Ivan Finlay Leadership Award

Amirreza Hosseini is a community‑focused engineering leader whose work centres on building belonging across cultural and academic spaces. As logistics coordinator for Toranj 2025, Calgary’s largest Iranian cultural festival, they championed intentional inclusion by advocating for multilingual signage, diverse regional food vendors, and outreach to non‑Iranian student groups. Their efforts brought many first‑time attendees to the festival and helped newcomer families and engineering peers feel welcomed into Persian culture. They also introduced an engineering showcase booth highlighting Iranian‑Canadian contributions to STEM, inspiring youth and strengthening community pride. 

In the classroom, Amirreza has supported more than 500 students as a teaching assistant across nine courses. Recognizing that international students often hesitate to speak up, they implemented anonymous question systems, small‑group office hours, and informal one‑on‑one conversations to reduce pressure and normalize seeking help. These practices significantly increased participation and improved group project outcomes. Their mentorship extends beyond coursework—they regularly guide international students through APEGA licensure and share real‑world engineering applications from their software and AI research experience. 

Across research, teaching, and community leadership, Amirreza brings empathy, evidence‑based decision making, and a commitment to inclusion. Their journey from Iran to Canada has shaped their dedication to supporting internationally trained engineers and creating environments where diverse perspectives are valued. They aim to continue bridging cultural and technical communities, ensuring that engineering remains accessible, welcoming, and reflective of the society it serves. 

Colby Sych is an emerging engineering leader whose approach is grounded in communication, collaboration, and creating space for others to contribute. As team captain for the Young Canadians for Resources presentation during their summer internship, they led an 11‑person group with diverse roles and experience levels, ensuring that every member had a meaningful voice in the final product. Their inclusive approach produced a balanced, compelling presentation that won both the judges’ and the students’ votes, earning the grand prize. 

As jumps captain on the University of Calgary Dinos track and field team, Sych fosters a culture where athletes feel safe raising concerns and offering ideas. They normalize feedback through regular one‑on‑one check‑ins, structured group discussions, and transparent follow‑through at leadership meetings. This approach has strengthened trust, reduced conflict, and encouraged newer athletes to speak up earlier, improving both team culture and performance. In their engineering capstone, they applied the same clarity‑driven leadership by developing a decision framework that aligned technical options with real plant conditions, helping their team move from uncertainty to a shared, evidence‑based design direction. 

In industry, Sych has acted as an ambassador for engineering by building practical tools that improve operations. During their production engineering internship, they created an Excel‑based well history database that streamlined workflows and improved decision making for engineers—work that led to an extended contract and ongoing collaboration on a web‑based version. Across athletics, academics, and industry, Sych has learned that leadership is less about perfection and more about communication, consistency, and accountability. They aim to carry these values into their engineering career by bridging field and office perspectives, strengthening team culture, and championing a safety‑first mindset in technical environments. 

Dominika Young is a dedicated community‑minded engineering leader whose work is grounded in inclusion, encouragement, and service. As a long‑time Special Olympics volunteer, they support athletes with intellectual disabilities through personalized coaching approaches that build confidence and participation. Whether offering verbal encouragement, providing calm one‑on‑one guidance, or completing exercises alongside athletes with higher support needs, they create an environment where every participant feels capable and valued. Their efforts have led to increased athlete engagement, and a more collaborative, energized team atmosphere. 

Within the engineering community, Young brings the same commitment to empowerment and clarity. As finance commissioner for the Chemical Engineering Student Society, they introduced a modernized, data‑driven sponsorship strategy—transforming a lengthy text‑heavy document into a concise, visually compelling pitch supported by transparent financial tracking. They also represent the society at club fairs, where they help first‑year students explore engineering pathways by offering honest, accessible insights into the breadth, challenges, and societal impact of chemical engineering. Their efforts have strengthened student engagement and helped many students make informed decisions about their academic directions. 

Through roles in student leadership, technical project work, and community volunteering, Young has developed a leadership style defined by collaboration, adaptability, and social responsibility. Their experience on Project 90—working with a team to design concrete mixes for latrines in Liberia—reinforced the importance of practical engineering grounded in local context and teamwork. Across all settings, they lead by listening, communicating clearly, and creating space for others to succeed. Looking ahead, Young aims to continue contributing to the engineering profession by combining technical expertise with a people‑centered approach that strengthens teams and supports meaningful, community‑focused solutions.

