Originally posted by Jordan Fujiwara.

Hello, hello! Finally, we pick up from where we left off in December and get back to some student interviews. There’s only a few more people left in the Class of 2011 to cover, and I’d better get to it quick because we are DONE in less than five weeks. Wow. That’s a bit of a trip.

So without further ado, let me introduce you to Christopher Humphries. Anyone who knows him will tell you that Christopher has a ton of energy. We all know him as one of those guys who is definitely not afraid to ask questions or speak his mind in class, as someone who’s willing to take a little risk, as someone who’s driven to succeed. Like me, Christopher’s undergrad was in Psychology (BAH from Queen’s). He’s from Toronto originally and has been thoroughly charmed by this little gem of a city we call Halifax: “It’s been incredible living in Atlantic Canada,” he says. “I plan on going back to Ontario and I’m really going to miss it here.”

Christopher has certainly had an interesting experience with the program. In general, he says, “I’ve grown as a person a lot during it. I’d say the benefit I got from it was 25% academic and 25% career, as in networking skills and career management. But 50% was personal growth outside of the specific facts you learn: building those interpersonal skills, working with others and teams, getting to the bottom of issues and knowing what questions to ask.”

Specifically, he’s been involved with a promising biomedical startup and had a very interesting corporate residency with Transport Canada as a Special Projects Officer in its Security and Emergency Preparedness Department. Which should we discuss first? Flipping a coin, one sec.

Okay: Christopher’s residency! It was a government position dealing with security in transportation, so we’re not exactly privy to the deep details. But Christopher was able to say he reported to the Regional Director and worked on projects that he assigned. He would coordinate the projects and got to travel all across Atlantic Canada in doing so. They did a lot of hands-on stuff; Christopher notes that it was pretty cool to be able to see the inner operations of airport security and to get a tour of one of Halifax’s major seaports. He was even out on the airport tarmac on some occasions, helping keep Canada safe and sound. Thanks, man!

On to the entrepreneurial story! I’ll let him talk about this one as I’ve been hogging all the words: “When I came here I didn’t really know that much about entrepreneurship. It wasn’t what I came to do. I wanted to look at leadership and anything else that felt right… but I found I was enjoying all my courses and didn’t have a clear sense of what I wanted to focus on. I ended up taking Professor Roach’s New Venture Creation course on a whim; I had to fill up a slot, haha! And I LOVED it. I loved the problem-solving and having to deal with all aspects of business simultaneously.”

It was early in this course that Mr. Florentin Wilfart, a fellow Dal student, stood up in front of the class and put out a request for some MBA students to assist with developing the business plan for a new biomedical technology that would greatly decrease the negative impacts of inhaled anaesthetic procedures (later dubbed ZEROSORB). Christopher and colleague Zach Silbernagel volunteered and the rest is history. They worked tirelessly with Florentin and developer Dr. Michael Schmidt over the next 8 months, going on to several business plan competitions and even snagging first prize in one of them (BMO APEX at the University of New Brunswick) and a very close second in another (Ivey IBK Capital).

“It took things to a whole other level. You know, you can talk about riding a bike, but actually doing it is something else entirely. I learned more from this than anything else,” Christopher beams. “It was hard work, yes; it was hard to balance it with academics and all our school deadlines. But I got to make connections with Florentin and Dr. Schmidt, and got to learn how to work with people like them who don’t have as much of business background, but have a much richer, deeper background in science. I got to meet lots of other young entrepreneurs, judges and speakers at the competitions. It turns out to have been the best experience [in the MBA] and has changed the direction of my career aspirations.”

That’s right, Christopher has “gotten the bug” as he puts it. The dynamism of entrepreneurship and business development captured his heart and he is aiming to blossom into that field once he graduates. He certainly has the spirit for it, and we all will watch eagerly to see what he creates and nurtures.

That’s all for now! The schedule for these will be a little erratic as the end-of-semester workload presses on, but they will all get done! Cheers.