CCE’s Top 10 Under 40: Ioana Babus

Photo courtesy Stantec.

This year, for the third time, Canadian Consulting Engineer launched an initiative to recognize up-and-coming consulting engineers across the country. We are now showcasing them on our website, in alphabetical order by surname.

Ioana Babus, 30, is a Toronto-based electrical engineer and associate with Stantec. Among her roles with the firm, she is leading a Canada-wide initiative to update electrical specifications and is part of an electrical engineering council that focuses on quality control across North America.

One might say the profession is in her blood: both of her parents and some of her aunts and uncles are engineers.

“Growing up, I loved math, science and English—any course other than gym, really,” Babus laughs. “Yet, I struggled with what to study. My family never pressured me, but my dad—who was licensed in Romania before we moved here—explained how an engineering degree could take me a lot of places.”

And given she had already helped her father with electrical work for his contracting business, she had relevant experience for eventually drawing blueprints as a consulting engineer for real-world installations.

After graduating as an electrical engineer from the University of Waterloo and completing internships with consulting engineering firms NORR, WalterFedy and Smith + Andersen, Babus attained her LEED Green Associate (GA) and P.Eng. designations. She continued on full-time with Smith + Andersen as an electrical designer until the opportunity came along to join Stantec in 2022.

“I enjoy the people aspect of consulting,” says Babus. “I don’t think I could sit in front of a computer all day. I love meeting and working with clients, contractors and our own internal design team.”

She also mentors high school students, interns and junior engineers; co-chairs the Toronto chapter of the Women@Stantec employee resource group; and organizes social events, such as mixers and volleyball tournaments.

“I’m very nosey—and I say that proudly!” she laughs. “I love meeting people and I’m fortunate that Toronto is a hub where we get colleagues visiting from other Stantec offices across the globe. I enjoy getting looped into their projects and expertise. Everyone has an interesting story that I would never know about unless I talked to them.”