Here are some of the local professionals you can meet for a one-time call by participating in Snapp as a newcomer.
Aileen is a writer and editor with 15 years of experience focusing on lifestyle and culture.
Akash immigrated from India to pursue a career in Vancouver with limited resources and is now working as a Technical Product Manager with 6 years of PM experience and 9 years in the tech industry.
A software engineer with 10+ years of experience. He designs and builds distributed systems.
Alexander is a software engineer, more focused on server-side engineering. He worked on industrial automation in Russia, web-search in Vietnam, cloud services and currently building clean energy solutions in Canada.
Ali is a seasoned IT/ICT project and program management consultant with 15+ years if experience in international market. He is participating to share what I know about job market, tips and tricks of the process. As someone who had been there, and got help, Ali feels participating in Snapp is a way of giving back.
Executive Director of the Multiculturalism Branch for the BC Government. She's worked in the government and non-profit sectors for more than 20 years, developing and delivering programs that address racism, promote multiculturalism and support immigrant integration and inclusion.
A designer with 10 years as a designer and 5+ years in tech and startups. She's worked with both local and American based startups and has a unique insider-outsider's perspective on how design teams are built and grow in Silicone Valley. In addition to working with PeaceGeeks for the last 4 years, she has been a consistent face at SFU's design events.
UX/UI Designer with a large background in Graphics Design, specialized in infographics, applying this knowledge in Information Architecture.
Andréa is the CEO of Trustmode Marketing, a 25-year-old consultancy to government and industry entrepreneurship programs and social impact organizations. She also the founder of ConsultantJournal.com and the author of books and courses on consulting. Andréa is a frequent media guest, a university instructor and looking for board membership opportunities.
A Human Resources Coordinator and CPHR Candidate passionate about supporting and building positive workplace cultures. Skilled in employee relations, recruitment, and employee engagement. Experience within Community Programs, Hospitality, and Non-Profit Industries.
Ariela has more than 20 years of experience working in non-profit communications, marketing and public relations (PR). She came to Canada as a child, an immigrant from South Africa and would be delighted to offer advice and help on how to break into this industry.
A PMP project manager and compliance specialist in Information Technology. She has over 20 years of experience.
Aryo is a Vancouver-based multidisciplinary writer, performer, director and dramaturgy, and the cofounder of The Biting School. He has been involved in multiple theater, dance, and film productions in Vancouver for the past 10 years. He holds a BFA in Theater Performance from Simon Fraser University. Aryo is interested in the dynamics of power, implications of ideologies, repetition of mythologies, and cultural adaptation.
A UX Researcher with 3 years of experience. She wants to help promote UX research as a profession, as many people don't know it exists and it's a role where diversity of thought and experience is an advantage.
A software engineer that hopes to encourage newcomer to settle in to the tech field in Canada. He also hosts a local tech meetup.
A PMP-certified project manager with 5+ years of work experience in a variety of fields including graphic design, marketing, UI/UX design and project management. Cassie currently works as a project manager at a digital agency building e-commerce websites for large enterprise businesses. She's always had a passion for tech and much of her career was built on the support and mentorship of others so she'd love to share her learnings and advice to someone who can benefit from it.
Carla is the Founder & CEO of Gentle Fawn, a women's clothing design company. She focuses on corporate vision, people, product and business strategy. She has interviewed and hired countless people over the past 20 years, and she'd like to share her experience with someone who is looking for support as they enter into BC's workforce.
A project manager who specializes in digital products such as websites and online paid marketing. Carlie is passionate about creating accessible, sustainable and ethical products and always look to work with individuals who share this value.
Carmen is a product manager working in the areas of e-commerce and digital/mobile technology who has settled in Vancouver two years ago. She has recently applied for an extension work permit and permanent residency and was amazed at how many of her friends have reached out for feedback and inputs on the process. Now, Carmen would like to pay this forward by sharing her experiences living in Vancouver, finding a career and network.
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A utility software consultant with more than ten years of experience working with utilities and municipalities. CJ provides guidance on mobile workforce management projects, as well as IT training and support.
