Gina Parvaneh Cody is a Canadian-Iranian engineer and business leader.
14 Facts About Gina Cody
2.
In 1989, Gina became the first woman in Canada to earn a PhD in building engineering.
3.
Gina Cody's father owned a boy's high school, where Cody would teach during the summer.
4.
In 1978, Gina Cody completed a Bachelor of Science degree in structural engineering at Aryamehr University of Technology.
5.
Gina Cody left Iran for Canada in 1979 with $2,000.
6.
At this point, Gina Cody's brother had completed a Bachelor's of Engineering at Concordia University in Montreal, and arranged for her to meet with the engineering professor Cedric Marsh.
7.
In 1989, Gina Cody became the first woman in Canada to earn a PhD in building engineering.
8.
Gina Cody then moved to the private sector, where she performed tower crane inspections at Construction Control Inc, making her the first woman to climb Toronto construction cranes as an inspector.
9.
Until her retirement, Gina Cody was the executive chair and principal shareholder of CCI Group Inc Gina Cody sold CCI Group Inc and retired in 2016.
10.
In 2018, Cody donated $15 million to Concordia University, and had its faculty of engineering and computer science named after her, making it the first university engineering faculty to be named after a woman in Canada, and one of the first internationally.
11.
Since retiring and making her landmark gift to Concordia University, Gina Cody has become a vocal advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion in science, technology, engineering and math fields.
12.
Gina Cody has been invited to speak at dozens of events for major corporations, universities, government, conferences and women's groups.
13.
In 2019, Gina Cody was named to the Order of Montreal, and was inducted as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
14.
In 2020, Gina Cody was named one of Canada's Top 25 Women of Influence.