Our Ideas

We asked some of our team to answer a few questions – about life, about memories, about the things that have made them who they are today.

In this edition, we peek into some little known facts about Peter ter Weeme, Abhimanyu and Travis Junck.

 

Peter ter Weeme, Principal, Junxion in India

Q. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?
What troubles me most is the degree to which our world revolves around consumption and the relentless pursuit of material goods. I’d like to see people more on experiences and interaction, and less on “stuff.” That would result in happier people, reduced resource consumption and less impact on the environment.

Q. Who was influential to you and helped shape your ideas today?
My maternal grandfather has always been a litmus test for me. He was a very principled, good person with a lot of integrity. He always did the right thing. That’s a guiding principle for me and one that defines Junxion.

Q. What’s the weirdest thing you have ever done?
It depends on how you define “weird”. Does eating sheep brain and skydiving count?

Q. What’s your favourite quote?
“Don’t ask for permission. Beg for forgiveness.” It’s a bit of a rallying cry plus it’s a little cheeky. I like that combination.

Q. What story does your family always tell about you?
They like to talk about the time I was 3 or 4, got mad at my dad and poured a bucket of water on him.

Abhimanyu Shankhdhar, Creative (Social Media), Junxion in India

Q. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?
Can I pick a hundred? No? Okay, then it’ll have to be the economic disparities between the rich and poor.

Q. Who was influential to you and helped shape your ideas today?
My biggest influences have always been the people close to me. So, the answer to this is my grandparents and parents, whom I thank for innumerable things, including the way they brought me up. I also attribute a lot of it to Aalia, my significant other, who is one of the most honest, responsible and kind people I have known. Being with her for the past five has immeasurably contributed to and strengthened my thoughts and ideas.

Q. What’s the weirdest thing you have ever done?
I jumped off our first floor balcony when I was two years old. No one yet knows why or how.

Q. What’s your favourite quote?
“You know that a boy has become a man when the marks he wants to leave on the world have nothing to do with tires.” ~Anonymous

Q. What story does your family always tell about you?
Fell off the first floor balcony when he was two. Landed on his feet. Walked away without a scratch. #True Story #ItReallyHappened

Travis Junck, Creative (Web), Junxion in Vancouver

Q. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?
Injustice and imbalance appears in so many forms.  Practically speaking, this is human nature and a “universal” definition of justice or balance may not exist but I do believe there is a fundamental sense of right and wrong that is ignored or disregarded on a regular basis.

Q. Who was influential to you and helped shape your ideas today?
My parents. Both are very generous people, kind and always had time for us. We were comfortable and supported but still allowed to make our own decisions and mistakes – things we learn from and help define us.

Q. What’s the weirdest thing you have ever done?
Burning Man, a major festival in the Nevada desert. It wasn’t ‘weird’ so much as it was surreal. The camera we had with us was an older film camera with a light leak so the album from this experience has some very interesting images that were quite evocative of the event.

Q. What’s your favourite quote?
“Make no small plans, they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” – Daniel Burnham

Q. What story does your family always tell about you?
(So many that aren’t suitable for publication…)

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In this edition, we peek into some little known facts about David Kuefler, Anupam Chauhan and Hilary Mandel.

David Kuefler, Principal/Creative, Junxion in India

Q. What’s your favourite quote?
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”  - Mark Twain

Q. A movie you never get bored of?
Unfortunately I get bored. But I will say that there are a few movies I want to see again: “Lovely Bones“, “Gandhi” and “The Pianist“, to name three.

Q. Five things from your bucket list?
1) Travel around India and see as much of this amazing place as I can; 2) travel to Burma and Tibet, 3) go on a month-long boating trip on the BC Coast, 4) dive Manado, Sulawesi, Indonesia, again, and 5) have some fun with my sons and share an experience or two.

Q. What’s your favourite animal?
Well, it’s a weird one: the Nudibranch. It’s a small gastropod mollusk that divers sometimes see diving on coral. They have wild colours and bodies. Truly an amazing and vulnerable marine animal. I have sought out good Nudibranch reefs to dive. The ones in Bali and Belize are amazing. Here are some photos.

Q. Your most memorable moment?
My most memorable moment was in a jungle in Rwanda. We hiked deep into the forest to see gorillas. We found the band of gorillas with little babies, kids, mothers and silverback males, maybe 20 individuals all together. A big group.

We were told to be small and quiet so that the band didn’t get scared and run off or, worse, attack us. I nuzzled my body into a thicket of bamboo facing the band when one of the males rose up and howled a warning to move back.

Unfortunately for me, as the gorillas moved forward and the people moved back, I was left stuck in the thicket. A mid-sized silverback came up to me, my head bowed to not give an impression of challenge. I peaked up for a moment and made eye-contact with him for only a second or two. I saw eyes that were knowing, sensitive, inquisitive and compassionate. He gave we a “tap” on my shoulder and a grunt which I think said “kinda close to my family, buddy“. His tap nearly knocked the wind out of me. What strength and restraint.

The gorillas seemed to eventually accept that I was stuck there and ignored me. They were right there in front of me, more concerned with the other people than with me. After a few minutes they moved on to the next bamboo feast. It was magical.

