Secretary-General
Abdel Tayem
Tayem is a 3rd year Honors Psychology student at the U of A working through his 5th year with HSMUN: 2 as a delegate, 1 as a volunteer, and 2 as an executive. Between researching cognitive neuroscience in his lab, leading the Stollery Youth Committee as president, training Week of Welcome volunteers, and working at a robotics company, he finds himself unrealistically busy, but that doesn’t stop him from being extremely passionate about all of it! Outside of that, he spends a lot of his time binge-watching many Netflix shows, tinkering with his constantly changing PC, or playing video games that he keeps losing at. He looks forward to hosting an incredible conference for you all this year, and wants to build a legacy of excellence and growth for HSMUN going forward!
Director-General
Azan Esmail
Azan is a third-year Political Science major and Economics minor. This will be Azan’s 6th year with HSMUN, three years as a delegate and now three years as a volunteer. Azan is also president of the University of Alberta Faculty of Arts Students’ Association. Azan enjoys watching movies and eating popcorn (the two don’t have to be done together). He also despises meme culture (sorry). Azan is excited to see the type of debate that will unfold throughout the conference.
Under-Secretary-General Dais
Andrew Ho
Andrew Ho is a third-year science student participating in his fourth HSMUN—one as a student, and three as a volunteer. This is his first year as part of the executive. His favourite part of volunteering for HSMUN is working with the high school delegates, watching their confidence and passion grow over the 3 days of the conference. At the UofA, Andrew is a student tutor for physics and serves as a Director with the Interdepartmental Science Students’ Society. He is a hip-hop music aficionado, and also an avid traveller; the top two countries that he’d like to visit next are Australia and Peru. Conference returnees may recognize him as the Asian guy that went too hard on the dance floor last year when “Bodak Yellow” was played.
Under-Secretaries-General Foreign Policy
Sarah Hurnard
Sarah Hurnard is a fourth-year Political Science Honours student and this is her third year with HSMUN. Her last two years she was an FPA and she is thrilled to be working as Under-Secretary General Foreign Policy with the Executive team this year! When not working on all things HSMUN or researching government subsidization policies, Sarah spends her time playing with doggos, playing (unhealthy amounts of) board games, and watching all things sci-fi. While she does prefer Star Trek over Star Wars she will still love you if you disagree; except if you hate Doctor Who, then you may have some problems (not really it might just take an extra couple minutes). She looks forward to meeting all the fabulous delegates and hearing all the wonderful debates!
Cara Au
Cara Au is excited to join to HSMUN executive team this year as Under-Secretary General Foreign Policy. This is her second year with HSMUN after being an FPA last year. She has previously participated in SUNIA and Berlin Model United Nations as a delegate. Cara is a second year Biochemistry Honours student at the U of A. She loves clarinet, snowboarding, and bubble tea.
Under-Secretary-General Press & Media
Gabrielle Potvin
Gabby is a third year Linguistics and German double-major pursuing a Certificate in Translation Studies at the University of Alberta. She is very pleased to be taking on the role of USG Press & Media for this year’s conference, having been a Press volunteer for the 2017/18 conferences as well as a Press delegate in high school. In her “spare time”, Gabby plays the saxophone in the University of Alberta Concert Band, enjoys a hearty session of Dungeons & Dragons, daydreams about Best Chris (Evans), and listens to a lot of McElroy podcasts and ‘80s music. She’s happy to answer any questions you might have about Press/Media, languages, or anything else within reason. She wishes everyone a wonderful 2019 conference!
Under-Secretary-General Finance
Samir Esmail
Samir is currently in his third year of university, studying Finance at the University of Alberta. Model United Nations has always been a passion of his, competing in HSMUN three years in a row as well as going to SSUNS in Montreal and SUNIA. He also had the pleasure of being a foreign policy advisor for DISEC and chairing UNODC. This is his first time on the exec team but with his experience in finance and with HSMUN, he will make sure that the conference runs smoothly. He enjoys to travel and explore the world being to places, including Vietnam, Italy, Egypt, and most recently Japan. Samir also keeps up to date with sports and has fantasy teams in basketball, football, and hockey. He looks forward to having another successful HSMUN!
Under-Secretary-General Logistics
Jin Seo kim
Jin Seo is in her second year of her Psychology major and Sociology minor at the University of Alberta. She was a delegate for Iraq and South Korea in high school, and volunteered as a general aide in her first year. She is super excited to be on the executive as USG Logistics this year, and looks forward to another amazing HSMUN conference! She loves to sing and binge-watch The Office in between her daily naps. She wishes all delegates and staff the best for the upcoming conference, and will see you at the conference and especially on the dance floor in February!