WHO DRIVES ILLUMINATE?
Meet our team of driven change-makers.
At Illuminate, we foster a culture of collaboration, creativity, and ambition. We're a team of doers.
Alina Huang
Founder & CEO
Alina Huang founded Illuminate Universe when she was a high school student. She is passionate about building a more diverse and inclusive Canada through innovation in the education landscape. Before joining Illuminate, she worked as a consultant for Deloitte and a product manager for IBM. In her spare time, you can find her watching Bridgerton and Emily in Paris on Netflix with her two Golden Retrievers while sipping on iced coffee.
Austin Teshuba
Career Advisor
Austin is an Illuminate alumnus who participated in the 2018 high school leadership and business conference. Since then, he has succeeded in the National Lead role within Illuminate and now leads the educational development portfolio. Austin obtains a software engineering and honors business administration degree from Western University (Ivey Business School). He has interned for Deloitte and Google.
Fizzah Khan
Career Advisor
Fizzah graduated from Conestoga College with a Bachelor of Engineering in Building System Engineering. She previously worked at Deloitte as a campus ambassador. Currently, she is working as a service specialist at Siemens, where she works collaboratively with building management in commercial, residential, and institutional environments to diagnose problems using front-end user graphics.
Carlinda Lee
Career Advisor
Carlinda graduated from Simon Fraser University with a bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing & Entrepreneurship Innovation. She previously worked at Google as an Associate Product Manager. Currently, she is spearheading the Women Founders Project, where she pitched new technical products to the Founders while creating sales enablement content to secure mid-market brand partners.
Alexander Sinora
Career Advisor
Alexander graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting. Alex previously worked at Deloitte as a Consultant and Business Analyst. Currently, he is a Management Consultant at Mckinsey. He is a Co-founder of BWC and one of the Top 50 Changemakers in 2022.
Emily Liu
Partnership Manager & Academy Lead
Emily is an Illuminate alumnus who was a National Lead in 2021. Since then, she has been promoted to manager leading client-facing and partnership development. Emily interned as a digital marketing analyst at Staples Canada and has accepted an offer from Deloitte as a Risk Advisory Analyst this summer.
Sophie Whitfield
Partnership Coordinator
Sophie studies Business Administration at Western University, Ivey Business School. She’s enjoyed her time spent at Western University so far and loves to be involved in school spirit. In the future, she hopes to apply her business knowledge while promoting sustainability. She also loves spending time with her family and her favourite artist is Taylor Swift!