Telfer BCom students know a big project is coming when they enroll for their fourth-year capstone course, Strategic Management (ADM 4311). The course includes an online strategy simulation that counts towards much of their overall grade in this course, the Intopia Strategy Simulation.
This summer from July 10 to 11, fourth-year Telfer BCom students participated in Intopia, which allows them to apply the strategic management concepts that they have learnt in class in a virtual simulated business world. During the simulation, students are required to make quick decisions and negotiate with classmates to grow their business over the weekend, acting as producer, wholesaler, or distributor organizations within the same industry.
Teamwork at its Best
While the competition comes with many challenges, the most positive and memorable aspect is often the collaboration between players: “Spending the weekend working on the competition with friends and colleagues was the most enjoyable part. Collaborating with other teams and fellow students whom we have gotten to know over the past four years was a gratifying culmination of our time at Telfer,” shares Aarun Senathirajah, accounting student and member of the winning team.
When asked about the greatest challenges Intopia had in store this summer, Aarun shared: “Adapting to the ever-changing market dynamics and power changes between producers and wholesalers was a significant challenge we faced throughout the game. Ultimately, by ensuring our strategy was flexible and dynamic, we were able to predict the changes in the market and adapt accordingly. Clear communication and an open environment between all our group members proved to be vital when adapting quickly.”
Congratulations to the overall winning team and Best Integrated Producer: Team 18
MacKenzie Erbach
Philip Kaczmarczyk
Julia Magahey
Aarun Senathirajah
Liam Woodside
Congratulations to the following teams who placed in other notable categories
Telfer’s fourth-year Finance students complete their capstone course, Equity Valuation (ADM 4350), at the culmination of their studies. It is an opportunity for students to take all that they have learned throughout their years of study and apply it to a real-life situation. The students perform a case analysis of a chosen company to estimate the value of the organization and create an action plan to enhance its economic performance.
This semester, another great capstone competition commenced on April 9th, when the Equity Valuation class worked on their live case study to value Clearwater Seafoods Inc., the largest shellfish producer in North America. Based in Bedford, Nova Scotia, the company was recently acquired by Premium Brands Holdings and a coalition of Mi’kmaq First Nations on January 25, 2021.
After an exciting competition, the finalist groups went on to present their work online to a panel of judges to compete for the first-place position of strongest strategy.
Congratulations to the first-place winners:
Griffin Brown
Fawad Hedjran
Harley K. Hubbard
Melissa Reyes Chinchilla
The winning team’s experience
We spoke to the first-place team and judges panel to learn more about this semester’s competition. Hubbard shared his highlights from the experience: "Our favourite part was hearing from the panel of nine distinguished judges. Ken Paul, the Director of Fisheries with the Assembly of First Nations, was very enlightening, and Alexander Comeau, of Fiera Capital, was also very knowledgeable. Overall, it was a great experience made possible by the tutelage of Professor Michael Reynolds."
When asked about their team’s greatest challenges, workload is the first thing that came to Hubbard’s mind: "Our greatest challenge was the time commitment and workload required; each of us balanced the competition with a full course load, extracurriculars, and internships. By leveraging each other’s strengths and working as a team, we succeeded,” he concluded.
Furthermore, Ken Paul provided enlightening comments from the indigenous perspective. He indicated that the Clearwater valuation, mergers and acquisition (M&A) provided students the opportunity to reflect on important indigenous ethical considerations: "One of the biggest differences between Indigenous fishers and non-Indigenous fishers, is that in our Canadian society, we always think about maximizing economic gain," Paul shared. "In the indigenous world, a critical consideration is the need to leave some of the resource for future generations. Concepts such as corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability really mean something and are embedded in the value system of First Nations peoples."
Paul emphasized: “we had had to ensure the First Nations communities approached this M&A on a commercial base, which will benefit the communities economically.” He stressed that the Clearwater acquisition was commercial and did not involve treaty issues, such as the Indigenous maritime lobster fisheries issue that was in national news during the fall of 2020.
Congratulations again to the winning team for their work and excellent presentation!
On April 6th, the Telfer School of Management hosted its annual Michel Cloutier Competition, a live case competition where fourth-year marketing students are required to present a marketing plan which aims to solve a real-life business issue for an existing company. This year's organization for the case was Canada Post.
Students were asked to build an integrated marketing plan to generate awareness, drive interest, build long-term relationship with identified target consumer segments through repeat purchases of Canada Post’s new simple loan product. Finalists presented their recommendations in front of a panel of 6 judges of industry professionals.
Congratulations to this year’s winning team:
James Cormier
Estevao Costa
Ryan Coughlan
Jackson Hines
Paula Jaramillo Palacio
Maclain Van Eindhoven
Team member, Estevao Costa, reflected on his greatest challenge throughout the project as well as how important it was for his team to get organized: “I believe our greatest challenge was finding the right pieces of information to focus on and develop our ideas when there was so much available data and information to explore. And we knew this would be key, since having the right information would form the basis of everything moving forward. In fact, this was so challenging for us that our marketing research project for the competition was the longest out of all teams - but luckily, it was ranked the best too!”
Estevao attributes his team’s success to great team chemistry and equal ambition from each of its members. This allowed them to foster a strong, creative space, enabling them to come up with new and cohesive ideas: ̎For me, the best part of the competition was the brainstorming sessions my team and I had when we were working on the final presentation for Canada Post.” He continued: “We were a great team that worked well together. The results we achieved are 100% due to quality teamwork, where everyone got along, and knew what they had to do for the team to succeed – everyone was willing to do what was necessary, without feeling pressured by each other. I think that was my favourite part about this competition - it’s rare to have groups work so well together, and it’s not until you’re in a group like this that you see the difference that it makes," he concluded.
Congratulations to all fourth-year marketing students who completed their marketing capstone this semester.
From March 19 to 21, fouth-year Telfer BCom students participated in the Intopia Strategy Simulation, as part of their fourth year capstone Strategic Management class (ADM 4311). Students had to apply strategic management concepts in an online-simulated world, where they are required to make quick decisions in a determined period and negotiate with their peers to grow their simulated business over the weekend.
This winter, the competition was held in an online setting for the second time. When asked about the greatest challenges Intopia had in store this semester, Hanae Merdas, member of the winning team, shared: “I would say selling our inventory to the fullest [was the biggest challenge]. As we were moving forward in the game, some teams had financial difficulties in respecting contracts. However, we decided to add a clause in our contracts to respond to such situation in order to protect ourselves as Producer X and make sure the inventory was being delivered to each team.” Overall, Hanae’s experience wasn’t affected by the online environment: “Even though it was online, I had such an amazing time meeting new people and especially working within my team,” she concluded.
As a matter of fact, while the simulation was held virtually, this did not take away from the collaborative aspect of Intopia. “My favourite part was to collaborate and negotiate with the other teams and try to see what their strategy was,” said Jade Ladouceur, another member of the winning team. She continued, “I really enjoyed interacting with the others and making contracts with them! We were really all working together to try to be successful as much as possible, and at the end, a lot of people from our partnership took the time to congratulate me and my team which I really appreciated! I think this shows how we were all rooting for each other.”
Congratulations to the overall winning team and Best Component Producer:
Hugo With
Hanae Merdas
Jade Ladouceur
Katerine Delev
Martin Arnold
Congratulations to the following teams who placed in other notable categories:
After taking home three titles in 2020, the Enactus uOttawa team has again distinguished itself at the 2021 Enactus Central Canada Regionals competition. The uOttawa chapter has been awarded Central Canada Regional Champion titles in all three competition pools they competed in. They also brought home the coveted Best Project Idea all pools combined at the Scotiabank Climate Action Challenge.
“I’m happy to say that we had a very successful run at the competition.,” stated Carter Barrett, President of Enactus uOttawa and fourth-year student who is pursuing a BCom with a specialization in Management Information Systems and Analytics. “We placed first in our respective pools for all three challenges that we competed in and placed first in the country in the Scotiabank Climate Action Idea Pitch Competition with a new project idea. We will be continuing on to compete at the national level in all three challenges!”
“Enactus Regionals was a great opportunity to both celebrate our accomplishments and think of new ideas for future impact-driven work”, added Alexander Parsan, first-year student in Accounting. He continued: “It was nice to work with some members of the team that you don’t usually get to interact with.”
With the competition being held remotely for the second year in a row, Catherine Gingras, second-year student in Marketing, explained how important the competition was this year for her given the online environment: “The Enactus Canada Regional competitions are really the cumulative moment of the year, especially this year since we were working remotely the whole time. This is where we realize that all the efforts made from May to March are worth it, by the impact we created through reducing greenhouse gas emissions or by providing financial education for youth.”
The social entrepreneurship club Regional Champions will be competing at the Enactus National Competition from April 21st to 29th. Best of luck to the team!
Competition Results
CWB Financial Education Challenge
Central Canada - League A Regional Champions
University of Ottawa - Poly and Shyne Eyewear
Shyne Eyewear is social enterprise that creates socially and environmentally friendly eyewear using 100% locally recycled plastic using small scale shredding and injection moulding machines. The proceeds from these sales finance their core objective which is to provide prescription eyewear to those that need it most, both in Canada and around the world.
Poly aims to tackle the massive environmental implication of plastic waste through the manufacturing of small-scale machines that can shred down plastic and mould it into new products using injection moulding techniques. Their mission is to make it possible for any community, anywhere, to make recycling not only a positive environmental initiative and beneficial piece of infrastructure, but also a job creator and profit generator.
University of Ottawa - Project F.L.Y. - Perfect Pitch
Project F.L.Y. is a program that strives to empower and guide youth with practical, hands, on and experiential workshops.
Perfect Pitch is a bilingual pitch competition hosted by Enactus uOttawa through Project F.L.Y. and is geared towards high school students in Ontario to teach them about entrepreneurship and its viability. It allows youth to learn about basic business skills, creative thinking, and initiative.
The seventh annual Telfer Internal Case Competition (TICC) sponsored by Avison Young Ottawa took place from March 13th to March 14th, where 60 students met online to compete in a 24-hour digital marketing case. The closing ceremony gala featured Telfer alumna, Liora Raitblat (BCom, 2015), who is a Digital Delivery & Agile Coach at Export and Development Canada and Part-Time Professor at the Telfer School as a guest speaker.
An Online Success
The bilingual competition hosted by Telfer Competitions Committee (TCCT) was led by three coordinators and third-year students, Alise Gertsenchtein, Emma Rankin and Patricia Felthman. It was the first time that the competition was held online, but it didn’t stop the students from excelling during the competition.
“We can’t even put into words how proud we are of everyone that competed and overcame the challenge of a virtual competition,” stated Emma on behalf of her colleagues. “It took a lot of time, effort and adaptability, but it was a great weekend, and we are beyond excited to see Telfer compete at future case competitions! A big thank you goes out to all the volunteers and judges who helped make this event successful! If we have Iearned anything, it takes a village to host a case competition,” she added.
The excitement was also palpable amongst the students throughout the competition. “As someone who has never participated in a case competition before, TICC was the perfect opportunity for me to get my first experience,” said Dasser Kamran, fourth-year student in Marketing and President of the newly created Telfer Content Creators Commitee. He continued: “The competition had the right balance between challenging and easy for first timers like me. Although my team did not win a prize, the experience I gained was invaluable.”
The competition was just as fun for seasoned case-crackers like Liz Tran, a third-year student in Marketing. “TICC 2021 was definitely a fun time to spend with my friends. We were challenged by the sponsor to come up with a realistic and creative digital marketing campaign which certainly tested our skills as marketers. It was an experience that I would love to do again and encourage all Telfer students to participate in,” she concluded.
Reana Mouaj Agil, second-year student in Finance, also reflected on her experience at the competition: “TICC was the best first ever case comp. experience; it was my first time ever experiencing a case crack and being in that environment, and I learned so much. I know what to look for and how to analyze better, and I am excited for the years to come! I encourage anyone who can to sign up next year!”
In addition, Cole Dumelie, second year uOttawa student minoring in Management, is looking forward to attending the next TICC in the future: “I had an amazing weekend cracking my first case with TICC! My team and I were able to showcase our problem-solving skills - while under pressure - and address a real business case. Didn’t get much sleep and worked well straight through the given 24 hours. It was a challenging feat and a truly invaluable experience! TICC did a great job of organizing the event! I look forward to competing in case competitions like this one in the future!”
After watching all 20 of the teams’ presentations when the case-cracking phase of the competition drew to a close, the 9 judges had the difficult task of putting three teams on the podium for each category, Junior and Senior.
Competition Results
Juniors
1st place: Maryam Rana, Chau Nguyen, and Cole Dumelie
2nd place: Arash Jeyrani, Sean Butler, and Callum Cameron
3rd place: Guangtai Wei, Joy Liu, and Xilong Zheng
Seniors
1st place: Liz Tran, Emily Chiazza, and Nicole Sauvé
2nd place: Kristelle Rivard, Émilie Lebel, and Charles Doray
3rd place: Clarissa Tremblay-Filion, Alexis Raymond, and Jean-Simon Lavoie Albert
Congratulations to all winners, and we look forward to seeing what happens at the next year’s TICC!
