Lois Nahirney, MBA ’90, traded a career as an executive in the oil and gas sector for an entrepreneurial role as CEO of dnaPower, one of Canada’s first lifestyle DNA companies.
There are career left turns and there are personal left turns. I recently experienced both. It’s been a year of new adventures as a result!
I grew up in an entrepreneurial family, and dreamed about building my own company long before attending Ivey. I was entrepreneurial at heart as a young adult, but worked as a BC Tel operator, a PWC flight attendant, a Page in the House of Commons, and a PMO intern for Pierre Trudeau. It took more than three decades for another Trudeau to take control in Ottawa, and it took that long for me to finally realize my dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
My Ivey education provided great training for a successful career in the corporate world. Until a year ago, I was the Executive VP of Global Corporate Resources at Vancouver-based Teekay Corporation, one of the world’s largest marine transporters of oil and gas. I loved my work in the corporate world.
But my left turn was about to begin. I was given the opportunity to become CEO of a genetic testing company, just as the oil and gas market collapsed. It seemed to be the perfect time to take a risk and leap into the exciting and rapidly emerging DNA industry. Shortly after joining, I bought control of the company when their expected investment fell through.
I was about to experience a personal left turn as well. My husband, Tom Dielschneider, MBA ’89, and I were blessed to adopt identical twin girls from Vietnam in 2002. The first time one of my girls asked me why she wasn’t a boy was age 3. I became fascinated by genetics, watching how identical twins could be so different. The week I decided to become a genetics entrepreneur I received a text from one of my teenage daughters: “Mom and Dad, you have a boy, not a girl.” Our daughter is now our son, and we are incredibly proud of the strength and courage he shows daily in his transgender journey.
It was a big left turn from the global corporate world to the passionate entrepreneurial world of DNA, empowering people to make better health decisions by knowing their DNA. And it was a big left turn at home having a daughter become a son, and empowering him to be who he is meant to be. It’s an exciting time—and I’m loving both of my new adventures!
Photo: Steven Errico
Art Direction: Greg Salmela, Aegis
