By Dorra Jlouli, Ing, Agr, MBA
Part-Time Professor at the Telfer School of Management, uOttawa
Telfer School of management MBA’s students in the course Leadership & Management - MBA5636 – felt proud this semester about experiencing an interactive online simulation to acquire leadership skills preparing them to successfully lead change management process in their organisation!
« We are very proud to have been part of the first group in North America to complete Wallbreakers Leadership online simulation.! » said Vickie L. , Mireille N., Cherlande R and Charlotte K., candidates to MBA 2022, Telfer School of management. I warmly thank the University of Ottawa and Professor Dorra Jlouli for providing us with this rich experience as part of our MBA journey", added Mireille N.
Who had not faced challenges while managing one’s team resistance caused by a major process of organisation’s change ? Our recent context of COVID-19 is the best shared example.
Innovate in our way of teaching
The recent move to the online training in our Ottawa University was itself a significant change that had a major impact on the teaching methods we have been using. That said, this context was also a great opportunity forcing us to lead with innovative ways of teaching. The Funding Program for Pedagogical Innovation of Telfer School of Management supported our initiatives to innovate in our way of teaching. My certification for using and facilitating a workshop with Wallbreakers leadership simulation was supported by this innovation Fund. It’s an excellent example proving the efficiency of learning by action where the students enjoy the game while learning leadership skills.
"And honestly, I would r'ank this method at the top of the list for learning change management and leadership in general! ”, said Arlette G.
How does it work?
Prior to the two day simulation workshop, the students learnt the different theory related to leadership and change management that they need to practice during the simulation. We went especially through the Gauleman leadership styles, disc® 8 dimensions of leadership , Ungian-Inspired Personality Types, Rick Maurer approach to change management, Jand ohn Kotter’s Eight Accelerators.
During the workshop, the students are divided into 4 teams where every team represents the manager of one of the major four departments of the company who have to lead the change and overcome the resistance of their 10 employee who have recently heard about a fusion between their company and an unknown one. The buses, the game’s metaphor for the department, are presented with different colours (green, red, yellow and violet).
The students are competing and every team see simultaneously the way the other teams are managing their change process. What you see inside the buses are not pieces of Lego game, but the employee. The students have to move forward the buses from the first phase of the change process (The Start-up phase) to the last one (the anchoring one). They are challenged to keep as many employees as inside the bus during the hole process of change. That’s a continued challenge as the “virtual employee” resist all along the three phases of the change process.
The students have to manage both the gear they decide to use to move the buses forward (the speed of managing the change) and to take the suitable leadership action to manage their employee’s resistance. They immediately see the effect of their decision in terms of employee resistance as shown below.The only way to overcome their employee resistance is to choose the suitable leadership decision to bring their employee back to the bus “their department”.
“Through a practical case on managing a merger of two companies, I had fun using the Wallbreakers tool. This allowed our team to have real-time feedback from employees on our various decisions and to regularly adjust our actions in order to get everyone on board ” Said Pierre C.H.
The debriefing session following the simulation is as important, if not even more important than the simulation itself, as the students synthetize on their experience, share their lessons learned, realize and understand the consequences of their leadership decisions and comment on their own leadership style and how it affects the team dynamic. They make the connection between the theory and their active learning experience.
How does it benefit MBA students?
“The Wallbreakers simulation allowed us to exercise our different styles of leadership and to understand that the situational leadership was the one that best suited team mobilization and goal achievement. “ Said Charlotte K., candidate to MBA 2022.
For MBA Students, who have already an experience in management, the active learning methods such using simulations is suitable. Indeed, it offers them a similar environment of a real professional situation they might had experienced. This stimulates their learning capacity by helping them to make some connections with their own experience. They learn from their mistakes and capitalise on their success.
"The Wallbreakers experience allowed me to put the theoretical concepts I learned in the course into action immediately. We had the opportunity to have several important team discussions on change management and leadership that will be useful throughout my career path.", said Justin Thibault, candidate to MBA 2022.
“Wallbreaker simulation give us the opportunity to practice the concepts learned in class. We really experienced it as a real business situation, sometimes forgetting that it was just a simulation, so heated were the debates to reach a consensual decision within the group!”, said Arlette G.
To learn more about Wallbreakers simulation, the recording of one of the debriefing sessions following the simulation of the course MBA5636 is available here.
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.
By Dorra Jlouli, Ing, Agr, MBA
Part-Time Professor at the Telfer School of Management, uOttawa
Innovation is not only about creating new products and services but especially when we innovate in our way of teaching our “Green mind” leaders!
I'm happy that my students enjoyed the World Climate Simulation we run in November; a great success! We are innovating at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa by using interactive tools to teach our students complex topics with simple simulations.
Climate change is a matter of all. It’s so efficient to explain a complex climate system within our current virtual e-learning environment by using innovative simulations such as En-Roads and World Climate simulations.
During my class of Leadership, Strategy and Sustainability, for the 4th year Business students, they got the memorable chance to have a roleplaying game where they play diplomats at a virtual urgent UN climate summit. After playing the World climate simulation a month ago (C-Road simulation) focusing on making strategies to define when and how much nations must reduce their emissions to reach the international climate goals (reducing the global warming to less than 2 degree Celsius), this week the students learnt how it’s possible to reach the target warming by playing En-Road simulation. They learnt how sectors of activity like energy supply, energy use, and land use affect climate change.
I believe in the power of learning by action. En-Roads simulation is an efficient interactive tool to engage my students by action to experience what do we mean when talking about the interconnectivity in the "Climate system".
Within a 3 hour workshop, the students had the opportunity to see what’s going on globally and how every action is important in contributing to reduce the climate change issues. Ultimately, this is to achieve the Paris United Nations Climate Change Conference's central goals.
The students were divided into six teams that represent different global stakeholders of the business, government, and civil society who can influence climate solutions: Clean Tech; Conventional Energy; Industry & Commerce; Land, Agriculture & Forestry; World Governments; and Climate Justice Hawks.
Their actions are analyzed in real-time with the En-Roads simulator to determine their effects on the climate.
Every team was asked to present their scenario from their Stakeholder-role’s perspective and give the arguments to the audience, where the Secretary-General of the UN takes notes and animate the debate.
While using interactive modes, like En-Roads simulation and world climate simulation, it’s easier to explain to “business students” who don’t have a scientific background in the climate system and environment, the environment’s issues of complex theory like climate system.
By acting, the students not only understood the correlation between the different factors of the climate system but also became climate ambassadors. This is with the conviction that it’s not too late to fix the issues of climate change as long as every stakeholder contributes to the global effort for reaching our common goal.
Big thanks to Climate interactive and MIT Sloan for their amazing job in creating such innovative tools.
Tired of visiting the same old study spots on campus? Looking for some cool, new scenery to put in some long study hours? Seeking a place to enjoy either a smooth espresso, fresh bagel, vegetarian buffet or even a homemade pie while you are at it? Your search ends now.
Listed below are the definitive nine best places to study in Ottawa, perfectly crafted to inspire even the least motivated student. Let us begin.
The Green Door
198 Main Street
The Green Door is a great place to eat quality vegetarian food while you buckle down and study. There is only one location in Ottawa, and it is right beside Sandy Hill, so it is easily accessible for most uOttawa students. Although it is primarily a pay-by-weight style buffet consisting of mostly gluten-free, vegan, and organic foods, it is also a very relaxed and spacious environment to study in. It does get quite loud and busy at peak times, so in order to avoid distraction, bring some headphones, and listen to some of your favourite study music to get locked in.
Les Moulins Lafayette is a relatively new bakery to the city, which came to Hintonburg in just 2018. Albeit it is one of the best bakeries/cafés I’ve been to in Ottawa. Not only do they play great music and offer an aesthetic environment to work in, but they have some of the highest quality coffee and pastries I have had. As a bakery first, they sell a much better variety of croissants, muffins, and cookies than a typical café and they also happen to be directly in front of a craft brewery and LCBO for when the studying is over.
912 Bank St, 1365 Woodroffe Ave, 6-197 Trainyards Dr
This bagel shop is extremely well-known as it has been in business in the same location, the Glebe, for the last 25 years. It is on this list not because it is a quiet and chill spot to study in but since it is open 24/7 and offers free coffee refills. It is for these two reasons that it is one of the best options for a hardcore, long-lasting study session. It has windows all around with natural sunlight and a choice of viewing the bagel creation process or the hustle and bustle of Bank Street. They also have friendly staff. The only downside is they do play their music at an exceptionally high level, so just be sure to bring some quality headphones in order to get locked in.
