In typical Ivey fashion, Keenan Hossack’s career seeds were planted even before he graduated. It was through the Ivey Analytics Lab (IAL), where he spent 16 weeks honing his data crunching skills in a real-world environment. While there, he met his future colleagues at EY, a company that uses data and technology to help their clients grow, transform, and operate.

“I work with the same people now at EY that I collaborated with while in the Analytics Lab,” Hossack explains. “I impressed while there and I had a job offer prior to graduation. It’s a great example of the networking benefits of Ivey.”

Hossack says he always meets Ivey grads at events or through his work and is constantly in awe of their success and of the diversity in their career paths and experiences.

“The biggest thing is that there is so much inspiring work being done from Ivey grads, and it seems like it keeps growing every time I meet someone new.” Hossack says. “Ivey’s name is very respected in consulting.”

While working in his first career at Ford, Hossack kept thinking of making a change into the data analytics world. He reflected on an internship that he had at Royal Bank of Canada that exposed him to the power and endless possibilities of data. More specifically, he wanted a career that allowed him to make tangible differences in the ways businesses operate and thrive in the modern world.

“I loved how my program at Ivey wasn’t solely focused on theory,” Hossack says, “but on the practical business side of things and how they taught us all to be well-rounded, to show us how to bridge the gap between data and real life.”

Hossack says that most projects he’s working on now deal with helping organizations wrapping their heads around the power of data. He enjoys the challenge of convincing clients to modernize their growth strategies, and to show them the transformative potential of AI and analytics.

“Some organizations are a bit behind the curve. What I love the most is when they begin to understand and embrace the opportunities that our analysis can provide.”

Ivey Assistant Professor in Management Science, Tiffany Bayley is one of many mentors Hossack is grateful for. Specifically, Hossack was impressed by how Bayley inspired him to participate in class discussions, which gave him confidence in his ideas and approach to problems.

“She (Bayley) always emphasized the importance of making our own decisions and how we can best make use of data in practice,” Hossack says. “In fact, this was true of all of Ivey’s faculty. They pushed us to be the best we could be.”