such as ideas on how to cut carbon and reduce costs. The result was 40 new possibilities for the company to explore, representing potential savings in the millions of dollars. Ms. Gupta has also participated in the Women’s Diversity Initiative at Suncor, designing its Resiliency to Change Day and hosting Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, all in the name of allowing women to share the lessons they’ve learned and the skills they’ve honed. Is there more greatness to come for Ms. Gupta? Very likely. Especially when you consider that she’s currently on leave from Suncor to attend Harvard Business School. Also claiming a space on Calgary’s list is Richard MacDonald, P.Eng. , who took the risk of leaving a well- paying job to join the fledgling engineering company Higher Ground Consulting . As managing partner, he helped the company survive—and thrive—during the re- cent economic downturn. Instead of packing it in when things got tough, Higher Ground held on and has grown to a team of 20 with annual revenues in the millions. When he’s not running a business, Mr. MacDonald is running marathons of various types and intensity. He represented Canada in the 2013 Ironman World Cham- pionships. Gruelling, perhaps, for other reasons was the 2017 Calgary Marathon. For that, he joined 113 other runners in setting a Guinness World Record for the most runners to complete a marathon while linked together— they used surgical tubing—thereby raising more than $150,000 for charity. CREAM OF THE CROP (photos from left) Greg Nakatsui, P.Eng., put his employees first when times got tough; Tulika Gupta, P.Eng., created an informational bridge between Suncor leaders and their staff; Richard MacDonald, P.Eng., helped lead a new engineering company to success.
APEGA MEMBERS TAKE A STROLL ALONG RECOGNITION AVENUE Question: What’s better than an engineer making Avenue magazine’s 2017 list of top young influencers? Answer: Multiple engineers making the list! Avenue publishes two versions of the Top 40 Under 40 every year, one in Calgary and one in Edmonton , to celebrate influential early to mid-career adults in the two cities. Among artists, medical professionals, phi- lanthropists, business leaders, and others are several young engineers, recognized for their contributions to their communities and industry. An Edmonton engineer Avenue highlights is Greg Nakatsui, P.Eng. In 2010, he accepted the role of Vice-President of Administration and Operations for Lincolnberg Homes, a company founded in part by his father. He merged the builder of single-family homes with one focused on multi-family homes to create Lincolnberg Master Builders—a unified company with a unified philosophy. Mr. Nakatsui kept most of the company’s staff during the recent economic downturn, by finding other ways to tighten up financially. Although revenues decreased, many jobs remained. Tulika Gupta, P.Eng. , her family’s first female engineering student, left her hometown in India to attend the University of Toronto, where she earned a computer engineering degree. Rather than head for Silicon Valley with her peers, she blazed a trail in the oil and gas industry. Working for Suncor in Calgary, Ms. Gupta created a way for employees to suggest corporate improvement methods to senior leadership,
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