229 Armstrong St, 538 Rochester St, 219 Laurier Ave W. and others
Morning Owl is a locally-based coffee chain here in Ottawa. They have 7 locations across Ottawa, and they have delicious and unique drinks and bites, such as the white rabbit latte. I can always count on Morning Owl for a great study environment, with its chic and comfortable interior design. Another thing that makes Morning Owl interesting to study in is that they each have a different vibe that matches the area it is in, so make sure to visit the different locations across the city.
Instead of settling with the super-loud, non-stop influx of people at the Desmarais Starbucks or any of the other cafés on campus, treat yourself with some coffee and a homemade pie. Life of Pie is an adorable, family-run place that offers housemade pies (that are to die for) in many flavours as well as quiches, soups, and salads. I recommend studying here because although it is small, it is very cozy, the staff are friendly, and the fantastic smell of freshly made pies makes you want to stay there all day.
The Art House Café is a cool, art-filled coffeehouse that offers espresso drinks, light fare and pastries, plus outdoor seating. It will give you a sense of inspiration and culture while you are at your most stressed. Exam season really taking its toll? Relax and gaze at some local art. If you are feeling particularly burnt out (this is a common occurrence) Art House Café offers $5.00 pints all day every day. Their menu also has an enticing variety of hot coffee cocktails such as their spiked Chai, Amaretto Latte, and Bourbon Hot Chocolate.
377 Rideau St, 120 Metcalfe St, 1049 Bank St, and others
Need more absolute silence in order to study? The Ottawa Public Library is a no-funny-business place go. They offer free Wi-Fi and numerous locations across the city. If really focused thinking and comprehension is required, as opposed to copying down slides, this is a great choice because there will be absolutely nothing to distract you.
Equator Coffee
1 Elgin St.
Need a spot to work other than the traditional cramped café? Equator Coffee at The National Arts Centre is the place for you. The café has very friendly staff, a cozy, but bright atmosphere, and great drinks and treats. They close at 4:00 p.m., but the NAC has an enormous amount of space open to the public from 6:00 a.m. to midnight with free Wi-Fi! Located in one of the prettiest and most aesthetically pleasing locations in downtown Ottawa, you really feel like you are studying with a purpose. The café and the NAC have a large variety of seats so if you get uncomfortable, there are tons of options to help you stay on your study grind.
This place is one of my all-time favourites. Although it is well-known, the recommendation to study amongst the tantalizing smell of freshly made doughnuts has to be made. I find that Suzy Q's Doughnuts is warm, both in temperature and temperament from the staff, their food and drink selection is fantastic, and their self-serve water makes it a little less awkward if you plan to stay there for a long time. It is definitely a busy location, but it is comfortable and makes a great place to study if you can tolerate indistinct chatter or have some headphones.
The locations listed above are some of my most cherished study spots, and I hope you get the chance to experience one of them like I have. Now that you have a list of the nine best places to study in Ottawa, go check them out, soak them in, and finish your degree in style!
Occurring each semester, the Intopia Business Simulation allows for Strategic Management (ADM4311) students to compete in a simulated marketplace with two specified products. Teams must make hundreds of decisions which require expertise in accounting, finance, marketing, and management. The goal of this blog is to provide you with some helpful tips and tricks to help you in both your preparation for the simulation and your strategy during the game.
PREPARATION
1. Read the Manual & Watch ALL of the Preparation Videos
This may seem self-explanatory, but the best teams have a very deep understanding of how the simulation works, as well as how their decisions will impact their outputs each period. The manual details how different numbers on your balance sheet and income statement are calculated, which becomes extremely important when you begin calculating your cash flows each period.
2. Treat the Practice Round Like the Real Game
There are two different ways to approach what the simulation calls the “Market Trials” (A fancy way to say practice round). The first is to try as many different strategies as possible to see what your team may excel at, and to learn about all parts of the game. The second is to decide what your team’s real strategy is, and to use the Market Trials as practice for the actual simulation. Both approaches are valid, but no matter which one you choose, it is important to take the trials seriously. You should meet with your team before every decision, as you would during the simulation, and try to finish near the top of the leaderboard. Having a good reputation heading into the game can help your team secure loans and long-term contracts as teams are more confident in your ability to be profitable.
THE REAL GAME
3. Make Relationships Early
One of the most important tips to winning the Intopia Business Simulation has to do with how you interact with other teams. Whichever strategy you decide on, you are going to need to work with all different types of companies (teams). Having contracts signed for multiple periods not only eases your team’s stress, but also puts you in a much better position for the later periods as you start needing to either buy or sell more inventory due to increases in production capacity and demand.
4. Think About Leveraging Your Position to Start the Game
This strategy doesn’t necessarily apply to all company types, but if you are a producer looking to expand your operations as fast as possible, taking out a loan from another team to start the game can be a great idea. My team was an X producer that had the capital to build 4 plants in period 1. We decided to leverage ourselves, allowing us to build a fifth plant which gave us more inventory than all other X producers for a large portion of the game. In the Intopia Business Simulation, aggressive teams are rewarded as all teams are profitable, for the most part. Therefore, the teams that expand the quickest get a leg up on the competition strictly due to their higher inventory volume.
5. Start Paying Dividends as Early as Possible
The majority of your grade for the Intopia component of ADM4311 comes from your “Value Added” compared to other teams within your chosen strategy. Paying dividends directly increases your “Value Added”, and it can lead to money being reinvested into your company. You should become profitable by period 4, which is when you should begin repatriating your earnings from your areas of operation in order to pay dividends. This is another key tip to winning Intopia, and you should be paying higher dividends each period until you reach the maximum amount ($99,999,999). However, be sure you never decrease your dividends paid from period to period as it can lead to a lack of confidence from your shareholders.
6. Know your Numbers
This goes back to your preparation, but it is super important that you understand exactly how your cash flows work. Once you have a solid grasp on how much cash you have each period, you can start planning ahead to build plants or sales offices. Your team should have detailed spreadsheets that calculate your break-even point, projected cash flows and projected earnings, among other things. Receiving outputs each period that match your projections not only eases your stress, but also puts you in a great position for the upcoming rounds.
7. Be Aware of Tax Implications
Different Areas have different tax rates, and moving money around can help limit the amount of earnings you lose to taxes. Also, it can be beneficial to determine how you sell inventory based on tax rates (higher priced products get sold in areas with lower tax rates), in order to send more income to retained earnings each period.
I hope this blog helps you in completing, and hopefully winning, the Intopia Business Simulation. If you have any other questions feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.
Since you are new to the Telfer School, we wanted to provide some helpful tips and resources for your next four or more years at the University of Ottawa. Starting a new life at university is a great milestone in your life. This new experience can be exciting, scary, fun, and nerve-wracking, and there are so many things to think about.
Let’s get you started by setting you up with a list of these kinds of things right here:
Living with roommates in residence: When moving into residence, you may be living with a new roommate or two. This is a big change for everybody, which is why uOttawa prepared a list of roommate tips to help you achieve your best #reslife.
Familiarize yourself with our campus: Welcome to your new home away from home! The uOttawa campus can appear large and daunting at first, but we have a useful list to help you become better acquainted with campus.
Choose an orientation activity: Choose from a list of orientation times to learn about adjusting to your new home. You can attend a university-wide session, or learn more about your specific faculty.
Find your new favourite grub hub: Here is a list of top 5 food places on campus so you can find your new favourite spot to eat.
Navigate around campus: Not the best at directions? That’s okay - find your way around campus with our interactive map.
Learn about SASS: SASS (Student Academic Success Services) is a free network of services designed to provide tools and information to guide you on a path to academic success. These services include student mentoring, counselling, coaching, academic writing help, and academic accommodations.
Take a break with pet therapy: That’s right - there is a spot on campus where you can unwind and spend time with dogs! Keep an eye on the uOttawa pet therapy schedule for the next puppy lovin’ session.
Keep track of important dates: From exams to breaks, this link will be your best friend when you need a quick answer.
Get ready for the Great Rivalry: At the University of Ottawa, we take pride in our school, especially when it comes to sports. We aren’t the only university in the city, which means we have a rival: Carleton University. Gee-Gees vs. Ravens games are some of the most exciting events of the year, so make sure you grab your garnet and grey!
Understand your uOttawa gym membership: As a student at the university, you are welcome to use the two gyms on campus - Montpetit and Minto Sports Complex. There are quite a few perks that come with having a uOttawa gym membership, so take advantage of them while you can!
Stay active with uOttawa Health Services: The university's Health Services offers many free activities to provide a study break and encourage well-being with yoga, cooking, reiki, meditation and more.
Meet with a Telfer representative: We have a handful of staff members at Telfer who offer advice to first-year students. Set up an appointment with one of our representatives to chat about academic life, extra-curricular activities, schedule balance and more.
