Having moved to Montreal when I was 15, McGill was the only university I ever considered applying to. I literally had no back-up plan. I was accepted and was granted the McConnell Scholarship. In 1994 I began studying in the Chemistry Department, ultimately graduating from the Department of Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in Chemistry.
At the Faculty of Engineering, not only did I learn the required foundations of engineering and design, but also had a strong work ethic and self-confidence instilled in me. My time at McGill, and later at MIT, taught me to work hard, challenge existing paradigms and innovate through collaboration.
My interest in innovation was not sparked in the classroom but rather in McGill's common spaces, and especially at the Architecture Café, where students from Engineering, Architecture and Science intermingled. Friends bought me “They All Laughed” by Ira Flatow, noticing my inventor-spirit; mentor-professors Bruce Lennox and Adi Eisenberg gave me a much-needed research job, ignored my (costly) lab-mistakes, and guided me into graduate school.
Later, while working at McKinsey as a consultant, I co-founded a company that reinvented how coffee is brewed and consumed. Years and 60 patents (and 43 more pending) later, ESPRO is now embedded in the consumer coffee world, and a division of a large consumer products company.
McGill’s globally recognized name has helped me pave my career path. The unconditional intellectual support I received at McGill fostered my innovative spirit and made me what I am today.