Speakers

Aliza Lakhani is a senior leader with experience building, scaling, and transforming companies from start- ups to large organizations across education, financial, and technology sectors.

She currently leads the vision and growth of Northeastern University's first international campus, the first U.S. university to operate successfully in Ontario. Aliza is responsible for all aspects of the campus, from strategy and innovation to partnerships and overall student experience. Under her leadership, the Toronto campus has grown from serving a handful of students to being Northeastern's largest campus outside Boston with over 150 staff and faculty and over 1000 local industry partners. As of February 2024, Aliza's portfolio expanded to include Northeastern's Miami, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina campuses.

Prior to Northeastern, Aliza was Head of Business Development and International at the DMZ, the #1 ranked university tech incubator globally. She achieved a 10x increase in revenue through Fortune 500 partnerships and led expansion into global markets, including establishing the New York office. She also has extensive financial services experience from her time with RBC Capital Markets, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of Montreal in Toronto and New York, starting her career on the trading floor, covering global hedge funds and pension funds.

Aliza has served on several advisory boards, including the C.D. Howe Institute Human Capital Council, #MoveTheDial, and Wealthsimple Foundation. She was elected Chair of the Board of Directors for Rexdale Women’s Center and was appointed to the Aga Khan Council for Canada, where she serves as a board member. She holds a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business.

About Northeastern University

Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and the recognized leader in experiential lifelong learning. Our approach of integrating real world experience with education, research, and innovation empowers our students, faculty, alumni, and partners to create worldwide impact.

Northeastern’s personalized, experiential undergraduate and graduate programs lead to degrees through the doctorate in 10 colleges and schools across our 13 campuses worldwide. Learning emphasizes the intersection of data, technology, and human literacies, uniquely preparing graduates for careers of the future and lives of fulfillment and accomplishment.

Our research enterprise, with an R1 Carnegie classification, is solutions oriented and spans the world. Our faculty scholars and students work in teams that cross not just disciplines, but also sectors, aligned around solving today’s highly interconnected global challenges and focused on transformative impact for humankind.

The Toronto campus is Northeastern’s first international campus. Established in 2016, it has since evolved into a hub of experiential learning, industry and community engagement, and graduate programs aligned with Ontario’s workforce needs.