Top 40 Under 40

Roma Khanna (BSc 1990 Erindale) has a behind-the-scenes media job as senior vice-president of content for CHUM Television, but recently she’s been the one making the news. Last year the Hollywood Reporter and Variety named Khanna one of the top female executives to watch in the entertainment industry, and this year she was among 11 members of the U of T community to make The Caldwell Partners’ Top 40 Under 40 List.

The list, managed by Caldwell, an executive search firm, and published in the Globe and Mail each spring, includes eight alumni, two professors and one student. In addition to Khanna, the alumni honourees are: Rudyard Griffiths (BA 1993 Trinity), co-founder and executive director of the Dominion Institute, an organization that promotes knowledge of Canadian history and identity; Anthony Lacavera (BASc 1997), chair and chief executive officer of telecom firm Globalive Communications Corp.; Patrick Luke (MD 1993), surgical director of renal transplantation at London Health Sciences Centre and a pioneer in robotic surgery; Erifili Morfidis (BA 1993 Victoria), president and CEO of Teleperformance Canada, a leading call-centre company; Karim Nader (BSc 1989 New College, PhD 1996), a psychology professor at McGill University who researches the biological basis of traumatic memories; Robert Palter (BA 1992 UC), principal at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company and founding member of the Toronto Jewish Chamber of Commerce; and Poonam Puri (LLB 1995), an Osgoode Hall law professor recognized for her expertise in corporate and securities law.

The list also includes Brenda Banwell, a paediatrics professor at U of T and director of the Paediatrics Multiple Sclerosis clinic at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children; Philip Zelazo, a psychology professor at U of T and the Canada Research Chair in Developmental Neuroscience; and Craig Kielburger, a peace and conflict studies student who founded the humanitarian organization Free the Children at age 12.