Represented by 60 students from its BCom program, Telfer obtained outstanding results during the 33rd edition of Jeux Du Commerce (JDC), which took place earlier this month.
This multidisciplinary annual competition involving over a thousand students from 13 universities is the biggest inter-university competition of its kind in Eastern Canada.
The team excitedly competed online and shared their exciting results throughout the weekend across social media. Congratulations to each team for their remarkable work!
VIP Cards
VIP card holders are students who have distinguished themselves throughout the weekend:
Catherine Gingras
Alex Dalcourt
Ayaan Virani
Rosemary Ashlie
Charles Doray
Aman Sidhu
Marie-Madeleine Kabupu
Emily Chiazza
Emma Rankin
Competition results
Human Resources Management
First place: Emily Chiazza, Marie Madeleine Kabupu and Robyn Moke
Debate
First place: Ayaan Virani, Justin Abraham, Alex Dalcourt and Martina On
OPS (Operations Management)
Second place: Aadi Koundal, Vicky Laliberté and Emma Rankin
Entrepreneurship
Second place: Aman Sidhu, Kristelle Rivard and Daniela Diaz
Men’s formula 1 racing
Second place: Rajeev Chansingh and Abderrahmane El Bakkali
Marketing
Third place: Liz Tran, Charles Doray and Nicole Sauvé
Interactive
Third Place: Jean-Simon Lavoie-Albert, Clarissa Tremblay-Filion and Catherine Gingras
Accounting
Third place: Haya Alshaer, Ali Hassan and Rosemary Ashlie
The Telfer School of Management team also came in second place for the Academic Cup and first place for Best Improvement. Our Telfer Nation students have a lot to be proud of this year after representing their school with a presence on 10 podiums!
The Bachelor of Commerce fourth-year students completed their respective capstone courses this past Fall 2020 semester. As a team, students had to conduct and present a live case study on a specific issue related to a real company. This semester, finalists of each discipline presented their work virtually, using video conferences to present their work in front of a panel made of professionals and professors.
Michel Cloutier Marketing Competition
On December 8th , the Telfer School of Management hosted the Michel Cloutier Competition, a live case competition where fourth-year marketing students are required to present a marketing plan which aims to solve a real-life business issue for an existing company. This year's organization for the case was Rideau Canoe Club.
Congratulations to the winning team: Aleksandra Romanowski, Amanda Lanteigne, Laura Tran, Maria Sokolov, Marianne Couture-Benitez, and Reema Radia.
Finance Capstone
All Finance students must take the Equity Valuation course in which they will undertake a case analysis to estimate the value of a real-life company and elaborate an action plan to enhance the company’s economic performance. On December 9th, 5 teams had to virtually present their results regarding the valuation of Aritzia in front of a panel of judges from Fiera Capital and BMO Capital Markets, as well as a private investigator and former Professor Allan Riding, the founder of the course. The judges were extremely impressed by the quality of the students’ presentations: “The quality of the presentations was exceedingly impressive! I had a challenging time coming up with my rankings,” shared one of the judges.
Congratulations to the winning team of the Finance case competition: Justin Abraham, Julia Magahey, and Liam Woodside.
Accounting Capstone (French section)
On November 25th, the finalists of the French section of the Accounting capstone course presented their analysis of a company and report on accounting issues in front of a panel of professionals and their peers. This year the case was based on a fictitious company, and the competition was sponsored by CPA Ontario and Logan Katz.
Congratulations to the winning team of the French accounting section: Gabriel Baril-Lavoie, Guillaume Forget, Julien Lafleur, Mike Sirhan, and Kevin Wilson.
From November 13th to 15th, our fourth-year BCom students participated in the Intopia Strategy Simulation, as part of their fourth-year Strategic Management class (ADM 4311). Students had to apply strategic management concepts in an online-simulated world, where they are required to make quick decisions in a determined period and negotiate with their peers in order to grow their business over the weekend.
This fall, the competition was held strictly in an online setting, which certainly came with some challenges. "My greatest challenge during the competition was having to do everything virtually. Instead of chatting face-to-face, you’re monitoring your inbox and trying to type back to people as quickly as possible. But, by the end of the weekend, you get into the groove of things, you feel more confident in your process, and it gets easier," shared Madison Woo, a member of the winning team.
A Final Challenge
The team was also challenged when the game administrator changed the market dynamics, forcing them to change, in just two days, a strategy that had taken 3 months to develop. "The challenge was to make all the correct changes proactively before it was too late. To accomplish this, we analyzed the strategic implications early on, determined how our models and strategies needed to pivot, and swiftly executed our action plan," said Howard Feng, another member of the winning team.
Congratulations to the overall winning team and Best Service Provider: Emily de Witte, Howard Feng, Nic Renaud, Rebecca Stiletto and Madison Woo.
“Every year, over 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally, with only 9% of it ever being recycled,” says Carter Barrett in the Enactus uOttawa team’s video submission for Regionals. After taking home three of the four titles at Enactus Central Canada Regionals competition, they moved on to compete at the National Competition.
With projects to eliminate global plastic waste and create sustainable businesses that use the abundance of plastic available in the world, Enactus uOttawa placed as the National Runner Up at the 2020 Enactus National Competition. They competed against 47 teams across Canada, showcasing the impact they have created with their sustainable and innovative entrepreneurship projects this year.
During the first-ever virtual edition of the national competition, the uOttawa team also received the following awards:
Best Project Awards for Poly and Project F.L.Y. (mental health and wellness project)
National Winner of the Youth Empowerment Challenge (Poly and Evolve Eyewear)
Second Place in the National Entrepreneurship Competition
National Runner up for the Entrepreneurship Challenge (Poly)
The team also received $2,000 each in grant funding for 3 of the 4 new project ideas they submitted.
How Poly Tackles Global Waste
Poly is a social enterprise that aims to tackle the massive environmental implications of plastic waste through the manufacturing of small scale machines that can melt down plastic and mould it into new products. The plastic is first cleaned, and then shredded, melted, and moulded in the Poly machines. The variety of products are limitless with the ability to create custom furniture, school supplies, kitchenware, and even small household products such as tiles.
They have been able to reduce plastic waste by working with organizations like Lush and Old Navy to repurpose the plastic items like hangers they would usually just throw away. These recycled products are then purchased by individuals, business owners, firms, and municipalities. Some businesses have even added their partnership with Poly as an extension to an existing business model.
Enactus currently plans to launch eight systems annually around the world. They already have a Poly workshop in Ottawa, and have expanded to locations like Saint John, New Brunswick; Aamjiwnaang First Nation, Ontario; Iqaluit, Nunavut; and Malone, New York. The Poly team works closely with the system operators to ensure they make their Poly business successful.
Evolve Eyewear Encourages Eco-Friendly Practices
Evolve Eyewear is an innovative social venture that creates environmentally-friendly eyewear using 100% locally recycled plastic, using the Poly machines to turn the plastic into glasses. The project encourages making more sustainable purchases and living a more eco-friendly lifestyle. With this business, the Enactus team has created job opportunities for Canadians, including employing 12 individuals with a disability to help them process their plastic and 4 at risk youth to operate their machines and produce the frames.
Project F.L.Y. Provides Entrepreneurial Skills to Youth
Project F.L.Y. is a program that works to empower and guide youth with hands-on workshops where they can learn practical skills. The team hosts an annual Perfect Pitch competition at the end of the year, a bilingual competition for high school students that introduces core business functions with a focus on entrepreneurship, creative thinking, and initiative. The students who compete are then offered the opportunity to attend The Legacy Conference hosted by Enactus uOttawa.
Another Great Year
The team has generated over $80,000 in revenue this year, and diverted over 150,000 water bottles worth of plastic waste.
“I’m incredibly proud of all the work our team has done throughout the year to make Ottawa, and Canada, a better place through sustainable impact,” shared Parker Selman, the president of Enactus uOttawa.
“Despite the challenging times, and the need for a virtual competition, we were still able to showcase our innovative projects and gain national recognition as a top team in the Enactus network,” Parker continued.
Congratulations to the Enactus uOttawa team for another highly successful year, and for your amazing work on your leading sustainable and innovative businesses!
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the globe during the past few months, the stock market plummeted to new lows creating havoc for investors and financial planners. During this unprecedented time, a team of students at Telfer School competed against 37 teams from 20 different universities and colleges on an international stage in an investment competition.
Sponsored by The Vanguard Group, an investment management company based in the state of Pennsylvania, and hosted by Temple University’s Fox School of Business, the annual Vanguard Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) Challenge requires teams of four students to manage a portfolio of $1 million for three months. They analysed ETF from both a fundamental and technical point of view, evaluated risks, performed an economic analysis using micro and macro trends, and finally set up a strategy about a new ETF at Vanguard. The top 15 finalists were chosen based upon the overall performance of their portfolio. Given the exceptional circumstances this year, each team had to present its investment strategy online before a combined panel of Vanguard and Temple representatives, who selected the top two teams, one for each division (undergraduate and graduate).
Four students represented the University of Ottawa at the competition, including three Telfer students: Anh Nguyen Nguyen (Finance), Abdul Shunbuli (Finance), Daniel Tian (BCom/JD), and Jad Izgua (Financial Mathematics and Economics). The team won in the undergraduate division.
“There were many uncertain days, as we were afraid that the market would go wild. So we had to pay attention to the market and news everyday,” shared Anh. “A lot of emotions were involved. We sometimes freak out when the market drops, rush selling and we end up buying high, selling low, but there were days of enjoyment as our portfolio gained more than we expected.”
As the market was highly volatile, the uOttawa team sometimes prioritized patience, but it sometimes meant having to take big losses. “We forgot to liquidate one time before the weekend and lost 8% on Monday,” remembered Anh. “Timing the market was extremely difficult. Although we had the correct expectation for the market movement, it sometimes took time for the market to correct itself.”
Overall, Anh and his team enjoyed the three-month competition, and personally grew throughout this competition. “Not only have [we] learned a lot about ETF management and trading strategy, but we have also learned that emotional involvement might destroy a portfolio, and that the news has a huge impact on a stock movement. Good earnings coming out might not make the stock go up if people front-run already based on anticipation,” added Anh.
Congratulations to the 2020 Vanguard ETF Challenge winners and for representing Telfer Nation on an international level!
During their final year of undergraduate studies, the Telfer Bachelor of Commerce students must complete their respective capstone courses. A capstone project is an academic experience where students conduct a live case study on a subject that targets a specific issue. The students in Finance, Accounting, and Marketing participate in these final presentations at the end of their studies. The students must present their conclusions in front of a panel of judges and peers, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year's Capstone projects were not presented in front of a live audience, but they had the opportunity to still showcase their final presentations online to a panel of judges.
Finance Capstone
All Finance students must take the Equity Valuation course in which they will undertake a case analysis to estimate the value of a real-life company and elaborate an action plan to enhance the company’s economic performance.
In the last few weeks, the Finance 4th year students completed their capstone courses. As a team, students conducted a live case study on specific issue related to a real company.
This winter 2020 Capstone Live Case involved valuing NFI Industries, North America's largest bus (transit & coaches) manufacturer. NFI Industries is head quartered in Winnipeg (Manitoba), and has manufacturing facilities throughout North America and Europe.
Both groups delivered outstanding videos which were forwarded to a panelist of three judges. Abul Kane, Telfer's Instructional Designer, was able provide the groups presenting with "best practices" regarding creating videos and submitting the videos to the judges.
The School would like to show its appreciation for all of the work done by Professor Mike Reynolds as the Finance Capstones final presentations would not have been possible without his hard work and flexible accomodation to the current coronavirus situation. Thanks to him, our Finance 4th year students are able to conclude their journey at Telfer with a sense of accomplishment.
Congratulations to the first-place winners of the case competition: Philip Kaczmarczyk and Joy Xu.
"Although it was challenging to work remotely, my group was able to take advantage of the various collaboration platforms available and the Management Library's research tools. The current circumstances made the analysis of the company more complex and dynamic, which challenged my group to reconsider many factors as the situation continuously evolved. Participating in the competition allowed us to apply our learnings from class, while developing many skills along the way" - Joy Xu
Congratulations to the second-place winners: Yacine Amalou, Liam Blevins, Bashir Hussen and Jared Sullivan.
Intopia Strategy Simulation
From March 13 to 15, 4th year students from the Bachelor of Commerce participated in the Intopia Strategy Simulation, as part of their 4th year Strategic Management class (ADM 4311). The aim of the simulation is for students to apply strategic management concepts in an online-simulated world, where they are required to make quick decisions in a determined period and negotiate with their peers in order to grow their business over the weekend.
Congratulations to the following teams for their respective titles:
Team 62, Best Component Producer: Chris Gent, Eshmam Khan, Benjamin Ottenhof, Phoebe Sipa and Sam Sutherland.
Team 7, Best Service Provider: Hamza Benzakour, Badr Ghilani, Mehdi Lahchimi, Annalisa Lemieux Barsetti, Ali Rais and Juliette Libersan
Team 37, Best Finished Goods Producer: Feyisope Adedotun, Tanya Frlan, Eric Methot and Joshua Powers.
