Magic Moment: I was touring an international delegation around Toronto – my magic moment was when I realized so many of the points of interest were projects that I had been involved with, even quite early in my career.
Key Influence: The community and team engaged with the early phases of the Regent Park Revitalization
I joined the Regent Park Revitalization at the start of construction on Phase 1. The entire experience was so immersive and transformative. There were many elements of that project that continue to shape me to this day: approaches to equitable engagement, transparency in redevelopment, understanding how to embed planning principles in development, and how to foster successful long-term commercial relationships to name a few. In particular, I have to give a shout out to Liz Root – she taught me to ‘own the critical path’ which is one of the most valuable lessons I’ve had in work…and life!
Next Big Challenge As An Industry: I think most of us share the belief that housing affordability and climate action are the most pressing issues facing city regions globally. On a more personal note, and in the face of growing economic disparities in our own city-region, I think we need to consciously make space to create places where people can feel joy in their city. Joy in the city should be universally accessible – that means designing and buildings places where people can express themselves, have fun, and feel part of the community.
Secret Talent: Comedy writer
On Championing Others… Innovation and wisdom transcend job titles and seniority. I try as much as possible to share and amplify great ideas and support implementation, especially when they come from colleagues who are just getting started with their careers.
One word that captures you: Passionate. The work we do is so important, it is impossible not to be passionate about it!
erin June 5th, 2022
Posted In:
Magic Moment: Seeing the first homeowners move into a community that I had stewarded through the planning, land development and servicing process. Being on the site in person and having the physical recognition, not just the theoretical understanding, that decisions made about the fabric of streets, parks, road layouts, sidewalks, and so on, in a project deeply impact the way people are facilitated to interact and flow as a community. Being in a position to make those decisions is a privilege and responsibility that informs how I approach any type of land development project today.
Key Influence: Dr. Bill Rodman, Professor of Anthropology, McMaster University
I took my first anthropology class from Dr. Rodman and was blown away at the subject matter and his excitement and passion. This lead me to pursue two degrees in the subject and a lifelong frame of reference to the deep interconnections between the social/economic/political structure of a society and the lived experience of individuals.
Next Big Challenge As An Industry: More affordable housing and delivering sustainability in the construction and operation of communities and buildings.
Secret Talent: Making pottery on the wheel.
On Championing Others… Creating diverse teams, internally and externally is the key step. Championing people with non-traditional paths to the industry is also important.
One word that captures you: Creative. Creating communities and places to live is like a 3D, life-sized art project when you think about!
erin June 5th, 2022
Posted In:
Magic Moment: Over the years through my work in Economic Development I was involved in attracting businesses to the province. At one of the grand openings of the new companies we had brought to Ontario, as I was going to my car after the event, two women who were now full time employees at the company, stopped me and said thank-you. They said that one year ago they didn’t have jobs and now they were going to be able to buy Christmas presents for their kids. It taught me that sometimes we never know the impact our work has.
Key Influence: My father – Charles Cudahy
He made me believe that no door was ever closed to me. He had the highest level of sales ability and ethics I have ever seen and he firmly believed that nothing happens in business until somebody sells something.
Next Big Challenge As An Industry: The challenges we are facing include affordability, meeting housing demands and addressing the energy transition, climate change and resiliency. As an industry we need to continue open dialogue and communication to find solutions between municipalities and developers/builders. Working together to find a menu of options that will help us navigate to positive results and avoid unintended consequences.
Secret Talent: I am an actor in community theatre!
On Championing Others… Throughout my career I have hired, supported, mentored and advanced my female team members. My peers and staff know that I have their backs and will go the extra mile to see them achieve success. In my current role we support and sponsor Construction/Development Research, creating new market opportunities and provide on-going Advanced Building Science webinars and training at no charge for all industry participants across the province. accomplishments.
One word that captures you: Tenacious. When I believe in something I will never give up.
erin June 5th, 2022
Posted In:
Magic Moment: Being a service leader and building a high performing team – having high expectations, delivering amazing results, being sought after as a trusted advisor/team, supporting career growth, and coming from a place of abundance that there is so much to do – and the knowing that we can collaborate and cooperate to all be successful.
