Gina Cody, Engineer & Business Leader
Born in Iran, Gina Cody immigrated to Canada in 1979, with $2,000 to her name and the goal of pursuing a graduate degree in engineering. She ended up at Concordia on full scholarship for her master’s, and later went on to complete her PhD in building engineering — the first woman in Concordia’s history to do so. Nearly thirty years later, she scored another first, when she became the only woman in Canada to have an engineering faculty named after her (and one of only a few worldwide). She was given the honour after donating $15 million to her alma mater, a gift made possible by a very successful career at Construction Control Inc. (CCI), an Ontario-based engineering consulting company. In addition to the rebrand as the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, Gina’s generosity will enable several annual scholarships, and $250,000 has been earmarked to increase the presence of women and minorities in the faculty.