Co-Chair, Young Entrepreneur Conference (YEC), UofT

May 2024 — April 2025
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The YEC Team wrapping up the event with student competitors and industry representatives.

As Co-Chair of YEC, I turned a student case competition into a platform where strategy, partnerships, and storytelling met, creating impact for Rotman MBA and undergraduate students, industry representatives, sponsors, and case judges alike.

My role as Co-Chair of the Young Entrepreneur Conference, which I co-led alongside Melody Cheng, was a combination of strategic planning, partnership development, and sponsorship acquisition. At its core, it was about leading by example. Together, we guided a cross-functional team of 15 student leaders, aligning efforts across marketing, partnerships, and programming to deliver a flagship conference that reconnected students, alumni, and industry after years of dormancy. The experience taught me that leadership is less about directing tasks and more about building trust, collaboration, and a shared vision.

Opening Remarks

The Story

The Young Entrepreneur Conference (YEC) has been a staple at the University of Toronto since 2010, but like many initiatives, it came to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic. By the time Melody and I stepped in as Co-Chairs, YEC had been dormant for years, and reviving it felt like building a start-up from scratch. In many ways, we became ‘young entrepreneurs’ ourselves.

Our goals were simple:

GOAL 1 — Run a successful case competition.
- Results: We delivered on this with +80 attendees, including 40 case competitors. We were honoured to host +10 esteemed industry representatives from leading firms like PwC, Amazon, KPMG, Vector Institute, Salesforce, and more!
GOAL 2 — Rebuild bridges between students and industry.
- Through networking opportunities, and Rotman MBA mentorship, we created touchpoints that gave undergraduates portfolio-ready experiences and professionals meaningful exposure to student talent.
GOAL 3 — Leave a lasting impression for future YECs to come!
1. Every student competitor, corporate sponsor, industry representative, Rotman MBA mentor walked away with value and a positive impression of YEC as a student organization worth investing in.

YEC Winning Team: Always The Solution won a $200 cash prize and an exclusive networking lunch at LinkedIn Toronto Headquarters.

The Challenge

We started with a budget of $0.

There was no safety net, no guaranteed funding, and no ready-made playbook for bringing YEC back after years of dormancy. To make it work, I had to be resourceful, scrappy, and creative.

The first step was building a foundation. I created a central Notion workspace to act as our operating hub, giving our team clarity on tasks, timelines, and goals.

From there, I bootstrapped our operations, drafting a sponsorship package entirely from scratch and pitching it to potential partners. Those early conversations weren’t easy, but persistence paid off: I secured a venue at the Rotman School of Management, funding from our corporate partners (LinkedIn & Interac Corp.) That money transformed a $0 budget into a $1K operating plan, which we managed carefully, even reducing costs by 15% to break even while still delivering a highly impactful event.