Andrew Gemino (www.andrewgemino.com) is an Associate Professor the Faculty of Business Administration at the Surrey Campus of Simon Fraser University. He received his Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of BC. His research interests are information technology project management (www.PMPerspectives.org) and the evaluation of business analysis techniques. His work has been published in Communications of the ACM, Journal of MIS, European Journal of IS, Data and Knowledge Engineering, Requirements Engineering and Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery. He is funded through grants from the National Sciences and Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and he recently co-authored a textbook entitled “Experiencing MIS” which was voted Pearson Education Canada Book of the Year for 2008. He is President of the AIS Special Interest Group on Systems Analysis and Design (SIGSAND – sigsand.aisnet.org), a member of the Association of Information Systems (AIS) and the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC). Andrew also volunteers his time in the Surgeon Information System Working Group for the Surgical Oncology Network associated with the BC Cancer Agency.
Through his tireless work, Sam continues to be committed to the betterment of his communities. In 2006, he received the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award for leadership and community involvement. His passion is to inspire and motivate others in their personal and professional development through his many adventures and reflections on life’s journeys.
Currently, Sam works for the Faculty of Business at Simon Fraser University in a unique capacity as the Manager, Student Engagement and Recruitment. What does this position mean? Through his industry experience, his focus is to enhance the business students experience outside of the classroom and build on their leadership skills. He created the Five Pillars of Student Engagement where students have the ability to design their personal and leadership development outside of the classroom through club activities, international exchange, academic case competitions, conferences and student development. Added to this, he also teaches an Organizational Behaviour Theory course. When the opportunity presents itself, Sam makes himself available to students to do workshops on student’s personal/professional development, relationship building (not networking), and career development. Finally, Sam is also a mentor and coach to countless students who are seeking to establish their goals.
Sam recently completed his contract with the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Bid Corporation (of which he often says, was the most intense and exciting position he will ever have) to get the games to Vancouver. Sam was the Community Consultation Manager and was responsible for providing public information about the bid and building relationships with the various communities. He was the representative of the bid at the grassroots community level which involved countless information sessions and public presentations. Prior to working at the bid, Sam was responsible for road safety at ICBC and community relations and was always out in the community speaking to audiences at various levels to reduce crashes in the community.
Sam received his Masters in Leadership Studies from the University of Exeter in England and has a double major in Business Administration and Political Science from SFU. He also has his Human Resources certificate from BCIT and has completed his adult education designation with the Vancouver Community College. He has completed a nine month leadership program through Leadership Vancouver and in 2002 received the Outstanding Graduate Award. He was a serving member of the Board and the Chair of the Graduate Network Committee for Leadership Vancouver.
He also was a tenor drummer for the BC Regiment Irish Pipes and Drums for almost 10 years.
Sam’s favourite saying: “Everyone’s life is an autobiography, but you have to make yours worth reading!”
