Algonquin College’s 2019 Premier’s Awards nominees
Posted on Friday, November 29th, 2019
Seven Algonquin College alumni have been nominated for 2019 Premier’s Awards, which will celebrate outstanding Ontario college graduates on Monday, Dec. 2.
The nominees are all previous winners of 2019 Alumni of Distinction Awards, announced in September at Algonquin’s annual gala.
Our 2019 Premier’s Award nominees are as follows:
Apprenticeship
Paul Brisson, President, Cantwell Air Conditioning
Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Systems Mechanic – Class of 2011
Paul Brisson is passionate about everything to do with heating and air conditioning: the range of products available, the problems that can occur with their mechanisms and finding solutions. He loves it all so much, in fact, he bought a company. Today Brisson is president of Cantwell Air Conditioning in Ottawa, and an advocate for his trade, for customer service, and for young people entering apprenticeship programs. As a businessman and as an apprentice-intake interviewer for the Ontario College of Trades, he is playing a valuable role in advancing the success of a new generation of skilled tradespeople. Read Paul’s Bio
Business
Luc Villeneuve, President, Benchmark Corp.
Business Administration – Class of 1979
Canadian businessman Luc Villeneuve has spent more than 25 years boosting sales and assuming leadership roles with major companies, including Sun Microsystems, GE Capital, NCR, McAfee Canada, Red Hat Canada and Benchmark. He has also taken a leading role in national discussions about diversity and inclusion in IT. “Gender equality is a critical economic and social issue,” he wrote in the Globe and Mail in 2017, and he increased the number of qualified women hired by his companies. He was a finalist for the Microsoft INSPIRE2018 Women in Technology Man of WIT Award, which celebrates men supporting diversity and inclusion. Read Luc’s Bio
Community Services
Mark Marsolais-Nahwegahbow, founder, Birch Bark Coffee Company
Correctional Worker – Class of 1993
Entrepreneur Mark Marsolais-Nahwegahbow is founder of the Ottawa-based Birch Bark Coffee Company, a firm that sets aside a portion of its sales proceeds toward the purchase of certified water purifiers for Indigenous families in Canada. He has also spent years striving to raise the effectiveness of Aboriginal justice programs as a native justice coordinator, a residential school crisis intervention counsellor and as founder of IndiGenius & Associates, a justice consulting firm that to date has written more than 200 Gladue Reports, which tell the life stories of Indigenous people in court for bail or sentencing hearings. Read Mark’s Bio
Creative Arts and Design
Benjamin Ing, Head Chef, Noma Copenhagen
Culinary Management – Class of 2008
After years of honing his craft in Ottawa’s best restaurants and leading establishments in New York City and Melbourne, Australia, Canadian chef Benjamin Ing is thriving as head chef at Copenhagen’s celebrated Noma, which has been named Best Restaurant in the World five times by Restaurant magazine. Ing takes pride in leading the restaurant’s team of chefs and their award-winning explorations of Scandinavian cuisine, and ensuring that Noma is, in his words, “the best place to work, the best environment, has the best people and pays the best.” Read Ben’s Bio
Health Sciences
Jennifer Kryworuchko, Nursing Researcher, UBC
Registered Nurse, Critical Care – Class of 1996
(posthumously)
The late Jennifer Kryworuchko devoted much of her work as a nursing researcher to studying the organization and delivery of health care services to optimize patient and family involvement in health decision making and to improve access to palliative care. Her community-engaged scholarship — intended to influence practical changes in policy, system design and care delivery — focused on ensuring that seriously ill individuals, with their families and medical team, are engaged in shared decision-making about the end-of-life care they desire. Read Jennifer’s Bio
Recent Graduate
Naomi Fong
Social Service Worker– Class of 2018
Naomi Fong has been working toward a career and stable health in the years since the former Bombardier emerged from the Canadian Armed Forces with PTSD. She found hope and community at the Pembroke campus of Algonquin College, where she entered Social Service Worker program and graduated with honours. This helped give her the confidence to join the 2018 Invictus Games in Sydney, Australia, where she won two bronze medals in Women’s Road Cycling and was the Team Canada flag bearer at the opening ceremonies. Read Naomi’s Bio
Technology
Grant Lecky, co-founder of Security Partners’ Forum
Security Management – Class of 2007
“Security is everyone’s responsibility,” says Grant Lecky, the security and resilience expert hailed as a “global visionary” on the cover of the April/May 2019 issue of Sovereign Magazine. Lecky has certainly made it his responsibility in a career that has earned him honours and accolades for his leadership and innovation. He is co-founder of the Security Partners’ Forum, an agile network of the global security community dedicated to building security and resilience capacity internationally. A Global Advisory Council member of the Institute of Strategic Risk Management, he is also a security and resilience professional with the Government of Canada. Read Grant’s Bio
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