Puneet Mannan

To say Puneet Mannan is adventurous is a bit of an understatement. In 2002, he immigrated to Canada by himself to carve out a new life path. He left his wife and kids in India so he could concentrate on finding the right opportunities for his career in Canada. He always wanted to be part of a technology-rich environment and the way Canada advertised itself attracted Mannan to the country.

But finding a good job didn't come easy. Already armed with an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, Mannan first landed in Toronto but soon realized that with his background, Alberta might be a better fit. Still, once he was in Calgary he had a difficult time finding a job. So he spent two years at the University of Calgary earning his MBA and "the best I could get was a business development/marketing job," says Mannan.

While finishing his MBA, he had heard about the WestLink Technology Commercialization Internship Program and was accepted into it in 2006. His first placement was with CCR Technologies, a Calgary-based company that purifies and reclaims chemicals for refiners and gas producers. Mannan worked on a specific project that would help diversify and add greater value to the company's service offerings—his role was to conceptualize and implement that business plan. He ended up doing two consecutive placements with CCR before moving onto the Alberta Research Council.

At ARC, Mannan assessed early stage technology ideas for technical and economic feasibility, provided market and competition assessment for ongoing projects and supported researchers in articulating IP positions in their projects. He also took the lead in technical and economic assessment in a multi-million dollar software development project during his internship with the institute.

Mannan did his due diligence and planned ahead during his internship. He realized that ARC offered everything he was looking for in a career and therefore, while discussing his potential placements with WestLink's internship manager, suggested putting ARC placement at the end of his internship cycle in case he was asked to stay on full-time.

Mannan has been a project manager/business development officer with ARC since August of 2008, specifically on projects dealing with alternative and clean energy. Leading one of the company's flagship initiatives, Mannan is assessing alternative energy technologies to see if they make economic investment sense. "It's a mix of all of my background now—engineering, business and finance," he says. "It turned out well in the end.

"When I came to Canada, I had my feet on the ground and was expecting some hardships, but not as bad as it turned out," he says. "I had closed any options that meant I could return to India and therefore had to move forward."

The WestLink program was part of that plan. "WestLink has been able to do a much better job in marketing their interns than many business programs would do for their students," he says. "The biggest value I received from WestLink is the brand value. I had considerable experience before coming to Canada, especially on the job, plus an MBA here, so I wasn't looking at on-the-job experience as much as the program opening doors for me and building contacts."

"The whole experience has been excellent."