Leo Bailey invests in community
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Leo Bailey
Business Technology Management ’11
PhD candidate, Carleton University
Leo Bailey is a first-generation Canadian as well as the first in his family to attend post-secondary school. While researching universities in grade 10, Leo knew he wanted to get into a hybrid of business management and technology, and the business technology management program at the Ted Rogers School of Management ticked those boxes, along with a co-op program that would help him nurture employment networks and contacts. But Leo had another requirement.
“In grade 12 and visiting campuses as a Black male, TMU was one of the only campuses that I felt that I could be here. I felt welcomed. I didn’t feel I’d have to put on a mask every day to be comfortable on campus,” he said.
Since graduating, Leo has held progressive leadership roles in the payment and financial tech sector, working in areas like risk management, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and IT engagement with international business units for major companies like RBC and Interac. Leo also went on to obtain a Master of Business Administration at Queen’s University and is currently a PhD candidate at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business.
“Giving is not so much just an investment of money; it’s building community.”
Leo continues to hold his education at TMU as foundational to his career trajectory. “If it wasn’t for TMU, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” he said. “For somebody like me, from a very blue collar part of the city … to really prove to myself that I can be in spaces, that I can do great work that can have a positive impact.”
Leo is a monthly sustainer — with automated donations going monthly to TMU’s Information Technology Management Program — a convenient “set it and forget it” for the busy co-parent of a newborn who is also working on his doctorate degree and trying to find time for a new hobby: landscape gardening.
For Leo, giving is like growing a garden. “Mustard seeds can grow into big trees, right? And giving is not so much just an investment of money, it’s building community.”
You have the opportunity to plant the seeds of opportunity for TMU students. Consider giving today.