. He is currently collaborating with other students which he met at university to develop and implement business plans in various areas.

Samrat Dhillon

Samrat Dhillon graduated from the  Master in Technology Innovation Management Program at Carleton University. His research areas include open source software and service oriented architectures. Before coming to Canada, Samrat worked as a software developer for Tata Consultancy Services, Asia’s largest software company. He worked on telecommunications and data-warehousing technologies. Samrat holds a Computer Science and Engineering degree from G.N.D. University Amritsar, Punjab, India.

Team Kick.It
Pierfrancesco Cervellini, Vahid Sadr, Gagandeep Singh
Benbria 

Pierfrancesco Cervellini

Piefrancesco Cervellini is currently studying Computer Science at Carleton University and graduated from the University of Ottawa with an honors degree in Molecular biology. Pierfrancesco’s involvement with TalentBridge took him to Fidus Systems: a high-tech company specializing in high speed electronic product development, where he was involved in international marketing and sales. Francesco is currently working on his own start up TwidleDee in the realm of social media. In the past he’s been involved in technology transfer and commercialization through the Foundry Program at Carleton University, and being president of AIESEC Carleton.

Vahid Dabbaghi Sadr

Vahid is a graduate of Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, where he did a Bachelor of Commerce with two distinct concentrations in International Business and Managing People and Organizations.  He has been consistently committed to developing effective analytical, problem-solving, business management and communication skills and he is always looking for opportunities to put these skills into practice. Vahid worked with Carleton University’s Foundry program in summer 2006 where he picked up the entrepreneurial bug and received invaluable training in the area of technology commercialization.

Gagandeep Singh

Gagandeep Singh is currently working as Business Process Analyst with Rogers Communication Inc.  In his previous roles he has worked as Service Control Analyst with Rogers Communication Inc. and as Project Analyst with the Ministry of Health & Longterm Care. Gagan has a passion for entrepreneurship and has worked in two startups. His first experience with a startup was with an ISP and his second was with a startup providing solutions in enterprise mobile solutions domain. In addition, he worked as a management trainee in one of the leading private sector banks in India. An alumnus of Master of Business, Entrepreneurship & Technology (MBET) program from the University of Waterloo, Gagan also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Computer Application (MCA) from Guru Nanak Dev University, India.

BACK TO OIC 2009