PROFILES

“When I’m older, I can slow down,” he said with a smile. “But right now, I have lots of energy, lots of time, and I just want to do as much as I can.”

Olawoye, Social Work ’07, is lead executive, Venture Talent Development at MaRS, heading a team of more than a dozen to guide talent, pre-graduation to senior leaders looking for jobs in technology. The team aims to teach those job seekers the skills—and the mindset—needed to thrive in the new economy.

That is his day job.

He founded the Black Professionals In Technology Network late last year. There are plans to grow that network to more than 1,000 members by the spring, helping to foster connections and access points for young professionals in what Olawoye calls the “tech ecosystem.”

He sits on the Greater Toronto Area Community Board at Telus, the charity arm of the telecommunication company. He is also a board member with the Toronto Community Benefits Network, which works to ensure a portion of infrastructure spending goes toward hiring members of the communities where the projects are based.

Olawoye has his eyes on another job title: Toronto city councillor.

He finished 1,343 votes behind Ward 12 incumbent Frank Di Giorgio four years ago, and he is looking to win the rematch this year. There are 40 members on his campaign team now, with plans for between 50 and 100 going door-to-door in the six months leading up to the big day in October.

Why do all this?

“It matters,” he said. “I can’t just get complacent and comfortable. I became a social worker because my friends were dying, in Jamestown. I can’t, now, ‘make it,’ and then just focus on my home. It’s not good enough. Our city can do something special in the world, and I feel like I have the skills, the lived experience, the natural gifts that God has given me, to be able to help.”—Sean Fitz-Gerald, Journalism ’00

RYERSON GRAD ANSWERS

1. Isadore Sharp, Architectural Technology ’52, founder of the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts / 2. Dave Devall, RTA ’58, former CFTO-TV weather personality 3. Dale Goldhawk, Journalism ’67, had a decade-long television career with Goldhawk Fights Back, a consumer-advocate show on CTV / 4. Michael Landsberg, RTA ’82, sports broadcaster and host of TSN’s Off The Record / 5. Jessica Holmes, RTA ’98, comedian/actress best known for Royal Canadian Air Farce

NAVREET SAINI

High-speed career

Gender imbalance doesn’t faze aerospace engineering alumna

WHEN NAVREET SAINI walked into her first department meeting at Bell Helicopter, it was a familiar scene. Sitting around the boardroom table were her new co-workers—every last one, a man.

Later that day, she updated her Facebook status: “Department staff meeting. 28 men + me. Pressure is on.”

“It was scary, but I reminded myself that I got picked for a reason,” recalls Saini. Her experience was reflective of an industry where less than 12 per cent of aerospace engineering graduates are women.

Saini was only seven when she set her sights on flying planes, but it was her dad that led her in the direction of aerospace engineering. The father of six girls, he recognized early on that Saini—his right-hand daughter for everything from house renovations to car repairs—was meant to work in an applied field.

Saini, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure. “The first time he mentioned it, I thought, “No, no, no,’” she says. “I was nervous. He saw something in me that I didn’t.”

Trusting his judgment, she spent the next four years commuting three hours daily to school from Rexdale. During summers, she worked at Bombardier Aerospace through Ryerson’s Institute for Aerospace Design and Innovation (RIADI) co-op program. Any spare time was dedicated to earning her private pilot’s licence.

Her hard work paid off—when Saini graduated in 2012, she made the dean’s list and shortly afterwards, received a LinkedIn message from Bell Helicopter asking her to come in for an interview.

Although her first meeting was intimidating, she soon discovered that her gender would have little bearing on her career.

“I didn’t feel any discrimination or limitations. I was there to do a job. The projects that I got put on were really incredible,” says Saini.

Now part of the avionics team at PAL Aerospace Engineering, Saini, 29, is taking a page from her father’s book. As a member of Women in Aviation International, she encourages girls to pursue careers in aviation and in 2016, she received the Northern Lights Aero Foundation Rising Star Award for outstanding women in aviation.

Saini believes that women will always have a place at the table—but it’s what they do once there that matters.

“There’s a lot of opportunity to make your own path. If you have ideas, speak up,” she says. “And if the chair’s not there, bring your own chair.” —Jessica Wynne Lockhart, Journalism ’08