Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12go business communications in 2014. After a successful release, the app quickly gained traction and garnered the attention of some of the major players in the tech industry. In December 2015, Talko would be acquired by Microsoft, with the plan of integrating its technology and talent in order to deliver new features and capabilities to the tech giant’s video and voice service, Skype. While the corporate takeovers that have become commonplace in today’s tech world can result in uncertainty for many, Filip was pleased to learn that he would be reallocated to Skype’s headquarters in Palo Alto and that he would remain connected with his team. “They’ve kept our whole team and we’re very excited to still be working together,” he says. “A handful of people were pulled into other projects, but most of us are still working together on the same team, which is very exciting.” Now working on the future of Skype’s user interface and media experiences, Filip understands he’s making an impact in the lives of many. “You’re pushing out to hundreds of millions of users and it’s amazing to hear stories about the impact the technology has had on people,” he says. “Skype is one of those things that can help to sustain relationships and we’re working to make long distances seem smaller and to help families and friends stay connected.” As he nears his one year anniversary at Skype, Filip hasn’t forgotten his time at Carleton and how it helped to prepare him for the future. “I ended up applying a lot of the knowledge I picked up from the software engineering courses very early in my career,” he explains. “They helped me to develop skills in things like modelling, planning and documentation, which are incredibly important and directly relate to my current role here at Skype.” Filip also notes that while his career took him to the Golden State, there are opportunities everywhere for those interested in pursuing computer systems engineering and software engineering. “You don’t necessarily have to go south of the border to work on these kinds of things,” he explains. “There are hubs all over Canada and the world, and Ottawa definitely has a strong tech scene.” Filip Mares (BEng/09) at Skype’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California. 5 Carleton Grad Helping to Connect Our World at Skype Carleton’s engineering programs have long been a setting for students to discover their true calling. That proved to be the case for computer systems engineering graduate Filip Mares (BEng/09), who initially began his studies at Carleton looking to pursue electronics and robotics, but soon found his interests shifting gears towards software. “After my first couple of years at Carleton, I had been exposed to software and saw its potential,” he explains. “I became attracted to things like building a user interface and thinking about how people use it and react to it.” Now working as a Software Engineer at Skype in California, Filip still remembers the course code of his first class in object-oriented programming at Carleton, the subject which began his transition from hardware to software. “SYSC 2004 was amazing because I got to build user interfaces for the first time,” he says. “From there on out, I knew the direction I wanted to take and began focusing more on the electives relating to software design and communications.” After completing his bachelor’s degree, Filip decided to further pursue his studies at Carleton by enroling in the Technology Innovation Management (TIM) Master’s program, led by Tony Bailetti. While initially drawn to the program for its focus on the business end of technology, he never envisioned just how quickly it would generate his career path. “I was taking an elective in software usability and had produced a few assignment papers in which I evaluated the usability of an app called Pulse,” he explains. “I asked the professor if I could put the assignments online and once they were posted I was actually contacted by one of the founders of the company, who reached out to me about coming down to California to work for them.” Filip made the trip to the San Francisco Bay Area and began leading web development at Pulse in 2011. Having since been acquired by LinkedIn, Pulse originally launched as an aggregate news product for mobile devices. “It was the first app of its kind because the original iPad had come out less than a year before I came to California,” Filip recalls. “It was an incredible experience to be part of something that was paving the way on new technologies.” After three years working at Pulse, Filip came across an opportunity to join a new startup known as Talko, founded by tech mogul Ray Ozzie after he stepped down as Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, a role in which he replaced Bill Gates. “When I found out there was an opportunity to work on a very small team with someone like Ray Ozzie I jumped at the chance,” says Filip. “It was an amazing prospect that I couldn’t pass up.” Filip would join Talko as a software engineer, helping the company launch its namesake mobile app for on-the-