Anupam Chauhan, Strategy, Junxion in India

Q. What’s your favourite quote?
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” - Confucius 

Q. A movie you never get bored of?
Cinema Paradiso

Q. Five things from your bucket list?
1) Buy a house in Dalhousie, 2) experience African wildlife at the Serengeti National Park, 3) open a restaurant which serves customised Italian and Mexican food, 4) take a trip to Pakistan and see remains of Indus Valley Civilisation, and 5) scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Q. What’s your favourite animal?
Dogs…dogs… dogs

Q. Your most memorable moment?
My first award at Ad fest Goa.

Hilary Mandel, Strategy, Junxion in Vancouver

Q. What’s your favourite quote?
“Wanderer, there are no roads.  The way becomes manifest upon walking.” – Antonio Machado

Q. A movie you never get bored of?
“When Harry Met Sally”

Q. Five things from your bucket list?
1) Visit my relatives in Ireland, 2) have an essay published in the New Yorker, 3) go to the Tony Awards, 4) sing back up for an R&B recording artist, and 5) have a daily yoga and meditation practice (that I stick to!)

Q. What’s your favourite animal?
My kitten, Laila

Q. Your most memorable moment? 
Receiving a standing ovation during the curtain call on opening night of my high school musical.

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In this edition, we peek into some little known facts about Mike Rowlands, Ranjana Chandra and Jonathon Cook.

Mike Rowlands, Principal/Strategy, Junxion in Vancouver

Q. What did you buy from your first pay-check?
A new mountain bike! It was beautiful, and I rode it ‘til the wheels fell off!

Q. Five things from your bucket list? Hike Half Dome at Yosemite with my wife and kids. Ride the 21 grueling switch backs of Alpe d’Huez with friends. Earn a Ph.D. from Oxford. Walk my daughter ‘down the aisle.’ Golf St. Andrews with my dad and brother-in-law.

Q. What is your earliest memory?
Visiting Canada in 1978. It was hot and bright, big and beautiful. It was only four short years until we immigrated.

Ranjana Chandra, Creative, Junxion in Delhi

Q. Five things from your bucket list?
Ladakh
Meet Daisaku Ikeda
Follow the Buddha Trail
Capture Benaras through the lens
Open a dog shelter

Q. What did you buy from your first pay-check?
An SLR Pentax Camera

Q. Who has been the kindest person in your life and what did that teach you?
My Mom. Taught me humility, compassion and goodness.

Jonathon Cook, Strategy, Junxion in London

Q. What are you reading right now?
Pregnancy for Men – The whole nine months

Q. Who has been the kindest person in your life and what did that teach you?
Gary Widdick, a guy I shared a flat with when I first left home who pretty much taught me how to fend for myself….oh and how to cook, which was quite useful.

Q. Is there something about you that you always wanted others to know, but was never asked?
I really like ballet.

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In this edition, we peek into some little known facts about Erin Barrett, Chantal Schauch and Nikita Aggarwal.

Erin Barrett, Principal/Strategy, Junxion in London

Q. What is the weirdest thing you ever ate? Will you eat it again?
Does drinking count? If so, hands down it’s bee wine in northern Vietnam. Milky liquid with huge bumblebees in it. More bees than liquid. It is apparently good for “man’s health” but I tired it anyways and I’m pretty sure it was gasoline, milk and bees. Would I try it again? Not a chance. I’m lucky to have lived through it once.

Q. Your favourite teacher and why?
Mr Williams – my grade 12 math teacher. I was late to class one day because I saw a racoon get run over by a car. The thing was screaming and people kept running it over. I ran down to the street and pulled it to the side of the road and sat with it while it died. After it did, I started walking to school only to find a dead cat in some family’s yard. I couldn’t bear the idea of a kid walking out the door to see their family pet dead, so I knocked on the door and told the mom. By the time I got to class I was late and in fits of tears. I told Mr Williams why I was late and why I was crying. From that day on every time he saw me in the hallway he would whistle the Davy Crocket theme song. Now that’s a funny man and a teacher worth remembering!

Q. A social project that you want to be a part of?
I love this charity so much. I’d love to work with them: http://www.fistulafoundation.org.

Chantal Schauch, Strategy, Junxion in Vancouver

Q. What is the weirdest thing you ever ate? Will you eat it again?
Intentionally or because it flew into my mouth? Not sure what exactly it was – but it was definitely protein.

Q. What is your most memorable travel experience?
I have to say January 9, 2010, when I reached the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro at over 19,000 feet, seeing the “Snows of Kilimanjaro” (the glaciers) light up behind me at sunrise, falling into the arms of my husband, completely exhausted and elated, overwhelmed with the sheer beauty of the moment.

Q. A social project that you want to be a part of?
I have been putting into action the social project I want to be part of. It is www.climbforchange.com– the story and resource hub for charity climbs and climbs for causes worldwide.

Nikita Aggarwal, Strategy, Junxion in Delhi

Q. What are you reading right now?
Holy Cow! Welcome to Sarah Macdonald’s India- this book is a narrative on the country from the eyes of a traveller, a whole new perspective on life. It makes me laugh and cry, all at the same time. And I have discovered things that only a non-native can pick, especially the quintessential Indian head-wobble!

Q. If you had a paid-for one-way ticket, where will you want to go?
Woah! Let’s also talk free food and free stay! I would love to visit Africa and volunteer with organisations, which rescue and raise wild animals, and later rehabilitate them back in to their natural habitat.

Q. What is the craziest thing you have ever done?
I rescued a puppy off the streets and hid her in the house for two-months, without my mother ever discovering her.