Key Influence: CFO at my first organization
In all situations would ask me – what will best move us forward?
Professional Coach
I learned to embrace my super powers – having a growth mindset, offering creative business solutions and helping people be successful
Next Big Challenge As An Industry: I learned to embrace my super powers – having a growth mindset, offering creative business solutions and helping people be successful
Secret Talent: I truly ‘see’ people, like in the movie Avatar.
On Championing Others… As a Certified Executive Coach, I offer coaching to others within the industry specifically. My leadership style, confidence and critical thinking evolved as a result of my own coaching experience and I want to pay it forward, especially to those earlier in their carrier or who are faced with barriers.
One word that captures you: Growth. It’s one of my core values and it applies to everything I do and what I offer.
erin June 5th, 2022
Posted In:
Magic Moment: I worked as a consultant on a foreign direct investment strategy with a focus on real estate. Till then in my career, I was focused on becoming an academic in international relations, as I wanted to focus on the importance of negotiations in conflict areas. Working as a consultant on the subject, allowed me to understand how interconnected, interdependent and multi-disciplinary real estate is. Real estate intersects: history, politics (local and federal), identity (personal and political), security, health, business, society, planet, technology, and economics (micro and macro). It was moments during that consulting period especially during my conversation with the stakeholders– decision makers and those affected–that shaped both my intellectual & personal curiosity in real estate. Being born a political refugee in India, there was a natural interest to understand land rights, ownership, and equity. To emerging young leaders this is the key. By aligning your personal values & interests with your skills & work experiences enables you to be fully vested in your work. Finding this alignment is not always easy — it might take a magic moment or two; sometimes it is linear and sometime its not. It is your own journey.
Key Influence: My mother, Tsundu (in Tibetan means perseverance) fled her country, Tibet, in her teens. She built her life on kindness, ‘perseverance’, ethics, entrepreneurship, hard work, and resilience. She prioritized education & instilled in us the quest for constant learning. She taught us on the preciousness of human life, ability to embrace joy & humor, humility, and the importance to know that it is always the right time to speak up/for and help others less fortunate. How she lives, lived her life through both her perspective and actions has influenced and shaped my life. On her shoulders I rise.
My brother’s ability to bring together people (from all walks of life, with diversity of ideas, lived experience), foster relations, harness potential into kinetic energy. Be it billion dollar project finance across the world, or drive mindfulness in Wall Street or build capacity in rural India, he is driven to empower, and effect change for a more transformative society and economy.
Next Big Challenge As An Industry: The next big challenges to tackle as an industry and as a successful city-region, is how do all stakeholders coordinate & align ourselves to address the intersection of societal, economics, health, climate change and technological issues.
Secret Talent: Now that is a secret!
On Championing Others… I feel privileged to have the platform today, which was shaped by so many others before me. I owe to them and the industry that I love to champion the best minds, best ideas & talents, by engaging youth, speaking at panels so that others in the audience can identify, and be part of conversations that may deal with policy matters to ensure that all voices are equally represented.
One word that captures you: Resilient and curious. I believe that any challenge and adversity is transformative in nature, making me quite resilient with respect to seeing things through but also knowing when to adapt or pivot. As cliche as it sounds I am a lifelong learner, always curious to learn.
erin June 22nd, 2021
Posted In:
Magic Moment: The unexpected gifts of developing great teams and doing all kinds of work in relationship with one another is a consistent theme for magic moments in my life. Throughout my career, finding my footing and purpose as part of a team in my profession and in my community has consistently revealed new depth and different perspectives to expand my skillset and mindset. Some notable examples include the chance to help build a multinational company with my colleagues and mentors at BTY, the opportunity to learn about the power of community through supporting young LGBTQ2S leaders at Youthline, and the necessity to act with responsibility for our collective future by supporting my teams and peers at TechGirls Canada, the Women’s Leadership Initiative Toronto (WLI) and the Women’s Infrastructure Network Toronto (WIN).
