U of T · September 2026 0% Contents Subscribe
Ophelia Chang, a UTM commerce graduate working in risk management and governance.
← Founders and the Market · U of T, September 2026

The Career Built on Residence Life

Ophelia Chang lived in residence all four years at UTM and spent three as a peer academic leader. Graduating into a tough 2009 job market, she used the Career Centre to land her first accounting job — a path that led to risk management.

Alumni Digest desk · from U of T Alumni News
Above: Ophelia Chang, a UTM commerce graduate working in risk management and governance. Photo: Lindsay Roberts

As a residence peer academic leader, Chang once organized a shopping trip to help international students prepare for their first Canadian winter, and in her final year helped build career-readiness programming with the Department of Management.

The UTM Career Centre helped her secure her first accounting job during a difficult economy; her career moved from accounting into audit, then IT audit, then risk management. She is now her organization's first Director of Risk Management and built its senior leadership risk dashboard.

Chang also founded Women in Risk and Governance Leadership to address under-representation in the field, and has been recognized with a 40 Under 40 award and at the 41st Annual Directors' Forum. “It was about shaping who I wanted to become,” she says of her time at UTM.

Ophelia Chang at the 40 Under 40 Awards Ceremony, recognized for her impact and the growing influence of her work across Canada.
Ophelia Chang at the 40 Under 40 Awards Ceremony, recognized for her impact and the growing influence of her work across Canada. Photo: Lindsay Roberts
Ophelia at the 41st Annual Directors’ Forum, contributing to a national conversation on governance and emerging risk.
Ophelia at the 41st Annual Directors’ Forum, contributing to a national conversation on governance and emerging risk. Photo: Lindsay Roberts

Reported from From campus community to career impact: Meet UTM commerce grad Ophelia Chang, by Marai Ben Elhoul (U of T Alumni News, May 14, 2026).

More from the original reporting: alumni.utoronto.ca/news/campus-community-career-impact-meet-utm-commerce-grad-ophelia-chang

Until the next issue

The class keeps arriving.

Sixty-nine stories end this issue, but the university doesn't pause between them. A new orientation week is already being planned; a lab somewhere on campus is already running the next experiment. Alumni Digest will be there in October for the next one.

Get the next U of T issueAll five campuses