Chandler is a people and culture professional, currently working in the Vancouver tech scene. A born and raised Vancouverite, she is always up to help support and identify ways to connect new people to the city and to Canada!
A front-end developer with almost 20 years experience, currently at a local digital agency as a team lead. Working on UX strategy, UI design review, front-end development, systems/data architecture, and web performance auditing and happy to speak to someone who is working in any of those disciplines, as well as anyone looking to jump into tech team/engineering management.
Daniel was a filmmaker for more than 10 years, volunteer in Africa, and has been a software developer for the past 5 years. He was a newcomer for two times, Africa and Canada.
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A technical project manager, on software projects for 18 years.
A serial entrepreneur, husband, father and life long resident of Vancouver.
Eduardo is a software developer with +20 years experience, who has worked with different technologies and different niches. He came to Canada in 2017 and like to help who want to start new career in IT area, or upgrade their skills pursuing better opportunities.
Emre is a project engineer in tech field with 12 years of overall experience. He loves going camping and boating.
Business development leader who has worked in the software industry for 25 years. She has a focus on banking & e-commerce projects but has also worked with a number of wireless tech companies. She currently runs a civil & family law meditation practice to offer pro bono services that give back to the community.
Fiona is a product marketing leader with experience between hyper-growth start-ups and late-stage companies. Passionate about evolving the craft of product marketing, Fiona believes that product marketing has a really important strategic role in a company that she invests a lot of time educating and mentoring others on.
A product manager with three years of experience in BC working in the tech industry.
20 years of experience in clean tech, moving into leadership roles that benefit from mentoring experience. Geoff knows that immigration will be key for our economy and sees this as a great opportunity to help where he can.
MA. graduate with over 10 years experience in managing projects, events, offline and online communities, volunteers, social media marketing and communications; for organizations with a positive cultural, educational and social impact such as museums. She is currently working in a Metro Vancouver municipal museum in programming capacity.
Harris is a Client Success manager for a startup in the education tech field. He has worked in the private education sector for 5 years and is passionate about the role education plays in developing youth. Born in Vancouver, he recently lived in Shanghai for 2 years when he began learning Mandarin and came back to Vancouver with a desire to support newcomers to Canada.
A product design manager with over 10 years of experience in product, UX, and graphic design.
HR Professional who is currently working in the SaaS industry and has 4+ years experience in the HR field. 8 years ago She immigrated to Canada and looking back she feels it would have been nice to have a guide/friend/mentor to help her through this transition. She is very excited that she have an opportunity to participate and give back to the society in whatever way she can and help newcomers.
Jack is operations professional with specific leadership experience in technology in start-ups and government organizations.
Jacyntha is an educator, public speaker and editor with 20 years of international and local teaching and training experience. She wants to help connect newcomers to professional opportunities by coaching them on interview skills and how to write and edit their resumes and cover letters. Passionate about education at all levels, she would love to support any newcomers interested in working in that field in BC.
Jason has an education in architecture but has been working in sustainability since graduating seven years ago. He started at a small green building consulting firm but he is now at a medium sized architecture firm as part of their in-house sustainability team.
Instructional designer with 8 years experience working in the tech industry, focusing on customer education and customer success. Jasonda has some experience in UX, product management and the general software industry.
Jayleen is an Intern architect with a previous 4 years of experience in the field. She has worked and studied in the Metro Van region so have some local experience with navigating the market here.
Business Analyst and Project Manager in Healthcare for 5 years.
People Operations Professional in the tech industry. She is passionate about connecting and supporting others. Snapp is a program that would allow her to do that and it's something she believes strongly in.
John Zurowski has been working in business for over 15 years. His career has been spent in Sales in both roles as a leader and individual sales rep. John is passionate about networking and sales. Outside of work he enjoys sports such as tennis, soccer, baseball and football.
A social worker working in the healthcare sector with experience working with vulnerable populations.
Katie is the CEO of a non-profit organization in BC, an association that supports over 80 organizations in BC who work directly with newcomers to provide settlement services. Our priorities are building capacity through training, research, policy analysis and representing BC service providers in national settlement and integration forums.