We hope you have an amazing first year at the Telfer School of Management. We are available to answer any questions or concerns while you complete your studies.
As you can see there are many fun activities and perks to keep up with at the university. Feel free to come back to this list anytime!
It's time for a new school year, so we have created a checklist for our new and returning Telfer students to get you started.
Set up your uOttawa Student Card: If you are a new student, be sure to collect your new student card in the University Centre building or online. If you are a returning student who has lost a student card, deactivate it and get a new card or check the University of Ottawa lost and found.
Collect or renew your U-Pass: The U-Pass is a mandatory bus card for all full-time undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Ottawa. You can get or renew your U-Pass in the University Centre building (UCU) student lounge (located on level 0). To renew your pass, you must tap it at a recharging station in the UCU.
Get your Gee-Gees Pass: The Gee-Gees Pass gives you access to 100+ varsity events and exclusive access at uOttawa sporting events. If you live in residence, it is already included in your residence fees.
Attend a Mandatory Information Session on September 3: All first-year students need to go to a mandatory information session to learn important information about being a new student. You can also ask questions of our staff members at the session.
Join a club(s) or activity at uOttawa: The University of Ottawa has a huge variety of clubs and extra-curricular activities for you to choose from. Watch out for Clubs Day during Welcome Week along University Private.
Sign up for a Telfer student club(s): Telfer has 17 different student-run clubs and associations that you can join each year. During uOttawa Welcome Week, you can get to know these clubs on University Private, or in Morisset Library on the first floor at Clubs Day.
Take part in intramural sports: A great way to keep up with a sport you enjoy while making new friends is to join or start your own intramural team at uOttawa.
Try out for a Gee-Gees sports team: If you are more serious about a certain sport, you could try out for a Gee-Gees varsity sports teams.
Stay safe with the SecurUO safety app: The university has worked to develop a new app for students to keep you safe and informed of key security information. You can download the app to your mobile device to use while on campus.
The University of Ottawa and the Telfer School offer a variety of student services, career help, activities, sports, and volunteer opportunities. The Telfer Student Services staff are happy to help you learn about these opportunities.
Telfer School of Management is delighted to announce that the recipients of this year’s MBA Student Leadership Award are Emily MacKay, Obinna Eze, Laurine Avallone and Sanane Guy Cédric Behi. These individuals are recognized for their leadership and for making exceptional contributions to the MBASA and/or the MBA program in general.
The award recipients elicited many comments, and the MBA class were effusive in their support for them.
The MBA class spoke to Emily MacKay’s non-stop contribution to the 2018 MBA cohort for all contingents, especially her “beyond expectations” involvement in the MBA Student Association, the MBA gala and the MBA games. Cited as an exemplary leader she elicited respect from classmates and professors, and was admired for her ability to excel in her academics while being highly involved.
Obinna Eze was commended for utilising his vast experience to ask the right questions to stimulate discussion and draw out information that was highly beneficial for the collective learning experience.
Students expressed their admiration for Obinna’s solid leadership and team player skills. He is referred to as a “hard worker with selfless intentions to help and motivate his peers”.
Laurine Avallone was recognized for “her strong will power and temperament to succeed facing lots of odds”. For her peers, she is an example on how a young international student can make the most of the program through her participation in events representing the Telfer School of Management, including at the MBA games and several other case competitions around Ontario and Quebec.
Sanane Guy Cédric Behi was applauded for his leadership as the French cohort representative in the MBASA, a leadership style described as “built on respect, humility and dedication”. His unifying spirit and his respect for his peers inspire everyone who works with him.
We expect great things from these individuals, and extend our warmest congratulations to each of them.
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.
Aïcha Traoré – Honours Bachelor of Commerce (Finance)
Aïcha Traoré is in the fourth year of her honours BCom (Finance) degree. She worked at Elections Canada, where she was greatly appreciated. Aïcha’s supervisor, Annie de Bellefeuille, describes her as “outstanding in her work and in her ability to deal with both colleagues and clients on major and critical projects.” With a CGPA over 8.5 for three consecutive years, she was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma in April 2017.
"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.
The Women in Management Network (WMN) is a newly founded initiative at the Telfer School of Management that aims to equip women to succeed in their personal and professional endeavors. The three-tiered initiative’s goal is to support females to excel in their careers through mentorship and increase female participation in the management sector; build a positive, supportive, inclusive community; and develop their skills to foster creativity and innovation.
The woman behind WMN is none other than Polly Leung. Polly Leung is a fourth year BCom student in International Management from Markham, Ontario and a recipiemt of the Merit Scholarship of the Telfer School of Management. She has become passionate about making a way for herself and other women alike in professional industries. Polly noted that she’s had many ideas over the years but commitment waned and they didn’t take off. Polly detailed how she envisioned the WMN network as a program where women built each other up in a community atmosphere and where they could celebrate their successes and acknowledge and learn from struggles. “You can have as many good ideas as you’d like, but without the demand, passion, and commitment from yourself and your support network, it won’t happen. This idea stuck and took off.” Polly herself acknowledged that without the support and encouragement from the Telfer School, particularly the Career Centre that the WMN network would not have been possible. Polly also notes that she has had many professors who have taught her to dig deeper, ask the tough questions in and outside the classroom, and to always strive for more.
“Transformational over informational,” is Polly’s mindset behind the WMN network. She aspires to host events that bring people together and allow them to share and learn from one another and create transformational relationships rather than strictly host informational sessions. Polly said that she works to mimic Oprah’s ability to connect with people, and inspire purpose and drive in everyone around her.
For Polly, the future is bright. She strives for a career in an executive level marketing position where she’s able to have a healthy balance between her commitments, her creativity and following her passions, hopefully, she notes, in a big city. But for now, Polly continues to work with an incredible team of people involved in the WMN network, to take inspiring, insightful classes, and on top of it all, she’s just submitted an application to do an international exchange.
WMN is launching a series of events in the upcoming three months, including a finance workshop series, and an entrepreneurship program. To register for an upcoming event: telfer.uOttawa.ca/careercal
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.
Goldy Hyder, CEO of Hill+Knowlton Strategies Canada, with 2017 CEOX1Day finalist, Anna Halawa.
The CEO1XDay program, run by executive recruiting firm Odgers Berndtson, matches Canada’s top students with CEOs from across the country. Today’s students are the leaders of tomorrow and the yearly program aims to uncover some of Canada’s most promising future talent by giving them an unforgettable real-world experience.
Launched in 2013, CEOx1Day has matched close to 70 third and fourth year undergraduate students from across Canada with leading Canadian CEOs from organizations like Purolator, IKEA, the CFL, Manulife Financial and Economic Development Canada. This year, there is another fantastic line-up of CEOs from organizations in the private, public and not-for profit sectors including the Ottawa Senators, PayPal, Edelman, Amnesty International, Kellogg’s, and Purolator.
Past CEOx1Day students who have taken part in the program say that they received valuable experience that equips them with the tools to start building their careers. Because the selection process has several stages, there is an opportunity for students to get feedback on their leadership and interview skills, even if they don’t make it to the final round. The different phases of the selection process include an online leadership assessment, as well as phone and in-person interviews and a half day with Odgers Berndtson recruiters.
The application process kicks off September 28th until October 27th and the actual day spent with the CEO occurs in February of 2018.
Why Should You Apply?
The program gives third and fourth-year students an opportunity to take in-class learning and apply it to a real-world situation while providing them with the tools and skills needed to start building their career.
What Are the Benefits?
There are many benefits of going through the CEOX1Day application process – even if you don’t reach the finals:
2 out of 3 applicants will have the opportunity to receive a personalized leadership report from Hogan Assessments
Semi-finalists will be considered for an interview with McKinsey & Company for a summer internship or full-time job
Semi-finalists will spend a half day participating in group exercises and one-on-one interviewing which will strengthen their presentation and interviewing skills
And ultimately, the winners will spend a full day shadowing a CEO (including one-on-one time), learning about his/her background, career path, and leadership approach
My internship through the Telfer MBA program allowed me to work in a completely different environment than my previous work experience and helped me grow as a professional while allowing me to directly apply the knowledge I was gaining in my MBA classes. I worked in a sales and marketing capacity with a tech company still in its first few years of operations, which really left the space wide open for me to make an impact. My initial objectives for the internship were to develop, implement and manage an email campaign to boost lead generation, develop and refine marketing material, and look at updating the website and search engine optimization.
While starting from scratch removes a lot of the limitations that can occur when trying to revamp a legacy firm’s marketing strategy, it also leads to many challenges as you need to find consensus on many items that seem trivial to a company focused on meeting its initial monthly recurring revenue targets. However, there are pre-requisites any new company needs to establish that are vital to the overarching strategy and alignment that will drive sales and marketing for years. For any of my projects to make a lasting impact, I first had to gain consensus on the mission, vision and values as well as the unique value proposition of the company. From this, existing sales and marketing collateral could be aligned, new material and templates created and the messaging in the email campaign could be refined.
As much of my work focused on marketing initiatives, the skills and knowledge I gained from my Strategic Marketing Management course were critical in helping me. Although I had previously worked in a marketing environment, my background is as an engineer and I had always focused more on the technical side of product development. To take on a pure marketing role, I needed to use the theory of marketing that I was taught at Telfer to be able to propose a marketing strategy to the company’s CEO. I was also able to use the skills I was learning in my Strategy course, which I was taking at the same time as the internship, to look at the strategic grouping of the company compared to its closest competitors. I was able to help position the company’s messaging to showcase it as being in a completely new market compared to existing products, which helped set the overall voice and tone of marketing material. As our product was an application of the industrial internet of things, having taken a course on Global Trends and the Business Intelligence & Big Data elective gave me the introduction to analytics and machine learning that helped me understand the data scientists to translate their work into a comprehensive marketing message.
This opportunity enabled me to grow as a professional in several areas. The first was the chance to work in a startup environment. Having previously only worked in large bureaucratic firms, it was a new experience to work in a company that had less than 20 employees. This enabled me to take on more responsibility and forced me to be flexible and change what I was working on to focus on the firm’s more pressing priorities. It was inspiring to work with the people who founded the company, whose passion was the driving force behind the company’s growth. I also learned a lot about a completely new industry, one that focused on software development and the application of prescriptive analytics in a manufacturing setting. While I had worked in several different engineering environments before, this was by far the most cutting edge, and focused on the applications of a still evolving technology.
For Shokoofeh Manesh, her BCom studies with option in Accounting at the Telfer School of Management have presented opportunities to get involved on campus, allowing her to grow her network and gain invaluable skills. “They say that your university experience will only be as good as what you make of it, and getting involved with clubs at Telfer has allowed me to make my experience truly great,” stated Shokoofeh. “My involvement with clubs and associations has allowed me to make the most of my time at Telfer: not only have I made amazing friendships by getting involved, but I have also grown as a leader in my community.”
Getting involved in the Telfer Accounting Club (TAC) is where Shokoofeh found her place to thrive. She’s been part of TAC since her first year of studies, slowly climbing up the executive ladder to now serve as Co-President for the 2017-2018 academic year. In addition to TAC, Shokoofeh has been involved with Enactus, the Telfer Internal Case Competition (TICC), Jeux du commerce (JDC), and 101 Week. As a recipient of the Peter and Ann Koppel Scholarship for Excellence, Shokoofeh was able to prioritize her involvement and academic success. The scholarship rewards students who exemplify academic achievement, social responsibility, and involvement in the Telfer community. In fact, Shokoofeh noted that the skills she gained by studying at Telfer and participating in these clubs have been integral in securing and excelling in her CO-OP work terms, and most notably, her placement as Analyst for Deloitte’s Risk Advisory department.
In addition to having the opportunity to get involved, Shokoofeh said one of her main reasons for choosing the Telfer School was its French Immersion stream, which allowed her to study what she loves, business and math, while also continuing to improve her French. For high school students who are going through the process of choosing a university themselves and are considering the Telfer School of Management, Shokoofeh says, “If you want to surround yourself with students who are resourceful, innovative, and passionate, the Telfer School of Management is the place for you.”
“From the staff to the exchange opportunities, the experience has been great. Take it from a student who has graduated twice from the School and just keeps coming back! I’ve really enjoyed my time here,” said Nicolas Legendre, a PhD candidate in Management with a field of study in Finance. Nicolas has shown true commitment to the Telfer family over the past 7 years, completing a Bachelor of Commerce with an option in Finance, a Master of Science in Management with an option in Finance and now a year into his PhD. He continued, “I wanted to continue my studies here because of all the great people I’ve met at Telfer and in other faculties at the University of Ottawa.”
Looking back on his experience as a Teaching Assistant for different statistics courses, completing his MSc, and now working on his PhD, Nicolas noted, “As PhD students, the relationship with faculty changes, becoming more collegial. With professors for example, the relationship is less student-teacher and more of a co-worker kind of relationship, where both parties bounce ideas off each other and learn from one another.”
Through hard work and dedication, Nicolas was the winner of the prestigious Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship. He said, “As a recipient of the Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship, I was able to apply for the Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement, which I was pleased to be granted. Through this scholarship, I am currently in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, investigating their loan guarantee program with Professor Jonathan Scott at Northumbria University. This gave me the opportunity to not only study abroad, but to research a topic that matters to me: as my PhD thesis investigates the Canadian loan guarantee program, this research period abroad is directly related to my PhD thesis. I’ve also had the opportunity to spend weekends traveling around Newcastle, visiting monuments such as Alnwick Castle from the Harry Potter films, and slowly learning the culture here in the Northeast of England. It has been quite the experience so far!”
Nicolas is also the recipient of the Lilian and Swee Chua Goh Doctoral Scholarship. Lilian and Swee Chua Goh will be recognized as Donors of the Year at the Telfer Gala of Excellence on October 21 2017.
From left to right: Phillipe Lamothe, Matthew Chesser, Emma Azzi and Jean-Claude Mukanya Cibumba
The Telfer School of Management is delighted to announce the recipients of this year’s MBA Student Leadership Awards: Emma Azzi, Matthew Chesser, Philippe Lamothe and Jean-Claude Mukanya Cibumba. These made exceptional contributions to the MBASA as well as the MBA program in general.
The award recipients elicited many positive comments, and the MBA class were effusive in their support for them.
Emma Azzi
Emma was recognized for her role in organizing the Telfer School’s team at the 2017 MBA Games, as well as her hard work bringing the MBA Games to Ottawa in 2018. Her peers said that her contagious enthusiasm and drive inspire all those who work with her.
Matthew Chesser
MBA students expressed their admiration for Matthew’s organization of alumni panels and many extra-curricular MBA activities. He was described as having a “quiet but cheerful leadership style in everything he did.”
Phillipe Lamothe
Philippe was recognized for his leadership as the MBASA President, including his support for and promotion of various activities, as well as his participation in a number of events representing the Telfer School.
Jean-Claude Mukanya Cibumba
Jean-Claude was lauded as a talented, inspiring classmate who always strives to give his best. He was recognized for making outstanding contributions as a leader, and for always giving constructive comments in discussions and presentations.
We extend our warmest congratulations to each of these outstanding students and thank the MBA class for their participation.
Jordan Samaroo is a BCom-JD student who benefitted from the Telfer School of Management’s First-Year Advising initiative and is now beginning his second year of study. According to Jordan, what’s unique about Telfer is that it "acknowledges the entrepreneurial spirit innate in all business students. Whether it is through the extensive list of clubs offered in every commerce discipline, the Telfer Capital Fund, challenging case competitions, or academic excellence, Telfer ignites ambition in all its students. In my opinion, such ambition breeds the type of healthy competition that drives the business world and pushes students to do their best.”
Involved in the Telfer Business Law Association (TBLA), Jordan says that as a student studying both commerce and common law, he has enjoyed being able to be a part of a club whose goal is to connect with undergraduate business students who are curious about the field of law and the prospect of going to law school. Through TBLA, Jordan has been able to participate in events like the TBLA Mock Trial, help coordinate the planning of the TBLA executive leadership retreat, and speak on behalf of TBLA at the Place à la jeunesse academic competition. Jordan says that he is motivated to participate in all of the opportunities that Telfer and uOttawa have to offer because he believes student engagement is an integral part of being involved in the university community.
Reflecting on the difficult decision of choosing the right university for him, Jordan explained, “My decision of choosing where to study was not easy, but Telfer has definitely proven to be the right choice. Being a bilingual student, Telfer offered an unparalleled bilingual experience. Having the opportunity to study in both French and English, coupled with the opportunity to study two fields that I’m passionate about - Commerce and Law - allowed me to enhance my language skills while being passionate about what I am learning. A bilingual university as a whole offers an enriched learning experience for all students.”
For high school students going through the process of choosing a university, Jordan advises, “Committing to a university is so much more than simply evaluating averages; it is about choosing the institution that can provide you with the best student experience. For me, Telfer offered it all: from intensive case studies and competitions, to high quality professors, to a great CO-OP program and career prospects. The School is actively working to connect each and every student to what matters to each of them. For these reasons and so many more, I recommend you choose Telfer; you won’t regret your choice!”