Finally, congratulations to the members of the overall winning team and Best Integrated Producer: Liam Blevins, Marina Bossio, Garrett Galvin, Heather Officer and Christoforos Pietrobon.
Every year, the Enactus Canada Regional Exposition brings together student, academic, and industry leaders to celebrate the achievements of Canada’s future leaders and entrepreneurs. Typically, each school presents their live pitches to a panel of judges who decide which Enactus teams and student entrepreneurs will be named Regional Champions and move on to the final rounds of the competition held at the Enactus Canada National Exposition.
This year, due to COVID-19’s campus shutdowns and national lockdowns, the competition had to cancel its in-person event and hold it online instead. Enactus teams across Central and Atlantic Canada had to quickly pivot and find ways to showcase how they are solving social, economic, and environmental challenges through entrepreneurial action.
Through the creative use of video, storytelling, and narration, our Enactus uOttawa team submitted their “virtual showings” that won three of the four categories, securing their place at Nationals, which will also be held online in a couple of weeks.
The team was crowned champion during a Facebook Live event in their respective leagues in the following challenges:
Here is one of their submissions for the Entrepreneurship Challenge, about the sustainable plastic recycling company, Poly:
Congratulations to Parker Selman (President of Enactus uOttawa) as well as Julia Raseta and Carter Barrett, the presenters in the video (voices behind the scenes) and the rest of the team on this amazing accomplishment.
From all of Telfer Nation, we wish our Enactus uOttawa team best of luck putting together their virtual submissions for Nationals!
Telfer School of Management Bachelor of Commerce students Joy Xu, Leah Salzman, Lina Salama and Madison Woo, better known by their collective pseudonym “Employees of the Month” at the competition, brought recognition to the program by winning 1st place at the 5th annual Diversity and Inclusion Case Competition. In all five years since the competition’s founding, a Telfer team has won first place each time, with “Employees of the Month” representing Telfer at the fifth edition. The competition took place last Saturday, February 29th, at Export Development Canada (EDC), one of the founding partners of the event.
The group’s ideas, which the judges found to be refreshing and grounded in the reality of today’s world, earned them a shared $5,000 prize that was presented at the evening awards gala. This was the first year that the competition was open to not only MBA students, but also to third and fourth-year undergraduate students. The latter showed they were up for the task, as two of the four finalist teams came from undergraduate programs.
A new edition this year in the spirit of renewal and innovation, this fifth edition of the competition started on Friday evening, February 28th, at a networking launch event at Bayview Yards. An interactive activity hosted by second founding partner, Deloitte, was definitely the highlight of the evening, according to many participants. The Deloitte Greenhouse team offered the students who were present an opportunity to attend four workshops that were each as useful as the next. Participants were invited to discuss real diversity and inclusion issues both in the workplace and in everyday life.
For this year's competition, which could count on the support of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) for the first time, the participants received the case analysis two weeks in advance, which marked a new direction for the case competition. Twelve teams from 10 different universities across Canada had to develop a strategy to recruit, retain, and develop employees of visible minority groups working for the Bank of Canada (the official author of the case study) by highlighting barriers to equal access.
According to Professor Catherine Elliott, Director of the Telfer MBA program, this new format enabled the teams to bring more depth in their analyses and increase the quality of the cases in the first round of presentations. “The bar keeps getting higher!” said Catherine; “Diversity and inclusion is now part of CEOs’ vocabulary, and is receiving more and more visibility as a topic in businesses. We can expect to host more teams and businesses involved in this subject, as a result, for the years to come.
The Competition
The purpose of the first part of this case analysis, which was presented before an audience for the first time this year, was to select four teams for the final round. This is where Joy Xu’s team stood out from the crowd, and this time the finalists had only 75 minutes to prepare before tackling a new problem posed by the Bank of Canada regarding employment equity data.
“Everything we learned in case resolution was really helpful to us, and each of us was able to put our own resources to work for the team, to determine exactly what employees needed”, Joy told us in the moments following the “Employees of the Month” victory. There was also the fact that two team members had to join the team just a few weeks before the start of the competition, and so the four of them were particularly pleased with this excellent outcome.
Another Telfer team, composed of Aditya Bhatkal, Allison Caverly, Camille Sigouin and Lisa Filter, all four MBA students, also performed well on the first round, but were unable to qualify for the final. The classmates were still happy to have had the experience and pleased with their presentation to the judges.
Competition Winners:
1st Place: Telfer School of Management, uOttawa, BCom
2nd Place: Schulich School of Business, York University, MBA
Tied for 3rd Place:
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Undergraduate; and
DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, MBA
The steering committee is already planning the 6th edition of the event, which will take place in early 2021. Any organization with an interest in diversity and inclusion issues and topics is invited to contact the Telfer Graduate Programs Office to discuss possible participation in next year’s competition at:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The 2020 CEOx1Day program, organized by Odgers Berndtson, has finalized its placements with four of Telfer’s Bachelor of Commerce students in the semi-finals. This challenge includes a selection process, and the top winners will win a day to spend with any CEO participating in the program. After several rounds of a competition selection process, one Telfer student made it to the top two Ottawa finalist spots.
We would like to congratulate the following BCom students for their progression to the semi-finals round:
Ciara Carey: 4th-year, International Management
Farah Osman: 3rd-year, Marketing
Joy Xu: 4th-year, Accounting
Rylan Williams: 4th-year, International Management
Odgers Berndtson, a global executive search firm, started this program as a world-wide initiative that connects third and fourth-year students with top CEOs. To find the next generation of Canadian business leaders, Odgers Berndtson has selected 20 students to shadow some of Canada’s top CEOs.
Students discover the inner workings that build company success, such as fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation.
CEOx1Day has brought in new companies to match with students for the program’s 7th edition, including:
Odgers Berndtson works with a broad range of clients and integrated talent solutions. The CEOx1Day program was the organization’s way of investing in the development of Canada’s future leaders.
This Year’s University of Ottawa Finalist
Ciara Carey, this year ‘s finalist, shared the details on her journey from application to final placement. She listed some of the opportunities that led her to feel more prepared going into the various competing rounds:
“I feel extremely fortunate for the different opportunities and teams I’ve gotten to be a part of throughout my Telfer undergraduate experience (BSA, JDCC, etc). I’ve learned many hard skills as a result of my involvement; however, what I’m most thankful for are the soft skills I have developed.
Coming into university after having played competitive basketball rigorously, I thought I understood work ethic and teamwork, but these extracurriculars ended up being a whole other test of what it means to be part of something bigger than yourself. They taught me to self-reflect, work on seeing the bigger picture, and how to act with humility. Most importantly, I’ve learned how to be a better teammate.
Due to my extra-curricular involvement, I had many experiences that I could pull from to demonstrate my leadership abilities, that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.“
Application Process
The application process for this year started in early October 2019, which the Canadian Association of Business Schools (CABS) added as a requirement for all Jeux Du Commerce Central (JDCC) delegates. After the application, an online leadership assessment was conducted by Hogen Assessments. Next, the applicant is drawn for a telephone interview with an Odgers Berndtson executive search professional. The last step was a half-day semi-finalist evaluation at the Odgers Berndtson’s office. Challenges, workshops, and exercises were used to assess the interpersonal and communication skills of the candidates, as well as their teamwork skills, problem solving abilities, and leadership potential.
The Motivation to Apply
As a JDCC delegate and this year’s JDCC Coordinator, Ciara submitted an application to the program, as she “thought shadowing a CEO for a day would be an amazing experience. After reading the descriptions of the CEOs offered in the region, I was excited by the idea of spending a day with Sasha Suda and learning about her journey.” Ciara shared, “I am especially interested in learning more about how the National Art Gallery operates in general, and the leadership abilities that are needed as a CEO. Furthermore, I’m curious about the organization’s strategic goals and the role Mrs. Suda plays in achieving them. I would also love to hear about her personal journey, and her opinion about the impact that art has on the community.“
Tips for Future Applicants
Applying to a program of this magnitude can be intimidating at first, but certainly worth while. With the right tips, you can work towards hopefully obtaining a finalist position. Ciara shared her advice for students applying for next year’s CEOX1Day program:
“An obstacle you might face is an internal struggle deciding to actually apply. Similarly to when underclassmen ask me for advice about getting involved in Telfer, my biggest advice for folks interested in CEOx1Day is to ‘just go for it!’ Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and don’t be afraid to ‘fail’ (everything is a learning opportunity). For CEOx1Day, I think it definitely helps to be honest and authentic, especially when it comes to the Hogan Assessment portion of the selection process.”
Ciara also shared that she is happy to get in contact with any students that may be looking for advice for their future application!
We hope Ciara has an insightful day at the National Art Gallery, and look forward to learning more about her experience.
Written By: Alexander Campbell, Telfer MBA Candidate
From January 3rd to 6th, a group of 17 talented MBA students from the Telfer School of Management travelled to Hamilton, Ontario to compete in the 2020 MBA Games. The MBA Games is one of the largest student-run competitions in Canada, where delegates come together from across Canada to compete in three areas: Academics, Athletics and Spirit.
In Academics, our “Wildcard” case competition team took on a case about Corporate Social Responsibility and advanced to the finals, placing them in the top four among all MBA programs across the country. The team was comprised of Candyce Yue Sun, Jason Tsang and Matt Gibbons. We also fielded teams in the Finance, Marketing and Strategy categories.
Wildcard Team
In Academics, our “Wildcard” case competition team took on a case about Corporate Social Responsibility and advanced to the finals, placing them in the top four among all MBA programs across the country. The team was comprised of Candyce Yue Sun, Jason Tsang and Matt Gibbons. We also fielded teams in the Finance, Marketing and Strategy categories.
In Athletics, our volleyball team played four hard-fought games but did not advance past the round-robin. Our basketball team notched a victory against the Haskayne School of Business (Calgary) but also was not able to advance.
In Spirit, we rocked some impressive dance moves at the opening ceremonies, found a creative way to crack an egg with our Rube Goldberg Machine, and came within a second of knocking the host, DeGroote School of Business, out of the Minute-to-Win-It competition.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the team was able to raise a total of $870 for the MBA Games’ charitable partner, Empowerment Squared, an organization that empowers youth to realize their potential and achieve their dreams through mentorship, access to post-secondary education, information literacy, and sports and recreation.
All the team’s successes over the weekend were made possible by generous contributions from our sponsors: The Telfer School of Management, QMR Consulting, and Welch LLP.
Through months and months of training, coaching, practice, and simulation, our JDCC team brought home 3 wins!
From January 3 to 7th, 2020, nearly 130 students represented the Telfer School of Management at the two largest undergraduate case competitions in Canada. These competitions are comprised of over 10 universities, and students can compete in either academics, sports, or social categories.
Management and business students across Canada spend months searching for the best candidates, placing them into categorical teams (such as marketing or finance), and help them practice their competition skills to compete against top students across the nation. In terms of the academics component, teams of three are given three hours to develop a case resolution that they then share with a panel of judges during a 20-minute presentation. Only the top three teams receive recognition and awards at the closing ceremony.
Jeux Du Commerce
This year, JDC was hosted at HEC Montréal in Quebec, where Telfer students were competing against 13 other schools in Québec. With a team of 82 students, Telfer brought home:
2 VIP Awards
Andre Caissie - Accounting Case
Charles Doray - Surprise Case
1 Team MVP (4 people)
Quinn St. Pierre
Sammy Najm
Olivia Yap
Angela Monfleury
Students are selected for VIP awards by academic judges for standing out in their category and presentation.
MVPs are awarded only to 1 person per category but in this case, was given to one team: the social team.
Jeux Du Commerce Central
At JDCC, Telfer students travelled to St.Catherines, Ontario to compete at Brock University, where Telfer students were competing against 11 other schools from Ontario. With a team of 46 students, Telfer brought home:
3 Podium Awards
1st place - HR case (Joy Xu, Aman Sidhu, Soumaya Esanhaji)
3rd place - Debate case (Samuel Benhamou, Aadi Koundal, Joseph Salem, Omar Al Salaq)
3rd place - Wildcard case (Bobby Wong, Dylan Budimir-Hussey, Soumaya Esanhaji)
2 VIP Awards
Bobby Wong - Entrepreneurship case
Dylan Budimir Hussey - Finance case
1 MVP
Amede Fontaine - Sports team
The Telfer Competitions Committee (TCCT) is the student association that selects and prepares undergraduate delegations for both JDC and JDCC. They are the students that reach out to all the coaches, which significantly impacts the team’s success. They also provide all the practice cases and run the case simulations.
Leah Salzman, President of TCCT said:
“I would like to commend the hard work of every delegate that participated this year. I would also like to recognize the outstanding work of both the JDC Coordinators and JDCC Captains. Without them and the delegates, none of this would be possible. Lastly I would like to thank the Telfer faculty for their ongoing support.”
We look forward to cheering on our Telfer students again at next year’s JDC and JDCC competitions! Now, TCCT is getting ready for the next case competition, Happening Marketing, taking place in Spring 2020.
Over the last few weeks, the Bachelor of Commerce 4th-year students completed their respective capstone courses. As a team, students must conduct a live case study on a specific issue related to a real company. The finalists of each discipline must then present their work in front of a panel of professionals and classmates.
Intopia From November 8 to 10, 4th-year students participated in the Intopia Strategy Simulation, as part of their Strategic Management class. The aim of the simulation is for students to apply strategic management concepts in an online-simulated world, where they are required to make quick decisions in a determined period and negotiate with their peers in order to grow their business over the weekend.
Congratulations to the members of the winning team: Katya Berezovskaia, Robert Mackenzie Duncan, Patrick Kaminski, Tsoi Yuen Lau and Evan Naylor
Michel Cloutier Marketing Competition On December 3, the Telfer School of Management hosted the Michel Cloutier Marketing Competition, a live case competition, where fourth-year marketing students are required to present a marketing plan which aims to solve a real-life issue. This year's cohort created marketing strategies for the University of Ottawa's Alumni Engagement team.
Congratulations to the winning team: Jia Zi Chen, Jiana Bandojo, Kyenshak Zakka, Will Vincent, Michael Vice and Fiona Ing.
Finance Capstone All finance students must take the Equity Valuation course in which they undertake a case analysis to estimate the value of a real company and elaborate an action plan to enhance the company’s economic performance. On December 4, finalists presented their results in front of a panel while other students created posters explaining the company’s financial value. This semester's teams analyzed a case on Canopy Growth.
Congratulations to the winning team of the case competition: Tsoi (Jack) Lau and Mackenzie Duncan.
Congratulations to the winning team of the poster competition: Rushika Khatkar, Nourhan Mohamed and Pierre-Andre Smith.
Accounting Capstones On December 4and November 25, the finalists of the accounting competition presented their analysis of a company and report on related accounting issues.
Congratulations to the winning team of the English accounting section: Robin Cheung, Adib Hossain, Kushalsingh Romooah, Ziyad Zeidan, Yasr Said and Leah Salzman.
Congratulations to the winning team of the French accounting section: Laurence Vaillancourt, Alexandre Plouffe, Tina Samaha and Myriam Joanisse.
On November 9th, 2019, 90 students from francophone high schools across Ontario came to Ottawa to participate in the business case competition, Place à la jeunesse at the Telfer School of Management.
Each year, Place à la jeunesse is organized by Telfer students to introduce high school students to the business world, and prepare them for university. At this year’s 16th competition, 30 teams were selected from 90 schools to test their business case skills. The students competed in one of four categories; marketing, accounting, entrepreneurship, or debate.
The event started the evening before the competition, where Telfer students led workshops on PowerPoint, problem-solving, and presentation skills to coach the high school students who had never been in a business environment before. The next day, the teams received their business cases, created solutions, and presented to the judges. Winners received scholarships to the University of Ottawa from sponsors that added up to $82,500.
Telfer is thrilled to congratulate the winners of each category:
Marketing
1st place: Emma Iusan, Vanessa St-Denis et Julianne Lacelle from ÉSC L’Escale
2nd place: Ashley Edouard, Elyse-Anne Bordeleau et Saïma Altimo from CC Samuel-Genest
3rd place: Kara D’Arcangelo, Chloé Emery et Christian Ricard from ÉSC Thériault
Accounting
1st place: Marika Brunet, Emma Phillips and Annabel Clément from ÉSC L’Escale
2nd place: Mélodie Chartrand, Jade Poirier and Julien Lemieux from ÉSCR de Hawkesbury
3rd place: Alexa Caron, Keenan Roy and Emma Bertrand from ÉSC Thériault
Standout competitor: Marika Brunet
Entrepreneurship
1st place: Lyra Sheldon, Cameron Chevalier and Mathias Lazure from ÉSC. E.J. Lajenesse
2nd place: Alexis Jeaurond, Laurie Boucher and Maxim Sauvé-Rozon from ÉSP Le Sommet
3rd place: Patrick Ibrahim, Simon Willemsma and Cyril Fayek from ÉS Père-René-De-Galinée
Debate
1st place: Lia Charleois, Cassandra Joly and Catherine Vaillant from ÉSCR de Hawkesbury
2nd place: Nathalie Shuh, Sarah Clouston amd Anne-Sophie Autale from ÉSP. Le Sommet
3rd place: Delhia Mainville, Kassandra Marleau and Marie Luciani-Grimaldi from ÉSC de Plantagenet
Best Presenters
Marketing: Kara D’Arcangelo
Accounting: Mélodie Chartrand
Entrepreneurship: Maxim Sauvé-Rozon
Debate: Marie Luciani-Grimaldi
We are proud of our #TelferNation student-athletes for their personal accomplishments and at the USPORTS National Championships. We are excited to celebrate four undergraduate Telfer students, for their remarkable accomplishments at the National level:
Brendan Jacome, Gee-Gees Men’s Hockey, specializing in in Finance with a complementary option in Entrepreneurship
Hannah Temple, Gee-Gees Women’s Basketball, specializing in Management
Amelie Hachey, Gee-Gees Women’s Basketball, specializing in Accounting (not pictured)
Montana Champagne, Gee-Gees Men’s Swim team, graduating from a Specialization in Human Resources this summer
On March 26th, these four Telfer students were honoured at the University Centre (UCU) building on campus for their impressive sports accomplishments this year for a celebration gathering teams and athletes. Awards were handed out to the athletes to recognize their sportsmanship on both provincial and national levels. Roger Archambault, Assistant Director of High-Performance Athletics for the Gee-Gees, was thrilled with the performance from all teams for their outstanding success.
Montana Champagne has now been awarded 8 medals during his Gee-Gees Swimming career, including 4 gold medals. Champagne collected 2 gold medals at the 2019 U SPORTS National Championship held at the University of British Columbia this year. During the championship, Montana Champagne finished first in the 200m individual medley (IM) setting a new U SPORTS record by more than a second and a new team record, while also finishing first in the 400m IM for another team record. He completed the weekend with a fourth-place finish in the 200m butterfly final. Montana’s journey as a Telfer student and Gee-Gee athlete is coming to an end as he will be graduating, but we wish him best of luck in training for the Olympics, we will definitely be cheering him on!
Brendan Jacome was named the 2018-2019 winner of the R.W. Pugh Award (U SPORTS Most Sportsmanlike Player). He exceeded his career-high, recording a total of 13 goals and 16 assists in 27 games without taking a penalty throughout the season. During the playoffs, Jacome added 8 points in 5 games. The Gee-Gees Men’s Hockey team finished first in the OUA East competition, with an impressive 22-2-4 record. Unfortunately, the Gee-Gees were eliminated by the Queen's U Gaels in the third game of a best-of-three series in the second round.
The Gee-Gees Women’s Basketball won the Bronze Medal at the 2019 U SPORTS National Championship hosted by Ryerson University. The team finished the regular season with the best record in the OUA, with 21 wins and 2 loses, setting a program record. During the playoffs, the Gee-Gees made it to the finals and won the OUA Silver Medal. Their season also included the team's first Capital Hoops win since 2015 versus Carleton University.
We are proud of our Telfer student-athletes and wish them luck in the coming year in both their academic and athletic accomplishments.
Three MBA and one MHA student from the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa teamed up to place first in the 3rd annual Diversity and Inclusion MBA Case Competition co-hosted by Telfer, EDC, and Deloitte.
Students Anya Marion, Daman Preet Singh, Nazmus Saqib Tasin, and Sidharth Mahajan claimed the top prize of $5,000 while their colleagues from John Molson School of Business and Rowe School of Business placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively winning cash prizes of $2,500 and $1,500.
The competition took place at EDC, where eight teams from universities across Canada converged for a full day of case cracking on the theme of Diversity and Inclusion.
Beedie School of Business — Simon Fraser University
DeGroote School of Business — McMaster University
John Molson School of Business — Concordia University
Lazaridis School of Business and Economics — Wilfrid Laurier University
Rotman School of Management — University of Toronto
Rowe School of Business — Dalhousie University
Ted Rogers School of Management — Ryerson University
Telfer School of Management — University of Ottawa
Without access to the internet, the teams were asked to find human resources solutions and strategies for AGNICO EAGLE, a gold mine located in Meadowbank, Nunavut, Canada. The gold mine has been experiencing absenteeism and turnover within the Inuit workforce. Each team had to develop a plan in order to retain and increase the number of Inuit employees. Once the time was over, each team got to present to our panel of judges comprised of EDC and Deloitte members. Four finalists were then selected to participate in the second round of the case, where they were presented with a challenge to recruit a minimum of 500 new Agnico Eagle employees who would be working in two new operations while having the same culture, respect, and mentality that had made them successful in the past.
The four finalists gave a final presentation in front of the judges and their peers, volunteers, and community members who came to attend before heading back to the Telfer School of Management where a reception was held to announce the winners.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the participants who travelled to Ottawa to compete, our judges who provided the students with valuable insights and feedback, our amazing volunteers who were instrumental in the coordination of the day, as well as our two amazing co-sponsors, EDC and Deloitte who went above and beyond to make this competition a success.
(Judges from left to right):
Kat Lee (Deloitte) Senior Manager, Human Capital Consulting
Raj Mudhar (Deloitte) - National Director, Agile & DevOps Consulting
Emily Boudreau (Deloitte) - Senior Manager, Human Capital Consulting
Liane Nickerson (EDC) - Director, Workforce Strategy and Culture
Patricia Vincent (EDC) - Vice President, Talent, Learning & Culture
Michael Machabee (EDC) - Director, Portfolio Management and one of EDC’s 2018 D&I Ambassador Award nominees
Joe Rios (EDC) - Manager, Exporter Outreach and one of EDC’s 2018 D&I Ambassador Award recipients
Not pictured: Stephen Harrington (Deloitte), Senior Manager, Human Capital Consulting
Congratulations to Enactus uOttawa for their success at Enactus Canada's Regional Competition last week, bringing them on to compete at Nationals! Enactus is a global non-profit with chapters in countries across the globe that aims to empower students to use entrepreneurial action to create a better world for us all. Enactus builds student leaders, creates impactful projects, and teaches students valuable entrepreneurial skills.
These results mean that they will be presenting in the Youth Empowerment category at the National Competition. The team will also participate at the overall National Presentation held in Vancouver in May.
We wish the team best of luck at Nationals and are proud to see them represent the University of Ottawa on the national stage, and hope to see their success take them to the Enactus World Competition.
We are proud to congratulate the DECA uOttawa team for their first place wins in the Start-up Pitch and Marketing Management competitions at this year’s DECA U Ontario Provincials. The team also placed second in the Project Management Institute (PMI) competition, third in the Advertising Campaign Challenge, and top 5 in Accounting.
The weekend-long Provincials event is held annually by DECA U, with 17 participating schools and 18 different competition categories. Delegates not only compete, but have the opportunity to network with several other student leaders and industry professionals throughout the weekend events. This year, the conference was held at the Sheraton Centre in downtown Toronto, with over 1,300 students present and eager to #MakeTheirMark.
DECA uOttawa delegates had the opportunity to demonstrate their months of case study preparation on a national stage. On top of the case competitions, delegates were given the opportunity to engage with Toronto-based professionals from a multitude of business fields during networking functions. This networking opportunity provided a unique experience for University of Ottawa students to expand their connections in the GTA.
Delegates from uOttawa displayed their skills acquired through both academia and case practice to benefit from all opportunities provided by the conference. They demonstrated these skills in both their case presentations and their networking experiences, resulting in a fantastic overall performance by the University of Ottawa.
In categories ranging from a jeopardy style battle to Individual, Team and Special Cases, DECA uOttawa placed top three in 5 of 18 categories. With a quarter of the competing delegates returning to Ottawa with a medal, the list of decorated competitors is as follows:
William King – Startup Pitch Competition – 1st Place
Arya Ghaeli and Luke Lu – Marketing Management – 1st Place
Austin Marques, Rula Al-Halbouni and Justin Walker – Project Management Institute – 2nd Place
Abinaya Sivanthanu, Vanessa Kelly and Shoshana Matheson – Advertising Campaign Challenge – 3rd Place
Jason Lum – Accounting – Top 5
The Chapter Executive Team and the Telfer School is very proud of each and every individual that contributed to the overall success of the uOttawa team for the 2018-2019 season.
This year, we are proud to announce that our Telfer MBA students won first place in the Innovation and Technology case competition and placed third in the Spirit case competition on cannabis and harm reduction (sponsored by Health Canada) at the 2019 MBA Games.
Congratulations to the Innovation and Technology team: Steven Legault, Nazmus Saqib, Alexander Campbell, and Anya Marion, and to the Spirit team: Ian Rintoul, William (Qiwei) Jia, Marianne Pelletier, and Anya Marion.
Overall, against 19 other school, the University of Ottawa came in 9th place.
Each year, the MBA Games attracts the largest gathering of MBA students in Canada. Taking place at the beginning of January, 20 schools and approximately 600 students will compete against each other for the prestigious Queen’s Cup by taking part in academic, athletic, and spirit challenges.
This is a great opportunity for students to represent their school and showcase their talents. We look forward to the future success of the MBA Games delegations from Telfer.
From January 3 to 7, 2019, nearly 130 students represented the Telfer School of Management at the two largest undergraduate case competitions in Canada.
During the 31st edition of JDC hosted at l’Université du Québec à Rimouski – Campus Lévis, the Telfer School of Management’s delegation stood out by placing in the top three in six categories. Their performance in the academic segment of the competition allowed them to bring back more trophies than they have for the past 4 years.
1st place – Marketing Case: Fiona Doomasia, Christine Seguin and Rebecca Stiletto
1st place – Accounting Case: Maxine Beaumier, Paulina Karwowski and Ziye Zhang
2nd place – Organizational Information Systems Case: David Gallo, Jean-Martin Twagirimana and Josh Powers
2nd place – Tax System Case: Joel Emond, Andre Caissie and Adib Hosain
3rd place – Operations Management Case: Beau Goehrum, Christopher Flores-Lyons and Archana Manek
3rd place – Ultimate Frisbee: Charlotte Winton, Jessica Nesrallah, Maxine MacKinnon, Damian Samuel, Paul Michel, Keagan Ross, Matt Fong, Noah De Abreu and Anton Père
Additionally, the nine following students were selected as VIPs by academic judges for standing out in their category: Anna Abraham, Audrey-Anne Delage, Fiona Doomasia, Beau Goehrum, Sarah Pétrin-Perron, Maxine Beaumier, David Gallo, Odile Burume and Tran Truong.
At JDCC in Guelph, Ontario, two academic teams wearing the Telfer colours left their mark by winning the gold.
1st place – Business Strategy Case: Matthew Fernandez, Jonathan Khov and Maxim Goldenberg
1st place – Entrepreneurship Case: Daniel Beech, Mishal Butt and Julia Simon
The Telfer Competitions Committee (TCCT), the student association that selects and prepares undergraduate delegations for JDC and JDCC, thanks all the coaches who played a key role in the teams’ success. Audrey-Anne Delage, President of TCCT, said: "We would also like to highlight the continuous support from the Telfer faculty, who recognizes the importance of these competitions both in the academic and professional development of its students."
We look forward to next year's JDC and JDCC competitions, and wish the next delegation great success!
We are proud of our #TelferNation student-athletes for their National Championship wins this year. The Gee-Gees Women’s Soccer and Rugby Teams competed in U SPORTS Canada’s annual National Championships.
We are proud to celebrate five of our female Telfer students, four undergraduate and one graduate student, for their remarkable accomplishments on the field:
Katerine Delev, Soccer player in Management
Cooper Lee, Soccer player in Management Information Systems and Analytics
Taylor Donato, Rugby player in Accounting
Katie Geddes, Rugby player in Management Information Systems and Analytics
Paulina Karwowski, Rugby player taking her Graduate Diploma in CPA (not pictured)
On December 5, both teams were honoured in the University Centre building at a celebration for their accomplishments this year. The Associate Vice-President of Student Life, Michel Guilbeault, described the teams as “amazing, fierce leaders” and “magical to watch”.
The rugby team had a fantastic season going undefeated in the regular season to capture their fifth consecutive RSEQ championship banner. The team moved on to play three exciting and hard games at the U SPORTS National Championship, held at Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and captured the Bronze Medal. No team has as many national championship medals over the last 5 years as uOttawa Women’s Rugby.
The soccer team finished the regular season with the best record in the OUA, and they followed that up in the playoffs by winning the OUA title. Come time for the Nationals, held right here at the Gee-Gees Field, the team defeated the Calgary Dinos, the McMaster Marauders in the semis, and then defeated the Trinity Western Spartans (the first seeded team in Canada), to capture the U SPORTS GOLD medal and the Gunn Baldursson Memorial Trophy.
The Gee-Gees Women’s Soccer Team attended the City Council meeting in the morning on December 5, where Mayor Jim Watson officially declared the day University of Ottawa Gee-Gees Women’s Soccer Team Day. The Head Coach of the Soccer team, Steve Johnston, said “it has been so rewarding working alongside them for the last 6 years” and described his team as positive role models on campus who “kick all the time!”. Head Coach Johnston has just been hired a full-time position to spend even more time with the athletes, and help to further move women's sports forward at the University of Ottawa.
We look forward to watching the team in the new year, and we are excited that the University of Ottawa is hosting the 2019 USPORTS Women’s Rugby Championships.
There are over 250 student associations at the University of Ottawa, which encourage students to work with their peers while discovering their strengths and passions. One of the newest teams, Formula uOttawa, continues to evolve and promote experiential learning opportunities in the STEM fields through a collaboration of multiple faculties, including the Faculty of Engineering and the Telfer School of Management.
Formula uOttawa is the University of Ottawa’s student race car team. Each year, the team is required to design and build a brand new race car, which is judged at various international competitions and scored based on the overall design, cost, and performance of the car. The team’s third season has officially come to an end, after their most successful competition to date at Formula North 2018. The team placed 23rd out of 49 registered teams. By gaining this hands-on experience, the members of the Formula uOttawa team are able to highlight to employers that they can apply the knowledge and skills that they have learned in the classroom. As a result of the hard work of the students on this team, numerous members have secured internships at multinational companies including Tesla, Chrysler, and Continental Tire.
Not only were the racing events at Formula North a success, the talented group of students from the Telfer School of Management were able to capture 2nd place in the business presentation out of 27 teams. These outstanding students made this year’s car possible by securing 26 sponsors who provided over $30 000 in donations. The students from the Telfer School of Management are members of the Formula uOttawa Marketing Team, Accounting Team, and Administration Team.
Formula uOttawa could not have attended the international competition without the hard work and collaboration of students in both faculties.
For more information about Formula uOttawa and to learn how you can get involved, visit their website at www.formulauottawa.com
"Enactus uOttawa has been named both the 2018 TD Entrepreneurship Challenge National Champion as well as the Scotiabank EcoLiving Green Challenge National Champion for their business, The Growcer.
The Growcer’s core product is a state-of-the-art farming system that utilizes hydroponic technology to enable entrepreneurs to create their own businesses growing produce locally in northern food-insecure communities. Enactus uOttawa’s Growcer system has yielded 10,000 servings of vegetables in just 5 months.
Enactus uOttawa was also named a finalist in the Scotiabank Youth Empowerment Challenge, and the Hellman’s Food Security Challenge. These competitions were created to empower post-secondary students to develop and deliver projects that teach relevant entrepreneurship skills to aspiring and existing entrepreneurs.
Drew Stirling, VP External, mentions that “Enactus has been an incredible platform to develop personally and professionally, meet other driven students, and travel the world - all while learning to use business to change the world for the better”.
The Growcer was also named finalist in the Scotiabank Youth Empowerment Challenge, and the Hellman’s Food Security Challenge.
Not to be outdone, Alida Burke was named Project leader of the Year, while Holly Todd was also named the HSBC Woman Leader of Tomorrow runner up. uOttawa had a strong showing at nationals finishing 2nd overall amongst 70 other schools.
"It's always great to challenge ourselves at competition and see the growth of the team year after year - I could not be more proud to lead this team", says Holly Todd, President of Enactus uOttawa.
Congratulations to Enactus uOttawa on a successful National Championship!
TORONTO, May 7, 2018 - With its continued focus on maintaining the highest ethical standards, CFA Societies Canada has named a group of four students from Telfer School of Management as winners of the 2018 CFA Societies Canada Ethics Challenge at a reception at Terminal City Club in Vancouver, BC. The Ethics Challenge asked participants to analyze and evaluate a case study identifying ethical dilemmas based on the CFA Institute Code of Ethics & Standards of Professional Conduct with the goal of increasing knowledge and professionalism among future finance professionals.
Finalist teams were announced in March, and on May 3, 2018, they gathered in Vancouver for the final round of the competition. The winning team earned its title by providing the best analysis of a new case study to a judging panel of CFA charterholders and participating in a question and answer period. They, along with their competitors from four other schools, had three hours to complete the analysis.
"The CFA Societies Canada Ethics Challenge was a great opportunity to put what we've learned in school into practice," said Aamena Chatoo, part of the winning Telfer School of Management team along with James Beaudoin, Christian Cotroneo and Natalie Dokmajian. "Learning more about the CFA Institute mandate to uphold the highest ethical standards and accessing mentors helped our team accelerate our learning and make connections as we start our own careers in the finance industry. Winning was truly just the icing on the cake."
The winning team members each won $500 in addition to a commemorative award from CFA Societies Canada. All participants received a certificate of participation in the National Round. For more information about the CFA Societies Canada Ethics Challenge, please visit CFA Societies Canada online.
About CFA Societies Canada
CFA Societies Canada is a collaboration of CFA Institute and the 12 Canadian member societies, whose mission is to build brand awareness of the CFA designation and to advocate for the highest standards of integrity and ethics for the ultimate benefit of Canadian investors. For more information, please refer to www.cfasociety.org/canada.
The Rotman International Trading Competition (RITC) is a one-of-a-kind event hosted annually at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, located in one of North America’s largest financial centres.
This year’s team consisted of six of our highest-performing finance students Ben Fudali, Jack Lau, Dmitry Shorikov, Shiza Shahzad, Ben Laulan Souilhac, Maxime Gosselin and was coached by Tarek Kassem, the Manager of the Financial Research and Learning Lab. The Telfer School team finished 12th overall. Our BCom students competed among Masters and PhD students, as the University of Ottawa was among the few schools to send undergraduate students. There were schools represented from 4 out of 5 continents with teams from Australia, Italy, China, Mexico, Ireland and Iceland.
RITC, now in its 15th anniversary, is the world’s largest simulated market challenge, bringing together teams of students and their faculty representing over 50 top universities across the world. Unlike remote electronic trading competitions, RITC offers students, faculty, and sponsors the invaluable experience of engaging in a stimulating face-to-face interaction, encouraged by our unique conference format.
Here are the highlights:
1st Overall - S&P Global Quantitative Outcry case
The S&P Global Quantitative Outcry case challenges participants to apply their understanding of macroeconomics to determine the effect of news releases on the world economy as captured by the Rotman Index (“RT100”). The RT100 Index is a composite index reflective of global political, economic, and market conditions. Participants will be required to interpret and react to both quantitative and qualitative news releases based on their analysis of the news’ impact on the index by trading futures.
Top 10 – Fixed Income Case
The Fixed Income Case will challenge participants to manage a bond portfolio and generate profits by taking advantage of any mispricing of bonds due to changes in the zero-coupon rates and/or credit spreads. This will require participants to accurately understand various types of news and evaluate their impact on the yield curve, credit ratings, and bond prices. Participants will then use the risk-free zero-coupon rates to price risk-free treasury bonds. They will also use the yield curve and the Altman Z-Score model to forecast potential changes to companies’ credit rating to price the risky corporate bonds.
Top 10 – BP Commodities Case
The BP Commodities Case challenges the ability of participants to trade in a closed supply and demand market for crude oil. Natural crude oil production and its consumption will form the framework for participants to engage in direct trade to meet each other’s objectives. The case will test each participant’s ability to understand sophisticated market dynamics and optimally perform his/her role, while stressing teamwork and communication. The case will involve crude oil production, refinement, storage, as well as the sale of its synthesized physical products.
"Regionals was when everything really clicked for me when it came to Enactus, and it was really nice to see that happening for the newer members. I'm so proud of our team and am extremely grateful to be working with such a hard-working, dedicated, talented, intelligent and fun group of people." Holly Todd, President, Enactus uOttawa
Hosted at the Hilton Meadowvale, the Enactus Canada Regional Exposition for the Central Canada category endorsed the entrepreneurial achievements of over 500 students across the region. With the additional help of professionals, academic advisors, and organizers, it was a two-day event filled with competitive spirit, collaboration, and celebration. Students competed in live presentations that demonstrated their positive outreach in both their local and international communities - all within the categories of entrepreneurship, environmental issues, youth empowerment, and financial education.
Enactus uOttawa, now a group of over 90 motivated young leaders from seven different faculties at the University of Ottawa, competed in all four categories.
The Enactus uOttawa team will now move on to compete in the Enactus Canada National Exposition taking place from May 14 to 16 in Toronto, Canada at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
On February 8, 2018 4th year Telfer BCom students James Beaudoin, Aamena Chatoo, Christian Cotroneo, Natalie Dokmajian, and Nicholas Pelchat were named winners of the 2018 CFA Society Toronto Ethics Challenge. Led by Faculty Advisor Pouya Safi, this is the 3rd time that the Telfer School has participated, and our very first win! This year's winning team demonstrated their ability to expertly negotiate ethical dilemmas in a real-life investment scenario and presented their case to a panel of seasoned investment professionals. They will be heading to the Canadian Ethics Challenge on May 3, 2018, which will be held in Vancouver, BC.
The uOttawa Top Start-ups initiative recognizes and celebrates the culmination of each annual cycle of teaching, competitions, workshops and hard work that lead to exciting start-ups.
Already in its 4th year, this annual search for the top start-ups on campus is a collaborative effort between the Telfer School of Management, the Faculty of Engineering, Startup Garage and the uOttawa e-hub.
The 2018 Top uOttawa start-ups, in alphabetical order, are:
GameStrat
GameStrat is a sports software company that specializes in sideline instant replay and real-time analytics. GameStrat currently provides solutions for a number of different sports such as football, basketball and volleyball, with plans to branch out to other sports in the future.