Katie immigrated to Canada 5 years ago, after living in London, and the SF Bay Area. Originally from South Africa, she has lived in a few countries and knows how hard and overwhelming it is to figure out “the system”, make friends, find work, and generally survive.
A Technical Recruiter and Recruiting Program Manager with 4 years of combined Human Resources and recruitment experience in the tech industry. Kaymen studied Marketing and HR as part of my Bachelor of Business Administration degree. His mission is to help newcomers navigate through uncertainties through online peer mentorship and offline knowledge sharing.
Kelly is a factual television producer, director, writer and show runner. She embarked on a freelance career after working as a television journalist - and throughout her career, has improved and expanded her own skills through mentorship.
Kitty is a CPA with over 7 years of experience in the accounting field. This includes both audit experience in public practice (in Vancouver and Hong Kong) and in-house accounting experience in industry. She is currently working in an investment firm located in Vancouver.
An Account Manager in Canada's largest IT Staffing company. He has over 8 years of professional experience in the staffing industry, and he has a lot of knowledge, experience, and vast network that could be utilized by Newcomers. Kyle has been able to help several newcomers during his career, and he thinks that this could be a great way for him to connect with and help even more people!
A lawyer, an author and a post secondary teacher. Laura has also ran a small successful technology business. She believes that her career experience could be very helpful in helping a new immigrant find their footing in BC and she would love to help!
Laurie-Anne is a Vancouver-based TV writer currently living in Toronto (for work, but will be back in Vancouver in February). She worked in reality/factual TV for over 10 years and now she works in scripted TV - currently writing on a new Netflix series in a writer's room. Laurie-Anne loves to mentor and can give advice to writers interested in working in scripted TV and story producers interested in working in factual TV - or anyone paired with anyone interesting in the TV/entertainment world in general.
Lawell has worked in the field of software engineering for now over 32 years. First in software development for 12+ years and then in management for the rest.
Lokesh is a pharmaceutical scientist working in the field of gene therapy using nanomedicine.
Louise has 15+ years in sales and business development in publishing and retail with local and international experience. She is currently working as a Customer Success Manager in the tech field.
A Career Coach, an Employment Counsellor, and a Job Developer.
Manoj has five years of experience in Construction Management and currently works as a Sr. Project Coordinator at Ledcor. He is here to guide newcomers in finding their first opportunity as he was also an immigrant a few years ago.
Mark has been working in tech product roles at smaller Vancouver companies for 8 years. He wants to increase diversity in the field.
Mark started his career as a software engineer and now leads product management at Jane. He would love the opportunity to help someone new to Canada get introduced to our country and the tech scene here in Metro Vancouver. He believes immigration is at the core of our country's prosperity, and he would love to help that where I can.
Maria is a Software Development Manager, leading multiple teams of software developers working with a wide range of technologies. With a background in computer science, she started out as a web developer in the early 2010's and transitioned into management over the last couple of years. Maria immigrated from Guatemala to Canada in the 90's. She likes to use her leadership position to champion diversity and inclusion in tech; She also likes to speak at events about promoting having more minorities in tech, and women in leadership. Maria was a panel speaker at the YWCA Tech Connect in November and in January 2021 and will be featured in a podcast called Men At Work talking about her experiences as a Latina in leadership in the tech industry.
Martha is a successful entrepreneur. She founded and sold 3 tech businesses. Supporting newcomers women has been a joy of my career.
Matt helps organizations find ways to connect to customers by making it more clear how a product or service will help solve their problem. He was the head of marketing at Procurify.com from seed to series b. Matt co-founded inertianetwork.com - where they take clients on bucket list type shared experiences, so they can connect with people, the planet and ultimately themselves. He also co-founded peripherydigital.com - a digital marketing firm focused on helping bridge China and the west.
May is a communications/HR manager with a psychedelic research and healthcare startup. As the child of immigrants, I'm passionate about social equity and am here to help newcomers get set up for success!
People and Culture Manager with 10 years of experience in Human Resources. She is a Canadian-Brazilian who moved to Vancouver 7 years ago. She has a B.A. in Psychology and in 2019 she completed her Masters in Organizational Psychology.