Apply today to participate in a 10-minute Thesis Competition organized by the Sprott School of Business, the Telfer School of Management, and the Université de Québec en Outaouais’s Département des sciences administratives! On September 29 at Sprott, you’ll have the opportunity to square off against your business-school peers for $6,000 in cash prizes.
To apply, write a one-page submission with your supervisor. Three submissions will be chosen by each institution to advance to the 10-minute Thesis Competition on September 29.
If your proposal does not make the shortlist, you are invited to use it to contribute to a poster session to be held just prior to the thesis competition.
Why a 10-minute Thesis Competition?
By this point in your academic career, you’re probably well acquainted with the traditional academic presentation structure: research problem, theoretical framework, methodology, results, and conclusions – in that order. That you would want to adhere to that structure for most presentations doesn’t surprise us. We get it. It’s a big part of your academic training.
But there’s another important skill for young researchers to have: communicating the impact and significance of their work right up front, and in plain language. So with the Telfer-Sprott-UQO 10-minute Thesis Competition, we’re asking presenters to abandon the traditional academic presentation structure. Instead, find an alternative way to present your project in a way that a lay person would understand. Explain what’s innovative about your project and the potential impact of the research. Tell a story. Look for creative ways to explain how and why your research matters.
Rules
Eligible students/programs
PhD in Management - Sprott School
Doctorat en administration, D.B.A. - gestion de projet, UQO
Information Systems (IS) / Information Technology Management (ITM) students active in the Doctorat en sciences et technologies de l'information, UQO
PhD in Management - Telfer School of Management
PhD in Electronic Business Technologies, or EBT - Telfer School
M.Sc. in Management, M.Sc. in Health Systems, M.Sc. in EBT - Telfer School
Students who presented at the May 2016 Telfer-Sprott-UQO forum are also eligible, provided they apply with a new submission/proposal.
How to apply
Prepare a one-page submission with your supervisor. Include the content that would typically be included in an academic-type presentation, but in a different format – one that highlights what’s innovative about your project and its potential impact. We’re looking for creative ways of explaining how and why the research matters.
Thesis competition - highlights
Each institution will select 3 students for the presentation competition.
Each presentation should be no more than 10 minutes in length.
Presenters will be evaluated on their ability to convey the significance of their research with clarity and impact
$6,000 in cash prizes will be awarded. 1st prize – $3,000; 2nd prize – $2,000$; 3rd prize – $1,000
Key dates
July 31 - Student submit their notice of intent to participate
August 18 - Due date for one-page submissions, jointly prepared by the student and his/her supervisor
Early September – Telfer School, Sprott School and UQO have each chosen their three presenters
September 29 – 10-minute Thesis Competition and poster session at the Sprott School of Business
“At Telfer, you won’t only gain knowledge; you’ll also acquire valuable skills and experience – that’s something I always say at Telfer open houses and I think it really sums up why I feel Telfer stands out. At any business school in Ontario, you will find great in-class learning opportunities. But Telfer excels at offering students a plethora of hands-on experiences like case competitions, CO-OP, and mentorship programs that will make them stand out against the 20,000 other business graduates each year,” stated Lawrence Quan, a student completing his Bachelor of Commerce with option in Marketing.
Throughout his undergraduate studies, Lawrence took advantage of the opportunities available to him and got involved with a variety of initiatives including CASCO, 101 Week, the CO-OP program, working as a Teaching Assistant, and participating in the Digital Marketing Development Program.
“Joining clubs is a great way to get to know people. I can look back and say that my involvement in the many clubs and activities available at Telfer made up about 80% of my university memories. If I just went to class, went to work, and went home, I would have missed out on the many other amazing opportunities and experiences that Telfer has to offer.”
Lawrence was able to combine his passion for hockey with his career goal of being a marketing strategist through a dream CO-OP placement at Telfer: “My final CO-OP term was at EA SPORTS NHL on the Global Brand Management team. Every Canadian hockey fan has grown up playing their video games. Getting this job was a dream come true and allowed me to get paid to think about hockey all day, every day.”
As Lawrence explained, it’s not just the hands-on experience that is valuable to students, but also the professional network they can build through their studies. “Telfer exists within the great business community in Ottawa. Professionals are happy to help students, share advice, and provide mentorship. Telfer helps students connect with these professionals, pick their brains, and take advantage of the knowledge in the community.”
Lawrence is now working at FarmLead, a Canadian AgTech Startup, as a Customer Acquisition Specialist. He is responsible for FarmLead’s digital advertising and search engine optimization strategy. He credits his success in the workplace to his involvement. “Your success in getting a job will rely on so much more than just grades. Your grades may get you the interview, but it is your other experience that will get you the job.”
Teams from the Class of 2018 are writing about their experiences on their Innovation and Entrepreneurship Consulting Project in Silicon Valley in a series of blogs.
“If I had to choose one thing I love most about Telfer, it’s the people,” stated Emma Azzi, MBA Candidate at the Telfer School.
After a remarkable undergraduate experience with Telfer, there was no question where Emma Azzi wanted to continue her studies. For her, Telfer’s commitment to excellence, their dedication to fostering a positive, friendly environment, and their strong sense of student community, were all key factors that influenced her decision to pursue her MBA at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management.
Elected as the MBA Games Director in January 2017, Emma’s role was to organize a team of Telfer students to travel to Vancouver Island University to represent the University of Ottawa at the MBA Games. As a Canada wide competition that involves student competing in academics, sports, and spirit, Emma knew that her passion for challenges, adventure, and networking opportunities would be fulfilled.
After competing in the games with the small but mighty Telfer team of 16, Emma knew that she wanted to make her mark on the MBA games. “I just had to figure out how.”
The perfect opportunity arose when Vancouver Island University announced an open bid for the 2018 MBA Games Host. With the help of Professor Greg Richards, Emma submitted a proposal documenting why the Telfer School of Management would be the perfect candidate to host the next games.
“Ultimately, we won! I am now the MBA Games 2018 Chair, and am ready to take on this exciting responsibility of hosting over 20 universities in Ottawa this upcoming January for the 30th annual MBA Games. The Games have never been hosted in the capital city and knowing that I played a part in bringing them home is one of my proudest moments at Telfer,” said Emma.
Emma acknowledged that the challenges she faced throughout her undergrad led her to where she is today, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She stated, “I know that every notion learnt during my Telfer training will make me a more confident professional, a stronger business advocate and a better team member. All these qualities and skills will be crucial in shaping my career.”
CASCO, a student-run charity organization, hosted its 2nd Annual Golf Tournament on Sunday, May 28th 2017. With a strong team effort made by CASCO executives, they managed to raise $5,414 towards their cheque to present to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) at their Annual Gala on November 29, 2017 at the Infinity Convention Centre.
CASCO President Conor O’Doherty discussed his fellow classmates’ involvement in this initiative: “I am extremely proud of all the work the CASCO executive team has put into organizing our Golf Tournament. Their dedication to our cause and willingness to get more involved never ceases to amaze me. Our mission to raise funds for CHEO would never be accomplished without their commitment and I cannot wait to see how they will keep impressing me throughout the year."
About CASCO
CASCO is a student-run charity organization at the University of Ottawa. Comprised mostly of students from the Telfer School of Management, the club allows students to apply business knowledge to raise both awareness and funds for charity causes and promote corporate social responsibility. Now entering its 18th year, CASCO has raised over $500,000 for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), helping to purchase new equipment and to provide assistance to families in need.
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!
On May 3, 2017, the Telfer Community joined Enactus uOttawa at the Annual National Showcase to highlight their key accomplishments and explain the high-level impact the team has had on the community.
The event also served to “send-off” the team, who will be attending the Enactus Canada National Exposition, happening in Vancouver on May 9-11. During this event, teams will present their projects, and demonstrate to panels of senior executives how they are making a real impact in their communities. Teams attending the National Exposition will be competing for the title of National Champion and a chance to represent Canada in English on the world stage in the fall of 2017.
This chance to represent the University at a national level comes after the Enactus uOttawa team competed in the Regional Exposition, and placed second in the Financial Literacy and Eco Living challenges as well as first place in the remaining two; Youth Empowerment and Entrepreneurship. The projects presented were judged based off specific impact criteria, unique to each particular category.
The projects presented by the team were all a result of the students’ hard work applying the skills they learn in and outside the classroom. Here is an example of the projects that will be presented at the National Exposition:
Sanajit is a social enterprise in Iqaluit, Nunavut that up-cycles discarded wood into quality furniture, also acts as a recycling program for the community and a mentorship program for high school students to learn about the trades. The project will be presented by Parker Selman and McKinley Richards.
The Iqaluit Innovation Hub is a co-working space and community initiative to encourage entrepreneurship as a viable career path and provide otherwise non-existent resources to individuals looking to start their own ventures in the north. The project will be presented by Brianna Fraser and Steven Bui.