Key Influence:
Joe Rekab, Chair and former Managing Partner, BTY: Joe epitomizes inclusive leadership, entrepreneurial passion, and strategic vision necessary to build a thriving global organization. As a mentor, he generously shares insights and praise, and always provides constructive advice with grace and humour. I am grateful to be one of many people in the industry who have and continue to learn from him on what it takes to build shared culture to achieve success togetherJoe epitomizes inclusive leadership, entrepreneurial passion, and strategic vision necessary to build a thriving global organization. As a mentor, he generously shares insights and praise, and always provides constructive advice with grace and humour. I am grateful to be one of many people in the industry who have and continue to learn from him on what it takes to build shared culture to achieve success together.
Saadia Muzaffar, Founder, TechGirls Canada: Saadia personifies the power of making a beautiful world by doing what you love. Through her mentorship I continue to learn the art of crafting new possibilities by weaving seemingly disparate people and places together. She is a visionary leader and communicator who has reset the norms of civic engagement in Canada’s STEM sectors and challenges us to act with deeper understanding not tokenism to build systemic change for socioeconomic equality.
Next Big Challenge As An Industry: The biggest overarching challenge and opportunity for our industry is to evolve from the transactional approach to our roles in city-building toward an interconnected transformation as stewards of a healthy and equitable future. This will require us to shift incentives from “winner takes all” to understanding how we as professionals can serve the greater good of winning together. It will also require us to build and sustain relationships across differences to cultivate real city-building consensus. The global pandemic is a life and death wake-up call to optimize for interdependence.
On Championing Others… My lived experience and cultural knowledge have helped me develop a strong calling to serve others through business and communication skills, by creating and holding space for marginalized people, and by developing programming for collective learning and relationship building across public/private/not-for-profit sectors. I find this type of work life-giving through my involvement in TechGirls Canada, which conducts social and scientific research on women’s labour market participation in STEM fields, and through my committee work with WLI and WIN to spotlight the leadership of amazing women and advance more opportunities for equitable city building across GTHA.
Secret Talent: Sorry, this will have to remain a secret!
One word that captures you: The best word to describe me would be “versatile” because I routinely wear many hats, cross many backgrounds and boundaries, switch sectors and languages, and thrive on the creative challenges of making something new.
erin June 22nd, 2021
Posted In:
Next Big Challenge As An Industry: The greatest challenge in our industry is continued sustainability and getting to net zero. For me, I believe social sustainability is part and parcel for ensuring any kind of environmental sustainability. For example, as we consider green sustainability for the city-region, are we at the same time looking at accessible housing and advocating for our unhoused neighbours in an equally robust manner? To get there, we need to reflect on social sustainability as being part of the equation. Looking at this challenge through the lens of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion can provide a respectful approach for understanding how these issues impact the types of spaces that we are creating. In order for our buildings to be innovative and sustainable, we have to be inclusive about what these spaces represent and who they are designed for.
On Championing Others… am committed to furthering mentorship from within the office and mentoring in partnership with other outside organizations. At Diamond Schmitt I am a mentor for OAA interns and I also mentor students and young professionals at BADIA (Black Architects and Interior Designers Association) in Toronto. Throughout my career I have been fortunate to have had many mentors along my way and I continue to keep in touch with them. By championing others, I am not only reciprocating the generous guidance I have received, but I am also fostering the growth of a wider network of people to talk about career and industry challenges at any point in our professional journey. Mentorship is ideal for someone that may think their network might be limited. Working with my architectural student at BAIDA this past year was a wonderful experience. I couldn’t believe how at her young age she was already a skillful mentor to teenage girls thinking about STEM/STEAM, and pursuing careers in architecture and engineering. I am excited to be part of her network today and can’t wait to see what she does tomorrow, over the next 5, 10, 20 years. My immediate future has me looking forward to mentoring Indigenous architectural students this fall with the first applicants from the ḴEL,ḴELOŦEN ȻE S,ISTEW̱ Fund. The recently announced fund will support Indigenous architectural and engineering students in British Columbia.
erin June 22nd, 2021
Posted In:
