Outstanding Alumni Awards
The 2009 winners are Lyn Hancock (BEd’77, MA’81), author, photojournalist, educator, and filmmaker (Arts and Culture); Marianne Sadar (BSc’88), a senior scientist and prostate cancer researcher at the B.C. Cancer Agency (Academic Achievement); Carol Huynh (BA’04), an Olympic gold medallist in women’s wrestling (Athletic Achievement); and Robert Turner (PhD’73), director of neurophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany (Professional Achieve- ment). <www.sfu.ca/alumni/our_alumni/outstanding>

Danger in War Reporting Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang (BA’98) is the first Canadian journalist to die while covering the war in Afghanistan. She was killed by a roadside bomb while out with a convoy. Now the Michelle Lang Fellowship in Journalism has been launched by Canwest Publishing. It will award up to $10,000 annually to fund a news project for a recent Canadian university graduate.

Two are Better than One Twin brothers Terry (BBA’06) and Doug Beech are succeeding. Their web site, Twinbro. com, helps individuals overcome barriers that prevent them from living their dreams. They have also started designtourney.com, which uses “crowd sourcing” (outsourcing through an open call asking for contributions) to put people in touch with designers.

Flying High Mikel Lefler (BSc’99) is a biologist turned jewellery maker. She encases butterflies, ladybugs, dragonflies, and other winged creatures in resin, turning them into necklaces, rings, and earrings. She uses only non-endangered, non-threatened species and buys her insects from reputable dealers.
<www.bijouxdumonde.net>

Cheaper Desalination Ben Sparrow (MBA’06) and Joshua Zoshi (BASc’00, MBA’06) have a new way to take the salt out of seawater. Their company, Saltworks Technologies, is using the heat of the sun to drive the process. Many countries that lack freshwater have abundant sun, so the technology has great promise according to Britain’s prestigious magazine, The Economist. <www.saltworkstech.com>

“Mr. Big” Really Bad Kouri Keenan (MA’09) has serious misgivings about police use of the Mr. Big technique, where those suspected of crimes confess to cops posing as crime bosses. After analyzing 63 Canadian criminal cases involving Mr. Big confessions, Keenan concludes that the confessions “are inherently unreliable” and “undermine many of the fundamental principles of justice.”

Maggie Nicholls MPP’09
Happiness = Enough Food. That’s the life lesson Maggie Nicholls (MPP’09) learns through her work with impoverished women in the slums of Uttara, Bangladesh. Her graduate work took her to south Asia for three and a half months while she studied the impact of soaring rice prices on the region’s poorest inhabitants.

Heart Researcher Scott Lear (BSKin’94) is the first Pfizer/Heart and Stroke Foundation chair in cardiovascular disease prevention research at St. Paul’s Hospital, established in partnership with SFU. The $4.6 million in funding will allow him to move his internationally renowned research program into a patient-care setting.

New Dean Vincent Cheng Yang (PhD’96) is the new dean of law at Shantou University in China. The university is sponsored by the Li Ka-Shing Foundation and has developed a special relationship with Canada.

Kindness Bisi Obadofin (BEd’78) of Lagos State University is teaching African youth about the importance of random acts of kindness. She holds seminars and workshops; is the author of two books (Be Kind to Yourself and Kindness in a Cruel World), and has a web site. <www.kindnessmovementofnigeria.com>

Top 40 Under 40 Eleven SFU grads, one undergrad, and a mentor make Business in Vancouver’s 2010 list. Alumni are Irene Jeremic (BSc’01), chief information officer, Stork Craft Manufacturing; Chris Bennett (BA’94), partner, Davis LLP; Charles Chang (BBA’95), president, Sequel Naturals; Ryan Barrington-Foote (BBA’00), managing director, accounting, Jim Pattison Group; Gary Pooni (BA’94), president Brook & Associates; Brian Smith (BA’98, PCED’02), building and social enterprise developer for the non-profit Building Opportunities with Business; Barbara MacPhail (BA’95), chief operating officer, Hub International Insurance Brokers; Shaun Karp (BA’94), owner, Karp Health Services; David Granville (BSc’95), founder and CSO, viDA Therapeutics Inc.; Rahim Talib (BA’97), President and CEO, Meadowfresh Dairy Corp.; and Rob Wildeman (BBA’96), Director, Tricor Pacific Capital Inc. Undergrad Milun Tesovic (see Mountain High page 5), co-founder of MetroLeap Media also makes the list, as does Aaron Rallo, chief operating officer and director of PNI Digital Media, who mentors young entrepreneurs at SFU’s New BC Ventures Program.

Another Top 40 Braden Hoeppner (BGS’02) is named one of the Top 40 Canadian Online Marketers. Hoeppner is director of web sales for Coastal Contacts, selling contact lenses online.

Leader of the Pack Allan Seckel (BA’80) is B.C.’s new top bureaucrat, heading up the 30,000-member public service. He is deputy minister to the premier and cabinet secretary, so wields extraordinary influence in all areas of provincial decision-making.

Sandy Scofield composed the Aboriginal welcoming song for the 2010 Olympic opening ceremonies.

Top 100 – Again For the second year in a row Domain7 makes the Business in Vancouver list, Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies. The Abbotsford web agency, owned by Shawn Neumann (BA’96), comes in at #40 in the 2009 list.

Fame Game Former Clansman Sean Millington (BA’91) is inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame. Millington played 13 seasons in various Canadian Football League teams, including the B.C. Lions. His 6,086-yard average ranks him second to Normie Kwong among Canadian running backs, and his 75 rushing touchdowns are sixth all-time.

Sound Hurts PhD student Milena Droumeva (BA’04, MA’07) is investigating how our increasingly complex sound environment is affecting our learning and emotional makeup. She recently received a $75,000 Joseph-Armand Bombardier scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to assess our multi-layer sound environment. Droumeva is a frequent contributor to the Journal for the Canadian Game Studies Association and has written a chapter for a new book, Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments, by British game-sound expert Mark Grimshaw.

Nature Star Jennifer Gardy (PhD’06) is fulfilling her dream of becoming a TV science host. She fronted a CBC Nature of Things show called “Bugs, Bones & Botany: The Science of Crime.” She has also hosted the CBC’s ProjectX, and has a blog in the online edition of the Globe and Mail.

Influencing Zijad Delic (EdD’06) is one of only 13 Canadians listed in a new book of the world’s 500 most influential Muslims. The Ottawa imam is a scholar, national executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress, and consultant to the federal government and various NGOs.

Rock On Cynthia Kereluk-Rodgers (PDP’81), former Miss Canada and TV fitness host, now manages her husband’s career. Her husband? None other than rock legend Paul Rodgers of Free-Bad Company fame. Most recently he has been fronting for Queen and the reunited Bad Company.

Remembering Dennis F. Culver 1923–2010 SFU lost a strong supporter with the death in February of Dennis F. Culver (MBA’71, LLD’92). Culver was a member of the first Executive MBA class and a president of both the B.C. Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. After his graduation from the university Culver was a tireless fundraiser. The Dennis F. Culver Executive MBA Alumni Endowed Professorship was set up in recognition of his efforts. aq

Photograph of Outstanding Alumni: Greg Ehlers/SFU LIDC, Maggie Nicholls: courtesy SFU News / PAMR, Sandy Scofield: Joecy Shepherd

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