"A2Z Leadership Masterclass" is a philanthropic project created by A2Z Capital specifically for talented young individuals in Canada. Its purpose is to give back to society by providing targeted career guidance to participants, effectively enhancing their professional competence, critical thinking, and overall leadership abilities. Starting in 2018 as the A2Z Scholarship Internship Program, the Leadership Masterclass has been offering learning opportunities annually to university students who possess a solid academic background, a keen interest in finance and investment, and aspire to work in the financial and investment industries. The most outstanding students receive the A2Z Scholarship upon completion of the program as an encouragement. This year's mentors include federal senator, renowned law firm partner, active UBC professor, technology startup CEO with doctoral degree, international company presidents, and executives. The lineup is exceptionally strong, so stay tuned for more updates!
Awards
This program will be running for 8 weeks each year. One (1) scholarship of $2,000 CAD will be offered to the winner.
Unique Features
An eligible applicant must
Team and Mentors Profiles
Appointed to the Senate of Canada in November 2016, the Honourable Yuen Pau Woo sits as an independent representing British Columbia. He served as Facilitator of the Independent Senators Group from 2017 to 2021.
Senator Woo has worked on public policy issues related to Canada’s relations with Asian countries for more than 30 years. From 2005 to 2014, he was President and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, during which he also served on the Standing Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and as Chair of PECC’s State of the Region Report. He is a Senior Fellow at Simon Fraser University’s Graduate School of Business, and a member of the Trilateral Commission. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of the Mosaic Institute and the Canadian Ditchley Foundation.
Senator Woo is a joint chair of the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations and a member of the following Senate Standing Committees: Foreign Affairs and International Trade; Banking, Trade and Commerce; and Rules, Procedures, and the Rights of Parliament.
David has extensive experience in the mining and oil & gas industries over the past 30+ years and most recently in the bio-pharma sector. He was a director of a number of Canadian, Australian and Brazilian mining companies in the past and is current a director of Zijin Mining and Sinomine Resources. He is also the Managing Director of Oryx Bio- Tech.
He is the author of Ins and Outs of Global Mining published in Chinese.
Laurie manages a team of over 100 coaches, coaching in over 20 languages. With over 21 years of experience in International Executive Search, Laurie has held many leadership roles since joining the organization in 2001. In Montreal, Canada, she was the VP Business Development, in China she was the Managing Director of the Beijing office and has returned to Canada calling Vancouver home.
Volunteering
Human Resource Forum (Past Chairman) Beijing European Union Chamber of Commerce in China
May 2014 – Present
European Chamber Cross-industry Mentor Initiative Coach/Trainer/Moderator
Jan 2019 – Present
Educating Girls of Rural China (EGRC)
Feb 2016 – Present
International Coaching Federation Director ICF Vancouver (Coaching Services Not-for-Profit)
Nov 2019 – Present
Weiguo (William) He practices corporate law and has extensive experience in mergers & acquisitions and investments in the mining, real estate, and technology sectors. William has played a key role in its successful development over the years.
He is deputy Director of the International Natural Resources Research Centre of Tsinghua University School of Law and served as Joint Supervisor for LL.M. Students of Tsinghua University School of Law. William also serves as Arbitrator of China Mining Association Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration and Arbitrator of Zhanjiang Arbitration Centre. In addition, He acts as President of Tsinghua University Alumni Association (Vancouver), former Director of a TSX-listed mining company, former director of a well-known charity organization and is currently a member of the Fund-Raising Committee of BC’s Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Jeffrey Liu holds Master degree in engineering from China, MBA degree of Simon Fraser University, and Americas MBA by the alliance of Vanderbilt University, SFU, FIA (Brazil) and ITAM (Mexico).
Mr.Liu has ever worked in more than 30 countries, with 20+ years experience in international projects management, mining business management, investment, M&A and renewable energy strategic planning and development across Latin America, Africa, Asia-Pacific and North America. He has rich experience in cross-culture, multinational corporation management and governance. Mr.Liu has ever held senior positions in some state-owned Co. and listed companies in China, mining companies in Canada and Argentina. Mr.Liu currently holds executive position in Gotion, which is jointly owned by Volkswagen and Gotion High-Tech, and responsible for the resources strategic planning in Americas.
Patrick McAndless, or “Geodude", is a former award winning geoscientist (now retired), who has turned his attention, following a successful career, to "helping others discover their greatness" and develop their personal brand.
Z. Jane Wang received the B.Sc. degree from Tsinghua University in 1996 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Connecticut in 2000 and 2002, respectively, all in electrical engineering. She has been Research Associate at the University of Maryland, College Park from 2002 to 2004. Since Aug 2004, she has been with the ECE dept. at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, and she is currently Professor.
She is an IEEE Fellow, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE) and a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada. Her research interests are in the broad areas of statistical signal processing and machine learning. She has published 180+ journal papers and 120+ peer-reviewed conference papers. She has been Co-Founder and Chief Scientist for Cortic Tech., a Vancouver startup, focusing on developing AI Education products, and their team won the First Grand Prize in the OpenCV AI Competition 2021. She has been key Organizing Committee Member for numerous IEEE conferences and workshops (e.g., the co-Technical Chair for ChinaSIP2014, GlobalSIP2017 and ICIP2021, and the co-General Chair of MMSP2018 and DSLW2021). She has been Associate Editor for the IEEE TSP, SPL, TMM, TIFS, TBME, and SPM, and Area Editor of SPM, and she is currently serving as Editor-in-Chief for IEEE SPL.
Previous Recipients of A2Z Scholarship
How to Apply
Applications for A2Z 2023 Leadership MasterClass are open. We invite qualified and interested applicants to submit applications and resumes to this email address: hr@a2zcapital.ca, and please indicate in the subject line of the email: A2Z 2023 Leadership Masterclass + Applicant's Name.
Deadline of application is June 15, 2023. Only shortlisted applicants will be invited for interview.