After graduation, he took a job in sales for B.F. Goodrich, a Kitchener-based rubber company.
[2] By the 1950s he had become an advertising and public relations manager, though throughout this time he had continued to be involved in the affairs of his alma mater, Waterloo College.
The 1950s and 1960s saw a massive expansion in industry and academia because of the postwar economic boom and because of the impending arrival of the baby boomers at Canadian universities.
Hagey's goal was the transformation of Waterloo College into a university with a particular focus on science and technology, and close links with industry through co-operative education.
This idea proved somewhat controversial, and Hagey ultimately became the founding president of the University of Waterloo in 1957, when the science and engineering faculties he had established broke away from the rest of Waterloo College, which later became Wilfrid Laurier University.