Lesley Charter-Smith, Director
Lesley’s 20 years of experience as a chartered accountant working in various roles has honed her relationship-building and critical thinking skills and has prepared her for her favourite role yet, where she gets to work with smart and inspiring people every day.
P 604.827.4786
C 604.802.3053
Email: lesley.charter-smith@ubc.ca
Sophia Redmond, Associate Director
Sophia has over 13 years of experience in strategy development, policy and program development, research, financial analysis, economic modelling, and stakeholder consultation. Before SDS, Sophia was the Manager of UBC Faculty and Staff Housing Programs. Prior to UBC, She was a senior economist at BC Housing, and in the Ministries of Energy and Advanced Education. Sophia holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance, a Master of Arts (MA) in Economics and is a Project Management Professional (PMP).
P 604.827.2746
C 778.319.8160
Email: sophia.redmond@ubc.ca
Arash Abbassi, Manager
Arash brings over 10 years of experience to SDS. With a strong advisory background in strategic planning, operational transformation, and project management in the Energy and Retail industries, he has developed a passion for strategic management and creating value for organizations. Prior to joining SDS, he helped major organizations realize significant cost savings and operational improvements within the realm of supply chain, procurement, and operations. Arash holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from UBC.
P 604.822.6517
Email: arash.abbassi@ubc.ca
Joseph Ferguson, Senior Strategy Analyst
Joseph brings 13 years of UBC experience to SDS, specializing in business intelligence, complex data analysis + visualization, senior level financial modeling, and decision-making support. Prior to joining SDS, Joseph worked at UBC’s Okanagan campus as a Financial Analyst, supporting both the Planning & Institutional Research and Finance Strategies teams, in addition to roles with the offices of the Principal & Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost & Vice-President Academic. Joseph is most passionate about connecting decision makers with the information and insights they need to make strategic decisions. Joseph has a Bachelor of Management (BMgt, with Honours, 2009) from UBC.
Joseph's role is a joint position with both SDS and the Planning & Institutional Research Team (PAIR) team.
P 604.827.0350
Email: joseph.ferguson@ubc.ca
Jocelyn Chen, Senior Consultant, Strategic Initiatives
Jocelyn brought a broad range of work experiences and a diverse skillsets to UBC. Before SDS, Jocelyn was an Economic Development Analyst at the Resort Municipality of Whistler. She has a demonstrated ability to lead complex, multi stakeholder projects with experiences in strategic planning and consultation, data management and analysis, project management, and performance measurement. Prior to that she spent several years in business development role in corporate, tech start-up, and non-profit sectors. Jocelyn has a Bachelor of Science (BSc) from National Taiwan University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from University of New Brunswick.
P 604.822.0420
Email: jocelyn.chen@ubc.ca
Chaitanya Saxena, Consultant
Chaitanya has a diverse array of experiences that he has honed from engagements ranging from large public sector institutions through to early scale start-ups. His experiences come from backgrounds as diverse as healthcare, sustainability, renewable energy, and finance, but have a common thread of being quantitatively oriented and requiring strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Chaitanya holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from UBC’s Sauder School of Business and has a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University.
Email: chaitanya.saxena@ubc.ca