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26
B C B U S I N E S S . C A
J U N E 2 0 2 5
TARA CHRISTIE GREW UP
in mining. Her dad, a geolo-
gist, brought the family to the
Yukon when she was eight
years old. For a while, she was
sure her path would lead her
to anywhere else. "I was going
to be a doctor and get into
biomedical engineering—I love
science, engineering, biology,"
she recalls.
Then, while studying at UBC,
she realized the field wasn't for
her. She tried out some other
things—chemical engineering,
physics, mechanical engineer-
ing—before coming full circle.
"I fell into geological engineer-
ing and came home and told
my dad that's what I wanted
to do. He goes, 'That's the
stupidest idea I've ever heard,'"
Christie recalls with a laugh.
"I think he was worried about
the boom-bust of mining—
geological cycles can be kind of
tough. But I saw it as the perfect
job for me."
Geological engineering,
argues Christie, can have both
the big, entrepreneurial dreams
that come with mining and
also the steady, safe day jobs
if those don't pan out: "I could
always build foundations [for
buildings] or get into highway
design; those opportunities
were there."
TARA
CHRISTIE
P R E S I D E N T A N D C E O,
B A N YA N GO L D C O R P. ;
C O - F O U N D E R A N D P R E S I D E N T,
V I C T O R I A GO L D Y U KO N
S T U D E N T E N C O U R A G E M E N T
S O C I E T Y
LE ADER
"I fell into geological
engineering and
came home and
told my dad that's
what I wanted to do.
He goes, 'That's the
stupidest idea I've
ever heard'."
