2006 ALUMNI RECIPIENTS

Allan Ghosn, 26

Education: Bachelor of Commerce, University of Ottawa (2003)

Success Story: Allan has enjoyed helping to execute the expansion plan for this computer repair and maintenance services company. This involved making the choice to go the franchise route instead of growing corporately. Due to GradeAtech.com’s self-built Advanced Service Logistics software and catchy brand, franchisees are now finding it easy to successfully run their own gradeAtechs.com business.

Best Advice Received: Bruce Firestone taught me to listen and learn from other entrepreneurs who have succeeded and failed. The stories I’ve heard from many experienced executives have truly helped me shape our company.

Inspiration: The challenge of building something great. We’ve build gradeAtechs.com to live up to the meaning of Grade A for computer service. There are always ways to improve on making happy clients even happier and that’s helped us with word of mouth – reputation is everything in this town.

Favourite Canadian: My father. After emigrating from Lebanon in the 1970s, he worked diligently to adopt and contribute to our multicultural society. He has been a serial entrepreneur with an unparalleled work ethic, which has had a profound impact on me and my approach to business.

Someone else for a day: I’d like to be Carlos Ghosn, a distant relative who is president and CEO of Nissan worldwide and has turned the company around. I’d like to feel what it’s like to drive a corporate machine that big.