Sprout is a local social enterprise looking to address Ottawa’s food deserts by using a consignment approach that enables convenience store owners to provide affordable fresh produce to families in need. Sprout will be one of the projects featured in the team’s National presentation by Corey Ellis, Alida Burke, Faraz Malik and Vivian Liu.
Join us in wishing them good luck for the National Exposition, and stay tuned for the results!
In an effort to help streamline the drive of entrepreneurial students, the Telfer School of Management in conjunction with the Faculty of Engineering and Arts, has recently meshed entrepreneurship projects with course credits. The Entrepreneurship Foundry Course is a cross-campus initiative that leverages University and community start-up resources to help students grow their business venture in a “for-credit” 13-week long course.
“The course, essentially an incubator with a course credit attached to it, offers immense opportunities to students who are looking to move their businesses along and benefit from both external and University resources,” stated Stephen Daze, Dom Herrick Entrepreneur in Residence. “Twice throughout the semester, participants even pitch their business to external judges for prize money.”
Students apply to be accepted into the program and their ventures are interviewed to evaluate where start-ups are at with their ventures and what they can accomplish over the course of the semester. At the end of the course, they make a final pitch and report on their progress to highlight their accomplishments throughout the semester. Mandatory check-ins on a bi-weekly basis allow students to develop their pitch skills, as well as gain valuable feedback from professors, external mentors and peers.
Microbright, for instance, is a start-up that uses microbes naturally found in the environment to remove toxic metals from water that comes from mining activities. “The entrepreneurship foundry helped me understand how to succeed with a start up from a business perspective. It provided me with tools and mentorship I would not have had access to otherwise,” indicated Daniel Grégoire, a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Science and one of the founders of Microbright.”
Eephorea, on the other hand, aims to cater to the entertainment industry by producing and promoting live entertainment experiences. “If people are going to be at an event for several hours, there might as well be some engaging activities for them to enjoy in addition to the headliner attractions. Simple activities like food sampling, acrobatic dancers, photo props and intriguing visual displays can really enhance a guest’s experience and make the event more memorable,” said Zachary Princi, a student at the Telfer School of Management. “The entrepreneurship foundry course allowed me to put more time into my business without taking me away from completing my studies.”
For more information on the program and to find out how to participate in the winter of 2018, please contact Stephen Daze.
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.
We are proud to announce the creation of the BDO Canada Telfer MBA Aboriginal Scholarship.
"BDO believes in cultivating the talent of tomorrow. We also understand that for many deserving students, a post-secondary education is simply beyond reach. To ensure more students get the opportunity to excel, we’ve established a scholarship in conjunction with the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. Designed to inspire and support outstanding Aboriginal students in the Telfer MBA program, the scholarship includes monetary assistance in addition to a 4-month paid internship at select BDO offices. The goal of the scholarship is to provide an opportunity to an exceptional Aboriginal student interested in improving the economic well-being of Aboriginal communities." states BDO Partner, Harry Lake.
Since 2009, BDO has partnered with Telfer School to establish a public sector research fellowship, a public sector performance management research cluster and an MSc scholarship. BDO’s partnership with Telfer also includes scholarships and CO-OP placements for students in the undergraduate BCom accounting program.
When asked why this scholarship is so meaningful to the Telfer School, MBA Program Director Gregory Richards says, “We expect that our MBAs will have an impact once they graduate, and it’s great to be able to offer a scholarship that will provide assistance to students focused on working in our Aboriginal communities. We are so thankful to BDO for their leadership on this initiative”.
In order to be eligible for this $30,000 admission scholarship, students who apply to the MBA program at the Telfer School of Management must submit a 500-word letter explaining why they believe they are the ideal candidate for the scholarship. This letter is to be submitted with the program application. For more information, please contact the Graduate Studies Office by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 613-562-5884.
BDO Canada LLP is one of many organizations who continue to stay connected with and give back to the Telfer School to support the programs and projects that matter most to them, while helping the School achieve its goals.
Across a diverse range of projects and programs, the top priorities for the Telfer School’s fundraising campaign are to transform how we learn; invest in globalization; generate new knowledge; foster experiential learning; support scholarships and fund emerging strategic priorities.
“I believe you can accomplish much more when you focus on things you are naturally attracted towards,” stated Maxime, a 4th year at the Telfer School of Management.
His passions? Surfing, problem solving, and international management – his specialization. “I happen to be one of the few surfers at the University of Ottawa. I believe that having a hobby you are passionate about is essential, because it makes you go out of your way to do it and push your limits. It is only this way that you can accomplish great things.”
Going back in time to four years ago, Maxime was in high school, visiting the University of Ottawa during the Open House. “I was interested in management and was hoping to get specialized right away.”
Today, Maxime is the perfect example of an engaged, opportunistic student. Throughout the past four years, Maxime has attended many networking events, met with plenty of students and professionals in all fields and interests, and participated in a mentorship program as well as career counselling.
What’s more, Maxime went on two different exchanges in France and Australia. “I take pride in the two exchanges I had the opportunity to take part in during my third year of university. Adapting to a new environment personally, professionally and culturally should be mandatory. Adjusting to a small city in France, attending English immersion in Australia, leaving for a long period of time and going outside of my comfort zone was a challenge, but an amazing experience. I made friends from all around the world and developed my professional skills by taking part in seminars, very interesting projects and, of course, networking.”
When asked what advice he can provide to future students, he urges them to get involved in the mentorship program, to join student clubs, to go on exchange and to take each and every opportunity that Telfer has to offer.
“Today, I feel ready to take on the many challenges of the business world.”
Congratulations to Brenda Lam, winner of the CO-OP Student of the Year Award from the Telfer School of Management as well as the University of Ottawa!
Brenda is completing a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours), specializing in marketing in the French Immersion stream at the University of Ottawa. Brenda is passionate about learning and never shies away from a challenge. Over the past few years, she has participated in an international exchange to France and in the French Explore program in Moncton to hone her French-language skills. Her latest employer, Sun Life Financial, hired Brenda to be the company’s Campus Ambassador following her exceptional work as a marketing CO-OP student. Brenda is very involved in her community and has volunteered with a variety of organizations including CASCO, a university-based charity of which she is vice-president of sponsorship. She also volunteers at CHEO, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, where she has organized multiple fundraising events.
When Rebecca isn’t busy reading from Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels list (at last count, she had read 94 out of the 100), she takes advantage of any and all opportunities offered by the Telfer School of Management, namely the Profession of Management Consulting Program (PMCP), a two-year development program for students interested in consulting.
Every Thursday evening, the small cohort meets with consultants for workshops, mock interviews and case presentations based on real consulting projects. “I feel a stronger connection to the Telfer School of Management than ever thanks to the PMCP. In fact, I became a Peer Mentor in my fourth year because I wanted first year students to experience that connection too. It has been rewarding to encourage new students to get involved in associations, ambassadorships, special seminars, career development programs, events and panels, and to access the many support services available on campus.”
Following her own advice, Rebecca made it her personal goal during her time at Telfer to attend a networking event every month. “Though I chose the school for its location, what I love most are the experiential learning and networking opportunities. Most of my courses have a group project component and many of my classes have had an experiential learning component, such as a simulation or a business process like customer discovery.”
When asked which classes she recommends to future students, Rebecca highlighted two of them. The first, Change Management with Professor Samia Chreim, “was built on experiential learning through case studies, personal reflection, and an online simulation. I finished the class with a better understanding of the theory and practice of change management and a desire to learn more throughout my career.” The second class, the seminar on Leadership and Personal Development, enables students to build their own personal mission statement, develop and accomplish personal development goals, and coach another student to do the same. “Many students have told me that this seminar is a life-changing experience, so I knew that I could not miss out!”
Rebecca, who is in her last year at Telfer, will be working at Accenture starting in May, an opportunity she secured in part through her connections at PMCP. “This validated the work that I put into the PMCP and gave me an opportunity to explore the profession before graduating.”
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.
On March 3-4, 2017, the Telfer School of Management, in partnership with Export Development Canada and Deloitte, hosted the second annual Diversity and Inclusion MBA Case Competition.
During this case competition, teams examined emerging challenges and proposed solutions pertaining to the frequently overlooked issues of diversity and inclusion in organizations. This innovative competition gives future leaders a better appreciation of the opportunities for businesses to change and grow because of the Canadian workforce’s diverse nature.
“Diversity and Inclusion is a survival issue for organizations that needs to be owned by the CEO and no longer a check box exercise for HR,” stated Kate Morican, Partner Human Capital, Deloitte Canada. “At Deloitte, we focus on developing leaders who practice inclusive behaviors each and every day to help our clients and our people excel. We are delighted to support this important initiative, in partnership with Export Development Canada and the University of Ottawa.”
