ALUMNI MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018 BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE IN ITS RESEARCH LABS AND ON ITS CAMPUSES, MCGILL IS BLAZING A TRAIL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY < < THE BUSINESS OF FASHION RISE OF THE FINGERLINGS TANGO SCIENTIFICO-MÉDIATIQUE < MCGILLNEWS.MCGILL.CA Take advantage of your alumni privileges. Get preferred rates and coverage that fits your needs. Supporting you … and McGill Alumni Association You could save big* when you combine your alumni As a McGill University alumni, you have access preferred rates and bundle to the TD Insurance Meloche Monnex program. This means you can get preferred insurance rates your home and car insurance. on a wide range of home and car coverage that can be customized for your needs. For over 65 years, TD Insurance has been helping Canadians find quality home and car insurance solutions. Feel confident your home and car coverage fits Recommended by your needs. Get a quote now. HOME | CAR | TRAVEL Get a quote and see how much you could save! 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Savings vary in each province and may be higher or lower than $625. Wide Horizons Solution® Travel Insurance is underwritten by Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada and distributed in some provinces by RSA Travel Insurance Inc., operating as RSA Travel Insurance Agency in British Columbia. All trade marks are the property of their respective owners. ® The TD logo and other TD trade-marks are the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bank. CONTENTS 3 EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK 4 PRINCIPAL’S PERSPECTIVE 5 NEWSBITES 11 DISCOVERY 29 ALUMNI PROFILE 38 ALUMNI PROFILE 40 REVIEWS 42 ALUMNI ACTIVITIES 47 ALUMNI PROFILE 49 ALUMNOTES 60 IN MEMORIAM 64 MCGILL MOMENT 16 16 A STEP FORWARD FOR SUSTAINABILITY When it comes to environmental sustainability, the planet could use some multidisciplinary, outside-the-box thinking. Enter the McGill Sustainability Systems Initiative, a new research hub that aims to marshal the expertise of McGill researchers from a wide variety of fi elds. By Patrick McDonagh 22 30 22 FASHIONABLY INCISIVE If the power players in the fashion world want to know what’s going on in their industry, they turn to Imran Amed, BCom’97, and The Business of Fashion. Here is how Amed went from blogging on his couch to attending galas with Selena Gomez and Kate Moss. By Michael Harris 26 THE WOMAN BEHIND THE TOY OF THE YEAR If you have children of a certain age, chances are you 26 shopped frantically for Fingerlings last Christmas. The tiny toys are the brainchild of Sydney Wiseman, BCom’11, and their enormous success has netted her and her company some of the biggest prizes in the toy industry. By Brenda Branswell 30 TANGO MÉDIATIQUE Si les milieux universitaire et de la recherche gagnent à cultiver leurs relations avec les médias, les rapports entre chercheurs et journalistes ne sont jamais simples, surtout à l’ère des vérités parallèles et des nouvelles factices. Par Jean-Benoît Nadeau (B. A. 1992) M C GILL NEWS / 1 / SUMMER 2018 McG News EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK SUMMER 2018 Volume 99 / No 1 A PLACE WHERE EGAN OWEN EDITOR Daniel McCabe, BA’89 LIVES ARE CHANGED SENIOR CONTRIBUTING WRITER Brenda Branswell y University Advancement colleagues and I recently trooped off CONTRIBUTING EDITOR to McGill’s New Residence Hall for our annual Town Hall event. Daniel Chonchol, BCL’81, LLB’82 A highpoint of the day was a panel discussion involving three young MANAGING DIRECTOR, McGillians, including Moses Gashirabake, BCL/LLB’17. COMMUNICATIONS AND DONOR RELATIONS Moses works at the Montreal offi ce of the international law Derek Cassoff fi rm Fasken. He is also on the board of directors for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. He is clearly an up-and-comer. When he was growing up, EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS M that was no sure thing. Jennifer Testa Natasha Carr-Harris He and his family escaped from the genocidal violence that tore Rwanda apart. He grew up in Kenya as a stateless refugee. He eventually found his way to Montreal, ADVISORY BOARD earned an undergraduate degree at Concordia and was about to begin his law studies Courtney Mullins, BCom’06 (Chair) Annmarie Adams, BA’81 at McGill when he learned his father had died. Christopher Buddle It was a devastating blow and it left Gashirabake in a precarious fi nancial situation. Carole