I am currently an Associate Professor Strategic Management. I don’t look like my picture, but close enough. I used to work at Nortel (it’s not my fault) and spent 8 years in the Canadian Army Reserves (telecom, which is why Nortel hired me I think). I did a degree in engineering, which is what led me to Nortel, kind of. My degree was in mechanical, and Nortel was much more about electrical, but the company was cool and I wanted to work there. At some point around the year 2000 and the dot.com bust, I got antsy, and thought about doing a PhD, which I eventually started in 2007. I loved it and thought I would go back to Nortel full time when it was done. But Nortel went into bankruptcy protection in 2009 (January 14 to be precise) and never got out. So I never went back. And instead, got hired (I consider myself super lucky) at HEC Montréal in a tenure track position. I then got tenure, thank goodness, or else hubby would questioned the sacrifice of going back to school. I now find myself in 2026 thinking a lot, a lot, a lot about writing. Not just research papers or stuff like that, but writing stories – fiction, non-fiction. That kind of stuff. That’s my plan for the future. And the future is now.

Gwyneth Edwards, PhD, MBA, B. Eng.
Recipient of Canada’s Governor General Academic Gold Medal

Associate Professor of Strategic Management @ HEC Montréal