Honours Bachelor of Commerce • Queen's University
Bio
Jake grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia before moving to Ontario to attend the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University to complete a Bachelor of Commerce, specializing in business strategy and social impact. Having lived near the ocean for most of his life, he has always felt a strong connection and pride to protecting our natural resources.
Jake is trained as a certified Climate Risk and Sustainability professional, developing a fascination and skill set for how organizations are managing and mitigating the impacts of climate risk through their business strategy. While studying at Queen’s, his curiosity for environmental sustainability led him to complement his business education with courses in environmental science and innovation. Through this, he became inspired to apply a sustainability lens to his other coursework, seeing its applicability to many theoretical concepts that were taught. Jake was motivated to become a teaching assistant for a Social Impact and Innovation course, where he was able to further explore and teach these key concepts. One area he found specific interest in was sustainable agriculture and managing food systems.
Community involvement has always been an important value of Jake’s. He has held leadership of several extra-curricular activities, managing programs that encourage students to become involved with local nonprofits and community initiatives. Examples of his leadership include being President of Queen’s Habitat for Humanity, where he organized over 100 student volunteers to build houses for low-income families and being Co-Chair of Queen’s Non-Profit, where he led a team to educate students on the non-profit sector through conferences, volunteer programs, and job placements.
After graduating, Jake pursued his interests in the field through supporting work on an organic farm in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where he helped launch a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program for community members during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This changed everything for him and he knew then that he wanted to build a career supporting work that made a real impact on protecting the natural environment. He then moved to Toronto to start his professional career as a Management Consultant at KPMG in their advisory team, where he supported clients with organizational transformation initiatives and social sustainability programming. In his time at KPMG, Jake was quick to gain confidence from clients and team members as a dedicated professional, often leading client relationships and deliverables as a Senior Consultant. He worked on projects ranging from implementing technical global SAP systems, to leading change management for provincial healthcare system reforms, to building digital tools for organizations prioritizing ESG and Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity.
After nearly 3 years at KPMG, Jake made the decision to follow his passion for environmental sustainability further and moved across the world to New Zealand. There, he immersed himself in the work of organic farming communities to learn more about sustainable agriculture, managing food systems, and combating climate change. Jake’s experience in New Zealand was transformative in allowing him to understand the criticality of protecting food systems and managing climate risk in the wake of the climate crisis. This has become a main motivating factor for him to pursue a Master of Science in Sustainability Management.
Outside of his professional endeavours, Jake enjoys exploring the outdoors in any way possible. He enjoys traveling, and is always keen for a hike through nature. Jake finds relaxation through being creative, often spending time playing the piano or amateurly painting.