Helayna Szentmiklossy is an engineering leader who strengthens teams by making technical spaces more inclusive, structured, and supportive. On the University of Calgary Solar Car Team, they championed underrepresented voices, formalized workflow with clear action items and deadlines, and helped shift team culture towards accountability and respect. The result was a more confident leader, broader participation, and stronger technical collaboration. 

Their commitment to psychological safety extends beyond engineering design. As a peer tutor, Szentmiklossy created low‑pressure learning environments where students felt safe admitting confusion and asking questions. By using friendly check‑ins, low‑stakes prompts, and structured group participation, they helped students move from isolation to collaboration. On the Solar Car Team, they also redesigned recruitment and onboarding to focus on potential, introducing structured evaluation criteria and mentorship‑based onboarding. This led to a more diverse cohort, faster integration of new members, and more rigorous technical discussions. 

As a senior, high‑voltage member of the Solar Car Team, Szentmiklossy acts as an ambassador for engineering by mentoring juniors in printed circuit board design, debugging, and system integration, while demonstrating how classroom theory becomes real‑world engineering. Their leadership is shaped by lived experience—growing up in instability, navigating technical spaces as a woman and neurodivergent student, and carrying the discipline and resilience of a former professional ballet dancer. Across all roles, they lead with clarity, empathy, and structure, building teams where people feel safe to contribute, and technical work becomes stronger because of it. 

Pedram Nazari is an emerging engineering leader whose work is defined by inclusive design, psychological safety, and a commitment to elevating underrepresented voices in innovation. As the founder of a University of Calgary Launchpad team focused on women’s hormonal health conditions such as PMS and PCOS, they built a team intentionally reflective of the community they aimed to serve, with women holding most of the leadership and technical roles. Their inclusive decision making directly shaped the project’s direction—most notably when feedback from a woman teammate led to a major design pivot from a waist‑worn device to a minimally invasive interstitial fluid patch, improving comfort, usability, and long‑term feasibility. 

Their leadership extends beyond technical innovation into team culture and mentorship. During their biomedical engineering design project, Nazari fostered a psychologically safe environment by encouraging early communication of concerns, inviting quieter members into discussions, and ensuring disagreements remained respectful and solution focused. This approach strengthened team performance and empowered individual growth. Through these experiences, they have demonstrated that effective engineering leadership is rooted in empathy, clarity, and the ability to help others find their voice. 

As an engineering ambassador, Nazari has represented both biomedical engineering and the University of Calgary on international and local stages. During a research internship in Berlin, they engaged across disciplines, adapted to new professional norms, and communicated the real‑world impact of engineering research. Through roles such as APEGA Student Liaison and as a CEUS workshop instructor, they continue to bridge academia, industry, and global research. Their long‑term vision is to expand international exposure for Calgary’s engineering community and contribute to building a thriving biotechnology ecosystem that advances meaningful therapeutic innovation. 

Tatiana Mijajlovic is a passionate advocate for geoscience engagement whose leadership has significantly expanded opportunities for students and early‑career professionals in Alberta. As the geoscience liaison for the Edmonton Branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining Metallurgy and Petroleum, they have introduced initiatives that elevate geoscience visibility in an engineering‑dominated space, including the creation of GeoCorner and the development of a new, fully inclusive student bursary. Their collaboration with the P.S. Warren Geoscience Society at the University of Alberta has ensured that student perspectives directly shape branch programming and outreach. 

Across academia and industry, Mijajlovic is known for creating space for others and amplifying voices that may otherwise go unheard. Their leadership style—rooted in empathy, intentional communication, and advocacy—has supported peers through pivotal career moments and fostered more inclusive, collaborative environments. At APEX, they are leading the development of an engagement and consultation framework to guide respectful relationship building with First Nation, Métis, and Inuit communities during mineral exploration projects. 

Mijajlovic's work is driven by a clear vision: to strengthen the geoscience profession, build pathways for future leaders, and empower students who may not yet know how to ask questions that will shape their careers.