Kurush Minocher

For Kurush Minocher, digital transformation means rethinking today’s airport experience and envisioning how air travel could look in the years ahead. As the Interim Chief Commercial Officer for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, Kurush turned to DeGroote’s EMBA to pair his customer expertise with broader business acumen through a digital transformation lens.

“The pandemic taught us that we must leverage digital in ways we hadn’t considered before,” says Kurush. “Customers are looking for a more personalized experience with real-time information at their fingertips. Our job is to make the travel experience more seamless and hassle-free, which includes digital advances such as biometrics and AI. At Toronto Pearson, we work with hundreds of companies who operate at the airport, so data-sharing, for example, is crucial, and leads to more data-driven decision making.

“Combining strategic leadership with the digital perspective has reinforced that change isn’t about the technology itself. It’s about the people. With this knowledge, I can effectively employ 360-degree decision-making and business knowledge to build on the momentum of change we have seen in the industry.”

While acquiring fundamental skills in accounting and finance, statistics, strategic marketing, marketing analytics and leadership through his coursework, Kurush says he found learning from his peers just as beneficial. With executives from across varied sectors in each EMBA cohort, class discussions are robust and engage students in critical thinking.

“It’s such an inclusive environment,” says Kurush. “Because we are all professionals in our industries, we aren’t competing with each other as you might in undergrad but helping each other become the best version of ourselves. Hearing diverse perspectives on tackling the same challenge, for example, broadened my thinking and added new tools to the toolkit.”