Co-Founders: Tunch Akkaya, CEO & Co-Founder, BASc 2015, Diploma 2016, MEng 2017 and Elijah Wu, Lead Developer & Co-Founder, BASc 2015.
Transparent Kitchen
Transparent Kitchen leverages technology to empower independent restaurants and local food entrepreneurs to sell better, so that we can all eat better. Powered by our Interactive Menu Application, our online platform improves customer engagement, resulting in higher online conversions, while connecting our B2B partners to new B2C revenue channels.
Co-Founders: Frazer Nagy, CEO, BSocSc 2015, Andrej Sakic, CDO, BSocSc 2014 and Jérôme St-Hilaire, CTO.
ZoomMate
ZoomMate is an online platform that helps people find roommates/housing. ZoomMate has found a way to solve the issues of roommate seeking that makes sense. ZoomMate allows people to find homes that they like and fill it with people that are compatible with them. ZoomMate also helps landlords fill their homes with individuals that are compatible.
Co-Founders: Moktar Yusuf, CEO & Co-Founder, Telfer BCom 2017 and Himanish Kaushal, CTO & Co-Founder.
“Each year the quality of start-ups on campus is improving” says Stephen Daze, the Dom Herrick Entrepreneur in Residence at the Telfer School. “Student interest, faculty programming and an increasing culture of entrepreneurship is contributing to this rise in quality and it’s encouraging to see our next generation of leaders creating their own opportunities”.
HOW WERE THE TOP START-UPS ON CAMPUS SELECTED?
A public web-based call for nominations allowed start-ups to show their interest. The nominees were then evaluated by a campus entrepreneurship committee and an initial long list of top start-ups was selected.
Feedback from various alumni and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley was obtained before a final list of “Top Start-ups” is selected. These Top start-ups will be invited to visit Silicon Valley for a learning and business development experience in May 2018, a trip which coincides with the annual Telfer Executive MBA trip to the Valley.
“The trip exposed me to some of the top entrepreneurial thinkers and companies in the world. The effect was to make me think bigger. It also made me realize that I (and Canadians in general) have no shortage of amazing ideas. We can, however, learn a lot from ‘the Valley’ on how to execute on those ideas and impact more people than we could have previously imagined.” - Jeff Perron, Co-Founder of TruReach and Top Start-up recipient in 2016.
DECA is a professional development club that transforms students into case cracking masters. Delegates participate in multiple case study competitions Canada-wide, particularly in Ontario, to showcase their expertise in a variety of fields such as accounting, finance, marketing, and business law. Held once yearly, the DECA provincial competition is a two-day event in downtown Toronto and consists of 17 different case categories, featuring over 1300 students from 23 participating universities and colleges across the country.
On January 20-21, 63 delegates went on to face the DECA challenge and won a total of ten awards:
William King – 1st place and won $1,000 in the Start-up pitch Competition;
Christina Wong and Kelsey Baguley – Overall 2nd place in Marketing Management;
Tingi Gurung – 1st place in case #1 and 3rd place overall in Corporate Finance;
Vanessa Kelly – 2nd place in case #1 and 1st place overall in Human Resource Management;
Jason Luo – 1st place in case #2 and 1st place overall in Management Consulting;
Michelle Tam and Rula Al Halbouni – won Leaders in diversity award.
The executive team would like to thank all its delegates for their tireless work and remarkable accomplishments to help make the uOttawa chapter shine!
[What’s next for DECA uOttawa?]
Next for DECA is hosting their inaugural invitational conference called Momentum, held February 9 – 11. Open to all Telfer students, this event will include several networking opportunities with companies such as Narcity, RBC, TMX, Burgers & Fries Forever, and more.
Thereafter, stay tuned for DECA’s year-end event, where they will have their last case study activity and introduce their new executive team and President.
The 2018 MBA Games have officially come to a close but the legacy of this 3-day event will live on with the 600 MBA candidates who travelled to Ottawa from coast-to-coast to participate from January 5th to 7th.
This year marked the 30th anniversary of the student-run MBA Games. For the first time ever, they were held in Ottawa, hosted by the Telfer School of Management.
“Meeting all of the passionate and talented competitors was so rewarding,” says Emma Azzi, Telfer MBA student and chair of the 2018 MBA Games. “It was amazing to see the months of planning come together.”
Despite the cold weather, all 17 participating schools brought a warm display of energy and skills to the academic, athletic and spirit events. Participants even braved an outdoor scavenger hunt in -20°C weather.
In total, $45,311 was raised in support of the Moose Hide Campaign, a grassroots Indigenous-led movement of men standing up against violence towards women and children.
Paul and Raven Lacerte, co-founders of the Moose Hide Campaign, said they were so grateful for all the efforts of the MBA delegations in raising funds for their organization and in spreading the message across university campuses.
Competition results:
Schulich School of Business (York University) was awarded the Queen’s Cup as the overall MBA Games winner.
Our own Telfer School of Management (University of Ottawa) took home the Schulich Cup for their top scores in Academics which included Finance, Marketing, Strategy, and Diversity & Inclusion case competitions.
Beedie School of Business (Simon Fraser University) was the Titi Watul Spirit Overall Winner for their strong showing in the spirit components which included fundraising, social media, a video competition, a scavenger hunt and a case developed with the Moose Hide Campaign.
DeGroote School of Business (McMaster University) took home the newly minted Telfer Cup for their top overall scores in Athletics which included volleyball, basketball, dodgeball and curling tournaments.
In addition, four teams took home $10,000 grants from the Moose Hide Campaign to fund the on-campus initiatives they presented to address violence towards women.
Here are Telfer’s academic rankings:
1st place Strategy case: Shariq Akhlaq, Akil Manasia, Kyle Ferguson and Laurine Avallone.
1st place Finance case: Rohan Vaidya, Kuntal Shah, Peter Narbaitz and Eric Goneau.
2nd place Diversity and Inclusion case: Tanya Roy, Jujhar Singh, John Wins-Purdy and Chinmaya Mohapatro.
In addition, a special mention to our coaches Germain Aoun and Hantz Prosper who helped to drive these students to success.
The Right Honourable David Johnson, former Governor General and Executive Advisor to Deloitte Canada helped launch the event as the keynote speaker at the Opening Ceremonies Gala.
Congratulations to all participants! The 2018 MBA Games proved yet again that we really are #MoreTogether!
From January 5th to 7th, 2018, nearly 130 students represented the Telfer School of Management at two of Canada's largest inter-university competitions. The teams participated in academic, sporting and social events.
The first competition, Jeux du commerce (JDC), brought together 13 universities at Concordia University in Montreal, home of the John Molson School of Business, as the bilingual competition celebrated its 30th year.
Unfortunately, the second competition, Jeux du Commerce Central (JDCC) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was cancelled due to extreme weather conditions.
Congratulations to Telfer BCom students for winning the following in academic and sporting events:
1st place – Finance Case: Dmitry Shorikov, Katya Berez and Xing Zang.
Coaches: Michael Reynolds and Professor Allan Riding.
1st place – Tax Case: Dominic Piscopo, Julie-Anne Given and Nikita Gupta
Coach: Dominic Franchi
2nd place – Netball: Sean Lumney, Curtis Lu, Santiago Pinzo, Tamara Roy-Stang, Emily Potvin, Jordan Earls, Marisha Sesto, Michael Shaheen and Maxime Frost
Coaches: Fadi Azzi and Emily Ryan
3rd place - Human Ressources Case: Marie-Claude Monette, Isabelle D'Aoust and Deanna Carter.
Coaches: Maral Elliot and Matt Archibald.
3rd place – Project Operation Management Case: Austin St. Pierre, Dylan Budimir-Hussey and Cherise Naidu.
Coaches: Professor Jasmin Manseau and Aghilas Chebini.
Polycycle, an initiative by the Telfer student club Enactus uOttawa, has been named the recipient of the $150,000 Community Legacy award through Aviva Canada’s Community Fund Program. The Community Legacy Award targets young social entrepreneurs who have ideas focused on the theme of creating a community legacy.
Aviva’s Community Legacy Fund targets individuals between the ages of 18 and 25 years old with a unique solution to tackling climate change or an idea that benefits Canada’s environmental legacy. Polycycle was one of five Community Legacy Finalists that received the most votes during the initial voting round. In the end, Polycycle was chosen as the winner of the Community Legacy Fund and were awarded $150,000 in funding to implement their idea within a two-year period.
Polycycle’s project focuses on reducing plastic waste through the collection, and up cycling of post-consumer plastic goods. The project utilizes special machines to shred, melt down, and remould plastic waste into a variety of consumer goods. The project also works with community members to ensure that social employment is an integral part of each system’s operation.
It was another great success for our Entrepreneurship Bridges Lecture Series, which brought together the co-founders and co-CEOs of Surmesur, François and Vincent Thériault, and the Elevator Pitch Competition presented by the National Bank.
The annual Elevator Pitch Competition showcases some of the University of Ottawa’s top talent. As a part of Global Entrepreneurship week, this competition allows young entrepreneurs to present their business ideas that are still in the early stages of development to a panel of judges and Rise to the Top. The winners are awarded with a generous cash prize that they can put towards furthering their business idea. “The competition is a great preview into what students are working on and what is to come. Entrepreneurs create jobs and grow economies and it’s encouraging to see that our students are building the next generation of businesses, both traditional for-profits and social enterprises”, mentions Stephen Daze.
The competition has two categories: validation and traction. Each category can make a big contribution to the development of a start-up, with prizes of $5,000 and $10,000 respectively.
Results:
Validation Competition: Swich
Swich is a carbon air filter company utilized for odor elimination across many industries. It’s the world’s first reusable and biodegradable can-styled carbon filter and is the most economic, efficient and environmentally sustainable option on the market.
“We are in the beginning of a Green rush, and when everyone in mining for gold you want to be the one selling them shovels and pickaxes. Or in our case Carbon filters”, said Adam Czach, Co-founder of Swich.
Traction Competition: Desk Nibbles
Desk Nibbles is a local uOttawa startup serving snacks across the country. They Strive to create the best customer experience and ensure providing their clients with the best snacks in Canada.
“Anyone can agree the work they do deserves to be treated with a snack once in a while. Desk Nibbles is a service that prides itself on delivering that treat straight to the employees of any office. Desk Nibbles delivers the best snacks to your office, so it can glow with varieties of taste tested, proven, premium healthy snacks. These snacks will energize the minds and bodies of the workplace. It’s also a simple, painless process, no need to lift a finger. Simply signup online or call a representative to place an order. Then receive bundles of the best healthy snacks for to any office hassle free.”
Visit their website at https://desknibbles.com/
Each semester, students in the final-year Equity Valuation classes (ADM 4350 and ADM4750) take part in a real-world, real-time project, competing with each other to advise a business that is facing a difficult situation. Led by Professor Nitani, students during the winter 2017 semester tackled a challenge being faced by Dragonwave Inc., a company that offers high capacity broadband wireless networking systems for network operations and service providers.
Scott, a member of the winning team, described his experience: “The competition challenged my team’s ability to separate the information that truly mattered from all of the noise. We also had to actively fight our own biases as we created our valuation and storyline for the company.” According to Scott, his team brought many different strengths to the table, which ultimately sold the judges on their investment recommendations. Scott has one semester left of his undergraduate studies before he graduates in December. He’s currently one of the Capital Fund’s Portfolio Manager Leaders and will be working in investment banking at BMO Capital Markets this summer.
For Roma, another member of the winning team, the Equity Valuation case competition was the most all-encompassing and fun competition of his undergraduate studies. He really enjoyed the challenges associated with valuating a small public company, exploring the possibility of an acquisition, and presenting his team's hard work to fellow classmates, faculty, and industry professionals. After his graduation in June, Roma will be working as a Private Equity Associate at an Ottawa-based firm while pursuing his CFA designation.
Enactus uOttawa was runner-up at the 2017 Enactus Canada National Exposition in Vancouver, where 40 universities and colleges presented business-minded approaches to solving social problems. The uOttawa team showcased food security and job creation initiatives in Canada’s North.
Through The Growcer, Enactus uOttawa hopes to combat food insecurity in isolated Inuit communities.The team has also launched Sprout, which aims to bring fresh, healthy options to low-income food deserts in Ottawa and other cities.The projects were presented by Enactus uOttawa president Corey Ellis, Alida Burke, Faraz Malik and Vivian Liu.
The uOttawa team also took home the BDC Entrepreneurs First Project Partnership Best Project award for the Iqaluit Innovation Hub, a co-working space and community initiative to encourage entrepreneurship. The project was presented by Brianna Fraser and Steven Bui.
A fourth project, Sanajit, is a social enterprise in Iqaluit that up-cycles discarded wood into quality furniture. It acts as a recycling program for the community and a mentorship program for high school students to learn about the trades. The project was presented by Parker Selman and McKinley Richards.
Congratulations to Enactus uOttawa. Best wishes, as well, to the Memorial University team that will represent Canada at the Enactus World Cup to be held London, England, in September.
