Originally posted by Jordan Fujiwara.

This is not the first time this year that Katie Baglole has had an article written about her. She has recently appeared in both the Financial Post and Prince Edward Island’s The Guardian. What’s her secret? Having an impressive story, ambition, and a bit of luck. The Financial Post was doing a segment on women in MBA programs with a finance focus. They got in touch with our program’s marketing manager who picked Katie out of the ladies who are in a financial role (Katie works for TD Securities in the Trading Risk Services department as a P&L (Profit and Loss) and Risk Analyst in Toronto). She comes from Summerside, PEI, so when the people at The Guardian newspaper read the Post article they called her up!

Katie has been busy these past six months: “After my experience in the MBA program, working a 12-hour day is a piece of cake. It really prepared me for the typically unstructured day I have.” Her day-to-day at TD involves supporting traders in London, Dublin and Singapore. Her team monitors live trades and ensures that the transactions are transparent and within certain risk limits. Since the nature of the trading desk is unpredictable and very fast-paced, she is forced to keep up! She also just finished training a new co-worker, a task that would have been impossible if not for the 8-month duration of the residency. “The length of the residency lets you sink your teeth in and get involved in more projects,” she says. “You get a much better understanding of the business [versus a typical 4-month co-op].”

While she is very busy at work, she is equally busy in her spare time! Katie’s undergrad was at UPEI where she took a BBA with a focus in International Business. Now, along with other classmates, she’s leading the charge to ratify the defunct Dalhousie International Business Society (link is to their Facebook Group). “We’re planning to organize case competitions, line up guest speakers and have a lot of fun,” she explains. Katie also helped captain a team for the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in Toronto. The effort began in March and lasted about three months. If you have been visiting our Facebook page you may have noticed periodic posts detailing their progress. Last week I wrote a small piece on their accomplishment, but it is awesome enough to write about again: They raised $5,100 to support the Canadian Cancer Society! “I heard about the relay through the grapevine and thought it’d be an awesome way to get some friends together and do something meaningful at the same time. It was a blast!” They do plan on doing it again next year.

But that’s not all! Katie, along with myself and a few others from our class, participated in a Corporate Tour back in May. During that tour Katie met Martha Fell, a Dal alum and CEO of Women in Capital Markets, an organization that ‘promotes the entry, advancement, and development of women in the Capital Markets industry.’ It has an accredited mentorship program and Katie is planning to help bring awareness of WCM to the ladies at Dalhousie! If all that’s not enough, she also studied for and wrote the CFA Level 1 exam less than a month ago. “It was definitely a challenge, but it was a good experience too. These financial skills will be a strong asset, regardless of which career path I choose.”

Clearly she’s taken Toronto by storm! But what about her experiences pre-Toronto? I asked her about her most memorable experience during the first academic phase (July–December ’09). She says: “The hands-on nature of the projects. The highlight for me was our first ‘integrative’ session, the Millennium Development Goals. It was great to see the whole class come together to work on something so impactful. It was special for me: our group was tackling Infant Mortality and I got to incorporate my experience in Tanzania.” Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Katie’s a world traveller who has taught English in Korea and volunteered in Tanzania and been to countless other places.

Here’s some parting advice from Katie, aimed at the new class who will be starting on Monday: “When you’re taking the classes it’s going to be tough and feel unstructured and be very difficult at times. When you start your residency you’re going to be happy you’ve had that experience. Life isn’t that structured.”

Thanks Katie! Happy Canada Day to all our readers and we’ll see you next Thursday (or earlier, if I do some pieces on the brand new crop of students!).