Melisa moved to BC from Ontario in 2019 and knows what it takes to find success in life and at work. She has had mentors and coaches along the way. She wants to give back.
Merve is a product designer focusing on user research & interaction design, with around eight years of experience working in Vancouver, BC. Being an immigrant herself, navigating the challenges of starting a new life in Canada and establishing her career in the last decade, Snapp seems like an excellent opportunity to make meaningful connections with newcomers, share her experience and co-learn.
Operations and program manager currently working in the non-profit sector. She also has experience working at a municipal and private level.
An associate project manager with Web Development experience and a sales background distributing European beer in BC, Canada.
Nazanin came to Canada 7 years ago. Currently, working as a project manager within the tech industry.
Niamh moved to Vancouver, BC in 2009 from Dublin, Ireland. She is an Experience Design and UX research leader that has worked with clients from start-ups to Enterprise Technology, from Government to Airports. She recently mentored a number of talented designers and interns across North America as part of Microsoft’s Garage program.
A systems/design engineer with more than 20 years of experience on international space and defence programs.
Osama is a product professional who moved to Vancouver in 2016. Over the past few years, Osama and his family have learned many lessons about their new home and would love to share that with all newcomers to provide them the help/tips he wishes they had as they explored career changes, social norms and local culture.
A fund-development professional, with 13 years of fundraising and management experience. He is participating to support newcomers to enter the workforce, and have a better life in Canada.
Pinar has 10 years of corporate experience in account management capacity. She is currently working in a non-profit organization as Strategic Initiatives Specialist. She understands how job search can be exhausting and frustrating, and as a person with lived experience she'd like to share her experiences.
Preeti migrated to Canada in 2018 and has a local work experience of 2 years in Vancouver. She would love to connect and, if possible, help fellow architects moving here.
Rahul is working as a Senior Consultant in an IT company and has around 4 years of experience in Business Analysis and Software implementation.
Rajesh came to Canada as a student and worked in hotels managing pricing and inventory after graduating. Rajesh was always interested in entrepreneurship, so he started and ran a small bootstrapped hospitality technology company. Now he's at a Real Estate Tech company as Director of Customer Success.
An engineer (who's worked in academic R&D and startups) who's moved many times (within Canada + France) and experienced the challenges of immigration first-hand, as well as through family and acquaintances. These days, his primary focus is in supporting early-stage startups.
A software engineer with 15 years experience working in Vancouver. He's worked at a very large, medium and small sized computer game companies. While he started out doing mostly front end development work, as senior engineer at PeaceGeeks he's working on the client, server and big picture stuff.
Robert has been working in marketing, sales, and business development. The reason he's participating is because his parents are immigrants from the Netherlands, and they shared with him about the challenges of becoming used to the social and workplace norms here in Canada.
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A UX/UI designer who moved to Vancouver 7 years ago and got his interaction design degree at Emily Carr University. He is currently working at Curative remotely to help build the infrastructure to slow down the spread of COVID-19.
A product management leader and a long-time member of the Vancouver product community with a deep interest in helping others find their opportunity in product management. He’s currently at Productboard leading their product excellence practice and previously led teams at Thinkific, Finning Digital, Central 1 Credit Union, Inovera Solutions, and Blue Zone Entertainment.
Simmi has proudly been building towards a reality where she is working in the creative arts, supporting the intricate and amazing processes behind these works. Thrilled by the way marketing is able to rally the people behind the mutual enjoyment of creative work, She is all about putting her head and heart to work.
A Product Marketing Manager with over three years experience in the tech industry in Vancouver. Back in Australia, Steven worked in Human Resources within the banking sector for over 5 years.
Indigenous professional with 6 years experience working in provincial government in a number of different capacities in the social sector.
A Sales Representative with 9 years in the technology industry. Vanessa has been in customer service for 18 years. She has many mentors for different areas of her life and would like the opportunity to give back.
Snapp is a project by PeaceGeeks funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
Want to get in touch?
Email us at snapp@peacegeeks.org