Graveline, BA’75 He wasn’t certain he could aff ord his McGill studies until he was informed that he was Allan Johnson, BA’85 eligible for an Entrance Leadership Award from the University. He says that fi nancial Gabrielle Korn Adam Muscott, BCom’99, MBA’05 assistance – and the McGill education it led to—changed his life. Gashirabake went on Marc Weinstein, BA’85, BCL’91, LLB’91 to become the president of the National Black Law Students’ Association of Canada and to complete an international internship at the Supreme Court of Rwanda. DESIGN Also taking part in that panel discussion was Jenny Aboue Youn El-Soud, a public Steven McClenaghan Graphic Design, Communications relations student in the School of Continuing Studies. Her family was forced to fl ee and External Relations their home in war-torn Syria. She has been helping to raise more than $50,000 to create scholarships and bursaries at McGill for Syrian refugees. MCGILL NEWS 1430 Peel Street Claudia Di Iorio was also on the panel. She survived a car crash years ago (the Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 3T3 driver had had too much to drink) and spent a month in a coma. She had to learn to Tel.: 514-398-5000 walk again. Today, she is a McGill law student and the spokesperson for the Cool Taxi Fax: 514-398-5293 Initiative, which distributes coupons for cash-free cab rides to help other young adults Email: [email protected] Web: mcgillnews.mcgill.ca avoid the wrenching experiences she endured. She also sits on the board of directors Twitter: @McGillNewsMag of the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec—the youngest board member in SAAQ history. McGill News is published by McGill University Jenny and Claudia also talked about how McGill has changed their lives. Circulation: 45,000 copies Thumbing through this issue, I come across plenty of examples of other McGillians Printed in Canada ISSN 0709 9223 who could say the same thing. Yetide Badaki, BA’02, for instance, who found a professor at McGill that believed in her talent when her family initially disapproved of her acting Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40613661 aspirations. Now she’s one of the stars of the TV series American Gods. There’s a story about three American musicians who wouldn’t have met had it not Cover illustration: Thinkstock been for their respective decisions to move to Montreal to attend McGill. Now they make up three-quarters of the acclaimed band Ought. There’s a story about three young engineering graduates who turned their prom- ising student project—a uniquely designed electric snowmobile— into a startup with a bright future. Imran Amed, BCom’97, the founder of the hugely infl uential Business of Fashion and the subject of one of our feature stories, credits his time at the University for helping to prepare him for his international career. “No joke,” says Amed, “McGill University completely transformed me.” We get that a lot around here. And we never get tired of hearing it. Daniel McCabe, BA’89 M C GILL NEWS / 3 / SUMMER 2018 THE PRINCIPAL’S PERSPECTIVE I H C S U M E N I T COMMITTING TO S I R H SUSTAINABILITY C MCGILL HAS WON ACCLAIM AND AWARDS FOR ITS FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY IN RECENT YEARS. IN APRIL, THE UNIVERSITY WAS NAMED ONE OF THE GREENEST EMPLOYERS IN CANADA. LAST YEAR, MCGILL’S SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS FUND, WHICH SUPPORTS A VARIETY OF ON-CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS, RECEIVED A PRIZE FROM THE CITY OF MONTREAL’S CONSEIL RÉGIONAL DE L’ENVIRONNEMENT. PRINCIPAL SUZANNE FORTIER, BSC’72, PHD’76, SPOKE TO THE MCGILL NEWS ABOUT WHY MCGILL IS PAYING SO MUCH ATTENTION TO SUSTAINABILITY. The Sustainability Projects Fund has supported McGill has supplied substantial seed funding for the more than 170 initiatives at McGill— everything from McGill Sustainability Systems Initiative and some of student-run ecological gardens to water collection the multidisciplinary research projects it hopes to systems to a green pedestrian zone on McTavish generate. Why is the MSSI important? Street. It is a unique partnership between McGill and We have a lot of depth in sustainability research at McGill, its students. What are your thoughts on the role that but what is special at our University is that people in diff er- the fund plays? ent disciplines are working in a highly collaborative mode to It is a great initiative and a wonderful demonstration of our address the issue of sustainability through a system approach.