The Telfer School of Management’s delegation proved their skills in leadership by winning the case competition. The winning team included Matt Chesser, Vikas Kumar, Abhijit Doiphode, and Taro Abarbanel-Ueumura. Here are the overall results from the competition:
1st Place - Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa
2nd Place - Schulich School of Business, York University
3rd Place - John Molson School of Business, Concordia University
Honourable Mention 1 - HEC Montreal, Universite de Montreal
Honourable Mention 2 - Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta
“To harness the benefits of a diverse workforce, we are working to create a culture that is inclusive and welcoming to all employees”, says Robert Fosco, Vice President, Talent, Learning and Culture, EDC. “Sponsoring this competition for the second time provides us with an opportunity to demonstrate to future business leaders that diversity as well as inclusion are critical for the competitiveness of Canadian companies.”
“Beyond being the right thing to do, the business case for having a diverse and inclusive workforce is extremely compelling and backed by a growing body of research,” stated Matt Chesser, who was part of the winning delegation at the competition. “Reading recent research on inclusivity and sitting in on workshops by EDC and Deloitte - two leaders in diversity and inclusion - was fascinating. The fact that we won was just a pleasant surprise to end a great two days. We were fortunate to have a team with a diverse set of experiences that we could draw on for the case."
We thank all the schools for sending excellent representatives for this competition.
Written by Alexis Cawadias-McGeadie, assistant, Student Experience and Events
For the last decade, Welch LLP has been a loyal partner of the Telfer School, with representation on the Dean’s Advisory Board, hiring coop students, interns and alumni, and supporting a number of initiatives on and off campus.
Welch has extended their financial support with a commitment worth $57,500 over the next five years. They will continue supporting the Welch LLP Accounting Scholarship, which recognizes an accounting student who is actively involved in the campus community. In addition they will sponsor five events, including the annual Top of the Tower Alumni reception in Toronto that is so instrumental to us in helping us connect alumni to each other in our largest market outside Ottawa and the Telfer Donor and Scholarship Reception that celebrates achievement and introduces scholarship recipients to those who fund their awards.
The other activities they sponsor help Telfer offer the best possible student experience: the Entrepreneurs Club’s annual Toast to Success Business Dinner; the Telfer Academic Excellence Breakfast and the Telfer Internal Case Competition, a new interdisciplinary case competition which is open to all students but is aimed at engaging first- and second-year students.
From February 22nd to 26th, seven Telfer School of Management students took on the challenge of representing the University of Ottawa at the 2017 National Model African Union Conference at Howard University in Washington, DC.
The 2017 National Model African Union Conference involved Canadian, American and Korean Universities representing various African nations. The conference provided participants with the chance to learn about roles, structures and activities of the African Union including economic, social, security and political issues facing African countries. The negotiation simulation is completed in accordance with real-time information provided by African Union Diplomats at the embass of the respective countries.
The University of Ottawa represented the Kingdom of Swaziland, a small African nation bordered by Mozambique and South Africa. As diplomats of Swaziland, the students had to have a very thorough understanding of the country by studying a variety of current conflicts affecting Swaziland.
The six committees were represented by the students below, and each student was responsible for negotiating resolutions on behalf of Swaziland:
Executive Council: Gaëlle Faye
Committee on Peace & Security: Audrey Marie Traoré
Committee on Economic Matters: Marilyne Vidjanagni and Rainatou Ouedraogo
Committee on Democracy, Human Rights & Governance: Alexandrine Silga
Committee on Social Matters: Marie-Emmanuelle Kouadio
The simulation gave students an opportunity to practice skills that will be greatly beneficial in their careers going forward. In addition to the simulation, there were many networking opportunities with African Diplomats.
After months of preparation and fundraising events to finance the conference’s expenses, two Telfer students went the extra mile and brought home two Outstanding Performance Awards: Gaëlle Faye and Marie-Emmanuelle Kouadio.
“The delegation would like to thank everyone who supported and believed in us from the beginning,” says Gaëlle Faye on behalf of the delegation. “We are all proud to have represented our University as well as the colours of Swaziland. As international students, we have been waiting to take part in an activity that allows us to learn and contribute to our African communities. Through this program, our goal was to demonstrate how students can leverage various Telfer resources in coordination with cultural insight to better connect students to what matters. We were the first to participate in this simulation and we hope that this won’t be the last time.”
In preparation for the 2018 National Model African Union, any students interested in participating or learning more about this amazing opportunity are invited to contact this year's delegation.
Written by the 2017 National Model African Union delegation
The uOttawa Top 5 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 3rd year, this annual search for the top 5 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.
“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”.
The Top 5 uOttawa start-ups, in alphabetical order, are:
Kegshoe
Cofounders: Torin Regier, CFO (Telfer BCom 2017), Mike Eagar, CMO (former student, uOttawa), and Adrian Pawliszko, CTO (Civil Engineering student, uOttawa).
Kegshoe Inc. is a software company for the beer industry that provides user-friendly, cloud-based solutions to manage the
complex business of running a brewery. With features like keg tracking and a brewery-specific
CRM, Kegshoe Inc. is helping breweries solve their biggest and most expensive problems.
Spiderwort
Cofounders: Dr. Charles M. Cuerrier, CEO (Postdoctoral fellow, uOttawa), Dr. Andrew E. Pelling, CTO (Associate Professor, Department of Physics, uOttawa) and Daniel J. Modulevsky, CBO (PhD candidate, Biology, uOttawa).
Spiderwort has developed innovative biomaterials for medical research, reconstructive surgery and regenerative medicine. Spiderwort’s strategy relies on the use of cellulose scaffolds for the regeneration and repair of damaged or diseased tissues.
Spivo Inc.
Cofounders: Andre Bellerive, CEO (BASc 2014 and currently completing a Master’s program in Engineering at uOttawa) and
Marc Bjerring, COO (BASc in Mechanical Engineering, 2014, uOttawa).
Spivo Inc. designs, manufactures and sells creative camera
accessories which capture life’s memories like never before. Their flagship product, the Spivo Stick is a patent pending rotating camera mount, which allows adventure seekers and travellers to instantly switch the view of their cameras. Videos created using the Spivo Stick are fun, creative, and feature built in scene transitions which create incredible, engaging footage.
Welbi
Cofounders: Elizabeth Audette-Bourdeau, CEO (Telfer BCom 2016), Felipe Izquierdo, COO (Telfer BCom 2016) and Nicholas Petryna, CTO, (former uOttawa Software Engineering student).
Welbi is an application that helps families take care of an older loved one. It uses Fitbit smartwatches to analyze sleep, activity, and heart rate patterns and then notifies you about changes in their habits. Our main objective is to provide families the visibility and information they need to support their loved one’s health and happiness at home.
YouCollab
Founder: Shaun Maclellan, CEO (former student, uOttawa).
YouCollab is a unique platform that provides frictionless communication and collaborations between YouTube creators. YouCollab connects users based on location, audience size and keywords.
How were the Top 5 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 five “Top Start-ups” is selected. These Top 5 start-ups will be invited to visit Silicon Valley for a learning and business development experience in May 2017, a trip which coincides with the annual Telfer Executive MBA trip to the Valley.
“Travelling to the Valley opens up a world of connections and possibilities that you can only find there” said Lee Silverstone, cofounder GymTrack and Top 5 Recipient 2016. “The opportunity to be there with the University of Ottawa and their network was incredible experience and one that I highly recommend start-up founders take advantage of.”
Do you ever wonder what a day in the life of a CEO looks like? The other day, I got to spend my 9 to 5 with Goldy Hyder, CEO of Hill+Knowlton Strategies Canada, a prominent public relations consulting company. Thanks to the CEOx1 Day program, organized by Odgers Berndtson, and after a rigorous multi-stage selection process, I had the opportunity to accompany Mr. Hyder throughout his whole work-day on February 1st.
My day began at the Hill+Knowlton Ottawa office. Mr. Hyder immediately made an impression on me. His intelligence, wit, and unparalleled political and economic knowledge could have made him quite intimidating but instead, I felt welcomed and engaged from the moment I stepped into the office. I was encouraged to speak up and ask questions during the internal meetings I attended. I also had the pleasure of meeting some of the key members of the Ottawa team, including Don Boudria, former federal cabinet minister and current senior counsellor at Hill+Knowlton.
Highlights of the day included lunch at Parliament, where I had the chance to speak with Jennifer Ditchburn, editor-in-chief of Policy Options at the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Another highlight included finishing off the day at a taping of On the Money at CBC, where I got to listen to Mr. Hyder speak on the impact of socioeconomic standing on one’s lifespan.