In April 2017, students in the 4th year class Case Studies in Accounting (ADM4340) presented their final project in the context of the CPA Accounting Case Competition.
Congratulations to the winning team:
Jordano Gonzalez
Sarah Morin
Zachary Princi
Vaughn Asher Sapers
Iskandar Nasrallah
We asked the winning team to share their experience with us as well as their plans after graduation since most are graduating this term.
Jordano began by sharing a few tips for students who taking the class next year. He said that being confident in a presentation is key to having the audience agree with what you’re saying. He also suggested being prepared for the question period since it can be quite stressful. After graduation, Jordano will be joining RCGT (Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton) as a Consultant.
Like Jordano, Sarah will be graduating this semester and will be working for the government as well pursuing her CPA designation. This competition was her last as an undergraduate student. She explained “this presentation is not something I’m going to forget any time soon and quite honestly, it's pretty cool that this was the last presentation of my undergraduate degree”.
Zach has a strong passion for entrepreneurship and has co-founded a startup called Eephorea. Eephorea is an entertainment production company that produces and promotes live entertainment experiences. After graduation, he hopes to expand his startup and help pioneer the live entertainment and music industries here in Ottawa. In addition to that, he is being bridged in full-time at the House of Commons as an Accounting Officer.
As for Vaughn, he currently works for the Canada Revenue Agency and will be bridged into a full time position there after graduation. He strongly feels that he wants to use his degree and the knowledge and experience acquired during his studies to help fight those that abuse our taxation and financial systems.
Finally, Iskandar started his own tax prep company specializing in student taxes. His aim is to give accounting students the opportunity to gain experience by doing other students’ taxes at a very low cost. He and his partner won a government grant and have been featured in Glue magazine's business journal.
We would like to congratulate the winning team, and wish them the best of luck on their future endeavours!
As is done at the end of every term, the Telfer School of Management was pleased to organize the Intopia Simulation for 4th year students as part of their Strategic Management class. The competition starts on the Friday afternoon and ends late on Sunday. Students spend the three days at Desmarais Pavilion and often stay late into the night on Friday and Saturday night.
One of the winning teams shared their impressions with us. Team 38 includes Sogui Sylla, Mohamadou Barry, Philippe Langlois, Philippe Émond and Yazid Agougou, who are all 3rd and 4th year students. The majority of them are planning to finish their studies this term or in December 2017. Yazid explained that this weekend was extraordinary and memorable for all team members. They worked hard day and night, throughout the weekend. They were so committed that they even stayed overnight to negotiate sales contracts for their products with other teams. Surely, very few students slept during their Intopia weekend!
Intopia participants are required to make quick decisions before a predetermined time elapses. Students must negotiate with each other in order to grow their business over the weekend. Intopia participants get immediate feedback on their decisions and are given the opportunity to apply what they learned during their 4 years at the Telfer School.
For participating students, the simulation is very realistic. Some of the members of Team 38 even dressed up in suits to negotiate with the other teams found throughout Desmarais. In the early decisions, Team 38 did not rank among the top teams, but thanks to their hard work, perseverance and team spirit, they won first place in the category of Best Strategy – Finished Goods Producer.
Team 57, a small team comprised of three members, won first place in the category of Best Strategy – Component Producer, despite their small size. Members Alexandre Ranger, Benoit Guilbault and Francis Grenier, also said that they found the weekend beneficial. Alexandre, a student who hopes to get his CPA, shared that the Intopia simulation was not only a very rewarding and fun experience, but it helped him put into practice a lot of the knowledge he gained throughout his studies. In addition, participants apply skills learned outside of class, such as negotiation skills.
The three team members learned a lot from this simulation, but they said that the primary benefit of this experience was the networking aspect. For them, being able to network with students from the English classes was representative of the real job market and this experience will play a positive role in their professional lives.
Congratulations to Team 19 (Anita Mahava, Cody Miller, Mike Bowen, Miroslav Gacic and Mussie Hailu) on winning first place in the category of Best Strategy – Service Provider. Congratulations also to Team 53 (Matthew Monteith, Miranda Chan, Stefanie El-Beyourti and Isra Sabunju) on earning first place in the category of Best Strategy – Integrated Firm.
The University of Toronto’s Rotman International Trading Competition (RITC), brings together some of the world's top business schools for a 3 day intensive simulation. Out of the 52 attending schools, The University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management performed exceptionally and emerged 13th. Telfer surpassed competition from schools such as McGill, Pennsylvania State University, Columbia, University of Chicago, Western, Queens, The Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance and University of Hong Kong.
This year’s team consisted of six of our highest-performing finance students: Evan Friend, Danika Fu, Jack Lau, Dmitry Shorikov, William Tu, and Patrick Winogron, and was coached by Pouya Safi, the Manager of the Financial Research and Learning Lab. The team was formed following their exceptional performance at the Telfer Trading Competition in October. Since then, the team had been meeting regularly to devise their strategies and practice on the RIT software. Anyone passing by the Financial Research and Learning Lab was likely to have seen these students preparing for the competition. The preparation only became more intense as the competition approached. By the time reading week had started, RITC team members could be found practicing round the clock, often spending more than 12 straight hours in the lab. Even on the train ride to Toronto, the team continued to fine-tune their strategies.
The events opened with a welcome ceremony and introduction to the event. There was also a social outcry round for competitors to practice outcry strategy, and Jack Lau placed 2nd in this event!
This year, the competition was broken down into six official events focusing on options, sales & trading, commodities, fixed income, algorithmic trading and quantitative outcry. The competition was largely made up of graduate students in programs such as finance, mathematics, financial engineering and quantitative financial modeling.
First among the events was the BP Commodities case. Here, team members were assigned roles as traders, producers or refiners. The team had to work together to interpret market signals and trade various petroleum commodities and futures contracts. This was an extremely strong case for the Telfer team, placing 6th in this event.
In the options case, teams had to analyze market data to trade different call options on a fictitious exchange-traded fund. Competitors devised a model that collected, interpreted and modeled this data and devised a strategy to successfully trade on this model’s data. The final strategy combined volatility measures, delta hedging and pricing arbitrage to result in a 6th place finish.
With two sixth place finishes on the first day, the Telfer team occupied 6th place going into day two. Day two included cases such as credit risk, algorithmic trading, sales & trading and quantitative outcry.
The S&P Global Credit Risk case involved pricing corporate fixed income products, and calculating their risks. Tools such as implied price difference, and Altman Z-scores were used to help predict the price path and if the company would default on their debt. After extremely high hopes for the case, Telfer was ranked in the top 20.
The sales and trading case, sponsored by Flow Traders, was another great event for the Telfer team, finising in 14th place. The case required participants to take on the role of a trader and make rapid evaluations of liquidity risk. Throughout the case, the traders had to assess the value and risk level of dozens of tender offers and execute trades on the positions gained through these tender offers. Success was determined by the team’s ability to manage its market exposure while exploiting market-making opportunities.
The Algorithmic Trading case, in which the Telfer team finished in the top 25, focused on the development of a trading algorithm that would analyze market data and trade on that data, all while avoiding market penalties. Requiring a tremendous amount of preparation, this case was carried out by a single team member, Dmitry Shorikov, sequestered in a closed room.
The most exciting competition was the Quantitative Outcry Case. This involved two team members acting as market analysts and incorporating market data into a model of numerous countries’ GDP in order to price a market index. This estimate was then transmitted via silent hand signals to two other team members working in an open-outcry trading pit. These players, dressed in bright costumes to make themselves more visible to the analysts, bought and sold based on the analysts’ instructions.
In the past four years of attending, it was clear that this was one of the most determined and prepared teams the Telfer School has ever sent. The team improved on the previous year's result, and considering all of the preparation and practice prior to the competition, it is easy to understand why. The RITC team had been meeting every Saturday since November practicing and creating strategies. The students returning to school next semester are already eager to improve on their excellent performance this year, and those graduating are wishing for one more chance. A special thanks goes to Mr. Pouya Safi, the Telfer Marketing Department, CETSC, and the Telfer Career Centre for their help in funding the expenses of attending the competition.
Every year, the team is looking to acquire new talent, and will be prospecting at the Telfer Trading Competition in October 2017. If you are interested in investing, trading, financial modeling or would just like to get more involved, do not hesitate to try out. The team encourages any interested students to try out or contact them for any information.
The 11th edition of the Financial Open took place on Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28, 2017. Hosted by the Telfer School of Management, the competition is the biggest of its kind in Canada and welcomes over 350 students and volunteers from eleven Canadian universities.
The Telfer School of Management sent a delegation of 28 students to compete in eight different cases in finance and accounting.
This year our students took home second place in the Stock Simulation. Congratulations to Anne Armstrong, Juan Franlin Karamoy, Alex Milosevic and Jack Lau (Coach: George Khalife).
The Telfer delegation would like to extend a special thank you to the organizing committee of this event. Their effort and commitment to planning and hosting the event was demonstrated by the incredible success of the weekend.
Written by Drew Morash, President, Telfer Management Competitions de Gestion Telfer (TMCGT)
Students put their academic knowledge into action with DECA, a global professional development program for students who strive to compete and network with other like-minded young professionals. Delegates attend competitions with an oral presentation and a written component, featuring a wide variety of categories, such as Business Financial Services, Marketing Management, Travel Management, and Management Consulting.
This year, the University of Ottawa’s DECA Chapter had several triumphant victories during the annual DECA U Provincials competition, which took place on January 20-22 in downtown Toronto at the Sheraton Centre. With 68 delegates competing, uOttawa was one of the 20 universities and colleges with their eyes set on gold, and their hard work paid off! Here are their results:
Connor Giddens – 1st overall in Human Resource Management, Top 3 for Roleplay Anna Halawa and Sonia Alb – 2nd overall in Marketing Management, Top 3 for Roleplay Tingi Mulvihill – 2nd overall in Business Financial Services Jason Luo – 2nd overall in Retail Management Jingwen Lin - Top 3 for Roleplay in Retail Management SoniaAlb - Top 3 Written Tests
DECA uOttawa wishes to thank Matt Archibald, Kina Leclair, Emilie Kitchen, and the Telfer School of Management for giving the delegation the support, guidance, and academic training necessary to prepare for the competition. Additionally, it would like to highlight the efforts of Anna Halawa (President) and Bobbi Nguyen (Vice President) for the time, effort, and hard work they devoted to the club. Finally, DECA would also like to recognize the dedication of the Executive Committee of the club, as none of DECA’s successes would be possible without their countless hours of work (Maxim Goldenberg, Divya Mehta, Jordan Monaghan, Nikita Gupta, Sonia Alb, Michelle Tam, Rula Al Halbouni, Zach Zhang, Fiona Doomasia, and Connor Giddens).
What’s next for DECA uOttawa? Students from the delegation will be competing in various invitational competitions across universities in the province to carry on the uOttawa streak of success. It also will have the chance to participate in the International Career Development Conference (ICDC). Stay tuned!
Written by Nikita Gupta, VP of Internal Affairs, DECA uOttawa
From January 6 to 8, 2017, nearly 130 students represented the Telfer School of Management at two of Canada's biggest inter-university competitions. The teams participated in academic, sporting and social events.
The first competition, Jeux du commerce (JDC), gathered 13 universities at the Université de Moncton in New Brunswick, as the bilingual competition celebrated its 29th year.
The second competition took place back home in Ottawa, where more Telfer students competed at Carleton University for Jeux du commerce Central (JDCC), an annual event hosted by the Canadian Association of Business Students that brings together 14 universities across Ontario, Québec and the Maritimes.
Congratulations to students for winning the following in academic, sporting and social events:
Team Awards
JDC 3rd Place overall, Academic Cup
JDC Recognition Award : Liane Brière
1st Place Trophies
JDC Marketing Case: Amy Lam, Brenda Lam and Roma Stepanchenko
(Coach: Professor David Large)
JDC Surprise Case: Caroline Robertson, Sarai Castrejon and Kassandra Tannouri
JDC Sport - Volleyball: Mira Azzi, Michele Ancrum, Mathieu Brunet, Curtis Lu, Adam Wang, Marisha Sesto, Dylan Kostka, Jordan Earls and Yvan Ntivumbara
(Coaches: Fadi Azzi and Emily Ryan)
JDCC International Business: Paxton Mayer, Mussie Hailu and Mila Giray
(Coaches: Professor Tyler Chamberlin, Jesse Dunn and Richard Laberge)
JDCC Delegation MVP: Mila Giray
3rd Place Trophies
JDC Entrepreneurial Innovation Case: Emily Potvin, Chelsea Parker and Tarek Mansour
(Coach: Professor Stephen Daze)
JDC Project Management Case: Paul Eom, Eric Thomson and Sharanya Tharmarajan
(Coach: Aghilas Chebini)
JDC Finance Case: Rabbi Kazi, Scott Beiersdorfer, Margaret Omodu
(Coach: Professor Michael Reynolds)
JDCC Accounting Case: Nikita Gupta, Julie-Anne Given and Meaghan McMahon (Coaches: Professor Sylvain Durocher and Professor Sheldon Weatherstone)
Written by Amy Lam, VP Academic of the JDC Delegation
From right to left: Erickque Plante, Shayan Obaidullah, Yvette Nakouzi Aoun (Assistant Coach) James Wilson, Derek Ovadia, Taro Abarbanel-Uemura, Germain Aoun (Coach), Philippe Lamothe, James Robert, Camelia Dubic, Anali Christina Stewart, Greg Richards (MBA Program Director), Emma Azzi, Keith Asare, Matthew Chesser, Goldwin John Guiang, Jayakumar Jayamanian. Two 2017 MBA Games delegates were not present for this photo: Curtis Haché and Jeremy Pluym.
On January 2, 2017, 16 of Telfer’s finest MBA students kicked off the New Year by travelling to Vancouver Island University to compete in the MBA Games against 18 other Canadian universities. Despite being one of the smaller teams present, they managed to vigorously compete in both the academic and sports components and exceeded expectations by winning multiple titles.
Thanks to the combined efforts of all its teams, the Telfer School of Management has gained second place in the academic rankings.
The Finance Team landed second place in the competition. Members of the team are: Phil Lamothe, Shayan Obaidullah, Curtis Hache, and Jamie Wilson.
The HR Team landed third place. Members of the team are: Matt Chesser, Keith Asare, and Camelia Dubic.
Additionally, the Telfer MBA team would not have won second place if it wasn’t for the notable efforts of the Strategy Team (Jamie Wilson, Eric Plant, Camelia Dubic, and James Myers) and the Marketing Team (Taro Abarbanel-Uemura, Jayakumar Jayamanian, Goldwin Guiang, and Derek Ovadia).
The Dodgeball Team earned a well-deserved third place win. Members of the team are: Emma Azzi, Anali Stewart, Taro Abarbanel-Uemura, Jeremy Pluym, Jayakumar Jayamanian, Goldwin Guiang, Eric Plant, James Myers, and Derek Ovadia.
The Volleyball Team landed sixth place. Members of the team are: Emma Azzi, Shayan Obaidullah, Anali Stewart, Phil Lamothe, Matt Chesser, Curtis Hache, Jeremy Pluym, and Keith Asare.
Congratulations to the whole team for their outstanding effort and determination throughout the MBA Games!
The Francophone MBA team from the Telfer School of Management has won first place in the 2016 HEC Montréal Sustainability Challenge. The competition was held on Friday, March 18, 2016 at HEC Montréal.
The Telfer team consisted of Jean-François Claveau, Mathieu Daoust, Majid Fassi Fehri, Hala Migahed and their coach, Mathias Kouassi.
This was the seventh time HEC Montréal has organized this event. The Sustainability Challenge is an international case competition that affords MBA students from across Canada and abroad a unique opportunity to put their managerial and analytical skills to the test, as well as expand their professional networks.
The objective for each team is to develop concrete solutions that apply to a current issue and present them to a jury made up of executives from large international corporations.
"I am very proud of this accomplishment by the Telfer MBA Team", says Mathias Kouassi, the team's coach. "This is a high level competition that includes many MBA programs from Canada and around the world, in which participants are invited to show originality and analytical thought to ponder emerging issues on sustainability and offer concrete solutions to these issues."
He adds: "Thank you to our champions for being such great ambassadors of our MBA program and to our professors and staff who contribute to students' well being and to the Telfer MBA program on a daily basis."
This country’s largest student leadership development organization, Enactus Canada, hosted their 2015 Regional Exposition – Central Canada in Mississauga on March 8 and 9, 2015. The event inspired and celebrated the entrepreneurial action of student teams and student entrepreneurs across Central Canada who are sparking change in communities across Canada and beyond.
The Regional Exposition brings together over 500 student leaders, academic professionals and top executives and entrepreneurs from Central Canada around the shared cause of transforming lives through entrepreneurial action.
During the event, post-secondary students competed for prestigious regional championship titles by showcasing their community outreach projects and business ventures to judging panels composed of business professionals.
Three team-based competitions focused on entrepreneurship, environmental issues and financial education, as well as an individual-based competition for full-time students operating full-time businesses, took place during the Regional Exposition. Combined, this showcased the hard work of student leaders across the Central Canada region.
The entrepreneurship team consisting of Sam Thumm, Hannah Behzadi and Dhriv Gupta placed first in the TD Entrepreneurship Challenge. The financial literacy team of Corey Ellis, Wendy Liang and Faraz Malik placed first in the Capital One Financial Education Challenge. Finally, Rohin Sondhi, Tanveer Moustafa and Alida Burke, on the environment team were the first-runner up for the ScotiaBank EcoLiving Green Challenge.
Regional champions move on to the national level of competition taking place May 11-13 at the 2015 Enactus Canada National Exposition in Toronto, Ontario, in addition to the four presenters who will represent the team as they strive for the Tim Hortons Cup and National Champion title.
To learn more about Enactus uOttawa’s community projects, visit www.enactusuottawa.ca
The 10th Annual Organizational Behaviour Case Competition (OBCC) is a two-day case competition on Organizational Behaviour (and Human Resources) between 12 universities, that was hosted by the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University took place on Friday January 9 and Saturday January 10, 2015. The Organizational Behaviour Case Competition (OBCC) is a place where students with a passion for HR gather annually to learn, discuss, network, and compete in a rigorous day-long case competition.
This year the theme was “Wired” managing through a digital workplace.
Congratulations to following students for winning the first place!
Team members: Kseniya Stogniy, Brooke Runions, Richard Laberge, and Abhiram Sarvepalli.
Coach: Breanna Scanlan (4th year student who participated in OBCC last year).
The Jeux du commerce took place January 2 to 4, 2015, at the Université de Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, Québec. The Jeux du Commerce competition is an interuniversity event that brings together 1,040 delegates from 13 Eastern Canadian universities to compete in academic, sporting and social events. A delegation of 83 students represented the Telfer School of Management. The year marks the 25th anniversary of the University of Ottawa’s participation in this competition.
Congratulations to students for winning the following:
Human Ressource (3rd place): Negar Jeyrani, Brooke Runions and Emily Slade Coach: Professor François Chiocchio
International Business Case (3rd place): Drew Morash, Gabriel Rubio Maldonado and Jaclyn Tokarewicz Coach: Anika Laperrière
Committee of the Year (1st place): Aghilas Chebini, Renée Leduc, Jaclyn Tokarewicz, Saxon Giddings, Gabriel Rubio Maldonado, Michel Bedard, Elizabeth Audette-Bourdeau, Drew Morash, Diana Kolesarova, Gina Chong, Dominic Franchi and Frédéric Desnoyers
Community Involvement: Recognition as one of the top three university delegations with the most outstanding community involvement initiatives leading up to the competition.
Students from the Telfer School of Management have placed among the top student leaders in Canada at the Enactus National competition that was held in Calgary, Alberta from April 28-30, 2014. This success comes on the heels of many accomplishments this year, including huge success at the Enactus Regional Exposition.
Ajmal Sataar won Student Leader of the Year, and Kathleen Kemp was named the HSBC Woman Leader of Year, Central Canada, and was the runner up nationally. The team won 6 other awards, and was a Semi-Finalist among the Top 8 teams in Canada.
“These are tremendous accomplishments that speak to our students’ personal dedication and hard work” said Stephen Daze, the Telfer School’s faculty advisor for Enactus uOttawa.
Awards received:
First Place in the TD Entrepreneurship Challenge Central Canada
First Place in the Capital One Financial Education Challenge Central Canada
First Place for Best Project in the RBC Newcomer Advancement Project Fund
Third Place in the Scotiabank Ecoliving Green Challenge
Third Place for Best Project in the Walmart Women's Economic Empowerment Grant
Ajmal Sataar - Student Leader of the Year
Kathleen Kemp - HSBC Women Leader of the Year, Central Canada, and Runner Up nationally
Stephen Daze - John Dobson Fellow for his work with the team as a Faculty Advisor
Semi-Finalist in the National Competition, Top 8 in Canada
This country’s largest student leadership development organization, Enactus Canada, hosted their 2014 Regional Exposition – Central Canada at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto on March 13-14, 2014. The event inspired and celebrated the entrepreneurial action of student teams and student entrepreneurs across Central Canada.
The Regional Exposition brings together over 500 student leaders, academic professionals and top executives and entrepreneurs from Central Canada around the shared cause of transforming lives through entrepreneurial action.
During the event, post-secondary students competed for prestigious regional championship titles by showcasing their community outreach projects and business ventures to judging panels composed of business professionals.
Three team-based competitions focused on entrepreneurship, environmental issues and financial education, as well as an individual-based competition for full-time students operating full-time businesses, took place during the Regional Exposition.
Enactus uOttawa was named Regional Champion of the Capital One Financial Education Challenge and Regional Champion of TD Entrepreneurship Challenge in League A. The team also placed as second runner-up for the ScotiaBank Ecoliving Green Challenge. Enactus uOttawa Co-President, Kathleen Kemp, was recognized as one of the HSBC Woman Leaders of tomorrow for Central Canada.
Regional champions move on to the national level of competition taking place April 28-30 at the 2014 Enactus Canada National Exposition in Calgary, Alberta.
To learn more about Enactus uOttawa’s community projects, visit www.enactusuottawa.ca
Procter and Gamble partnered with the Ted Rogers School of Management to create a national competition combining business and technological innovation, which sets it apart from existing competitions.
Teams from every Canadian province were extended an invitation to compete on March 1, 2014 in Toronto.
Congratulations to Roberta Kramchynsky, Bhumika Bakshi, Kimberly Barret and Sharon Thomas who came back with the bronze cup (3rd place out of 12 teams)!
Ajmal Sataar, Kathleen Kemp, Neil Gangal and alumnus Adam Tomaszewski are hoping to clean up, in more ways than one, as they take unwanted cigarette butts and turn them into profits.
The venture is still at the idea stage, but a six-minute pitch on the idea won top honours over the weekend at Launch Some Good, an entrepreneurial competition with a world-betterment twist.
The group plans to create specialized cigarette collection bins and sell a collection service. For extra world-improvement points, the collection jobs will be held by mentally ill people through transitional employment programs. Options for unloading the butts include turning them into insulation or giving them to a company in New Jersey that makes furniture from them.
The company also hopes to create a revenue stream from advertising on its butt containers. In order to stimulate public interest, those containers would automatically count the number of butts going in and would be operated on solar power, the group says.
Cigarettes might not seem like a growth industry, but Sataar says at the moment butts are still the world’s most common type of litter, so there should be plenty of business to do. There’s also the question of how big a priority such environmentalism will be for smokers, but they’re hoping smokers’ guilt will be a powerful force.
Read the full article on the Ottawa Citizen’s website. [This link is no longer available]
Jean-François Vincent-Rocan who is studying at the Telfer School of Management for the completion of his Graduate Diploma for Scientific Management and Leadership, as part of his PhD in Chemistry, entered the Walmart Green Student Challenge with another uOttawa student. Their innovative eco-friendly idea has enabled them to gain incredible support from the community and reach 3rd place in the contest.
However, the contest is not over and it is still possible to show support to the team by voting [This link is no longer available].
Congratulations to undergraduate students Andrei Huranchyk, Tarik Aeta, Will Zhao and James Killoran who recently won 2nd place, representing the Telfer School, at the PRMIA Financial Risk Management Competition. They had to compete with 13 other teams at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
The Telfer School of Management would like to congratulate the members of our winning team: Pier Martin, Tom McColeman, Connor McGarry, and Igor Truffet, who finished first overall at the 7th annual TATA Sustainability Cup Case Competition. They were ably seconded by Rupert Johnson, who also attended on behalf of the Telfer School.
This event took place on November 19, and was hosted by Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management. This annual competition was co-hosted by TATA Consultancy Services. The participating 12 teams were presented with a real-life business case and their analysis was then presented to a panel of industry executives for judging. This is the 2nd time in 7 years that the Telfer School has won this competition!
Invitees to this year’s competition were: Dalhousie University, McGill University - Desautels Faculty of Management, McMaster University - DeGroote School of Business, Queen's School of Business, Ryerson University - Ted Rogers School of Management, Simon Fraser University - Beedie School of Business, University of Alberta, University of Manitoba – Asper School of Business, University of Ottawa - Telfer School of Management, University of South Carolina, University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management, York University - Schulich School of Business
The University of Ottawa would like to congratulate the team of 80 Telfer School of Management students that represented us at the Jeux du Commerce 2009 (JDC). This annual competition, featuring 13 universities from Eastern Canada, was hosted by l’Université du Québec à Montréal from January 2-5, 2009. This is the first time in the history of the JDC competition that the University of Ottawa has finished first overall, and the fourth time that it has finished in the top three.
The Telfer School won the following trophies:
1st place overall
1st place in these activities:
Entrepreneurship Case
Ethics Case
Finance Case
Human Resources Management Case
Ultimate Frisbee
Volleyball
Contribution to the community
2nd place in these activities:
Marketing Case
Strategy Case
Taxation Case
Recognition Award : “Normand Fortier, University of Ottawa”
The following article was written by a member of our student community. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Telfer School of Management. For more information or to flag inappropriate content, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
.png)
.png)
.png)
.jpg)
.jpg)