Overall, my CEOx1 Day experience was incredible. I was privy to the big picture view of a large organization from the CEO’s perspective. I learned about the company’s successes and the obstacles it is currently facing, as well as its impact in various industries. But perhaps most importantly, I had one-on-one time with its CEO, who readily answered my never-ending questions about his career path and offered valuable advice for me as a student just starting my professional journey.
To all 3rd and 4th year Telfer students: I highly encourage everyone to apply to the CEOx1 Day program next year – it is a learning opportunity unlike any other!
The 26th annual Business Dinner ‘Toast to Success’, organized by the Entrepreneur’s Club (TECDE), is one of the most awaited events of the year. Bringing together Telfer faculty, professionals and sponsors with students at the Museum of Canadian History, this year’s dinner welcomed a total of 242 attendees, making it the best attended event to date.
During the event, a silent auction took place with various items donated by the local community in which the proceeds went to the Cam’s Kids Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing young people that suffer from anxiety, along with the Rwanda Craft Brewery Project, which helps the Rwanda community become better established.
As dinner rolled around, attendees had the pleasure of listening to a very special keynote speaker for this year, Steve Beauchesne, CEO of the very successful craft brewery Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company. During a very competitive time in the beer industry, Beau’s continues to be the top player in the market. Steve shared his story on the philosophy of starting a business but also, the secret to making great beer. To celebrate International Gruit Day coinciding with the Business Dinner, Beau’s provided attendees with 4 different samples of beer.
New for this year, TECDE incorporated the winners from the Elevator Pitch competition back in November, showing the Telfer community the incredible talent that comes out of uOttawa’s Telfer School of Management. A portion of the evening was also dedicated to award two hard working executive members on the TECDE team with the Carpe Diem Award and the Kevin Vollett Entrepreneurial Award.
This year marked a new milestone for both TECDE and Telfer, as a joint collaboration was announced to kick start a fundraising campaign for the Kevin Vollett award, created to honour Kevin, a Telfer student and TECDE executive member who passed away from a tragic accident. With the 25th anniversary of the award coming up in 2018, TECDE and Harry Mortimer, a Telfer alumni and dear friend to Kevin, have come together to raise $9,000 before the 27th annual Business Dinner in order to sustain the financing of the award. Help them reach their goal by donating now. For more information on this fundraising campaign, click here.
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)
Case competitions, as I’m sure you’ve heard, are highly recommended and beneficial. I have never met a university graduate who has regretted their decision to get involved. Aside from making you stand out from your peers once you enter the job market, being involved in case competitions (whether as a delegate or as a member of your school’s executive committee) has many more benefits:
Networking and friendships Not only will you become closer to those in your delegation, but you have an amazing chance to meet other like-minded students from other schools. Case competitions also provide many opportunities to meet employers and professionals.
Critical thinking under pressure This is the essence of a case competition – to solve a problem under a time limit and to present it to judges. Being able to think critically and clearly can help you become a respected decision maker in your career.
Presentation skills
What better way to practice your public speaking skills? Truth is, you will always have to sell your ideas, and the skills you acquire in your presentation class can be expanded in case competitions. Watch your confidence soar!
Application of class knowledge
We tend to remember things we’ve put into practice, right? Apply what you learn in your other classes to help you solve these cases. Using this knowledge reinforces what you learned and can make you a better student.
Teamwork
You are not only working closely in your category teams, but also as with an entire delegation. Having strong support from your peers in a common goal is encouraging and confidence-boosting. Teamwork skills are a soft skill sought-after by employers. What a great way to practice!
Fun and vacation
Usually, case competitions hosted at other universities require some travel. In the evening, case competition organizers will have planned fun activities, so you can even take the time to explore a new city.
School pride
Being a delegate means you represent your school in external case competitions. This is a great opportunity to show your school pride and increase your sense of belonging to uOttawa and the Telfer School.
WINNING YES WINNING! It’s a bit cheesy, but there are no losers at case competitions! Whether you win 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or nothing, you are still gaining valuable experience and all the benefits of case competitions listed above.
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
If you happen to walk by the Desmarais building during the weekend of January 28-29, you’ll be surprised to find 400 motivated students from all over Eastern Canada. These students, hailing from 11 different universities, will be meeting at the Telfer School of Management for a case competition called Financial Open (OF).
This type of competition gives students the opportunity to work together to solve case competitions in a three-hour timeframe, and then present recommendations to a panel of expert judges. For the Financial Open, students will present finance and accounting cases. This year, the theme of #OF2017 is “From Coast to Coast” – participants will explore the history and values of Canada and celebrate its 150th anniversary of confederation!
Top row, from left to right: Samuel Soucy (VP Logistics), Joshua Ayer (VP Communications), Philippe Moore (Director of Logistics), Kevin Saumure (VP Sponsorship) and Ryan Rahman (VP Finance). Middle row: Katarina Mrkela (VP Academic - Finance) and Kassandra Tannouri (Director of Logistics). Front row: Miranda Taing (VP Marketing), Kim Angèle Vallières (President), Andrée-Anne Martel (VP Academic - Accounting) and Sarah Morin (Director of Translations).
The Telfer School of Management and the University of Ottawa would like to extend a warm welcome to all Financial Open participants. We look forward to welcoming you on campus on January 28 for what will surely be an unforgettable weekend. Hosting the Financial Open is a great addition to the many events we are holding in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Telfer naming gift!
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!
Each year, students in the 4th year class Case Studies in Accounting (ADM 4340 and ADM 4740) participate in a case competition in which they analyze a real company and report on accounting issues being faced by the company.
Daniel, a student in the winning team, explained that this year, the case was on Toshiba’s accounting fraud and the factors that led to the accounting fraud between 2008 and 2015. The students spent many hours doing research and getting familiar with Toshiba’s finances. The best groups presented their cases in front of a panel of judges on December 8.
For many of the students, this was their last semester. For Daniel, “winning the case competition was a really great way to finish my undergrad at Telfer. The case competition was a great way to pull together everything we learnt in the past 4 and half years”. Anna, another student in the winning team, enjoyed the case studies in accounting class throughout the semester because it gave her the opportunity to begin preparing for the CPA exams in the future. Lastly, for Paul, “ADM 4340 was one of the classes I enjoyed the most in my undergrad since it focused on the application of concepts and provided me with an opportunity to apply these concepts to real situations”.
We would like to congratulate the winning team:
Paul Landry
Anna Chen
Daniel Aubry
Derek Dinardo
Thank you to CPA Ontario for sponsoring the event and to Professor Sheldon Weatherstone, as well as Matt Prime, Jennifer McLeod and Professor Brian Conheady who were all members of the judging panel.
On Thursday, November 24, a group of students participated in the finals of a case competition as part of their Case Studies in Accounting course. We asked two students of the winning team to share their experience with us. Melissa and Caroline explained that this class was very beneficial for all the students that participated. In Melissa’s words: “The case competition gave us the chance to test all of our acquired knowledge [and] really prepares us for our future CPA title”. For Caroline, another student in the winning team, a case competition is like a puzzle, the only difference is that when you’re completing a puzzle you know there’s a missing piece.
Caroline added that even if the class is a lot of work, it was one her favorite throughout her entire studies. The class gave her a chance to put in practice everything she learned during her time here at the Telfer School of Management.
The case competition tested the students’ knowledge, and they also had the chance to meet experts in the field. According to Melissa, these experts exposed the entire class to many aspects of the accounting world.
The judges of the competition were Denis Chainé, partner at Logan-Katz; Marie-Geneviève Bégin, Justice Canada and Jean-Philippe Aubé, SixaCapital, as well as Professor Sylvain Durocher.
The winning team and the team that ranked second were respectively awarded $2 000 and $1 000. These prizes are courtesy of CPA Canada and SixaCapital. In addition to that, each member of the two teams was awarded a 100 $ gift card at Best Buy, courtesy of Logan-Katz.
Congratulations to the winning teams, from left to right:
As part to the Telfer School of Management’s highly innovative new capstone course “ADM4317: Leadership, Strategy and Sustainability” for the Honours Bachelor of Commerce’s management option, students had the opportunity on November 10, 2016 to participate in an on-site visit of Windmill Developments’ Zibi project, Canada’s first and only One Planet Living planned community.
Professor Daina Mazutis, Endowed Professor of Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability, and her students were hosted by Jonathan Westeinde, CEO of Windmill Developments who graciously presented his vision for sustainable living. He provided students hands-on exposure to how businesses are tackling critical issues such as carbon neutrality, clean energy, waste reduction, the future of mobility and stakeholder engagement, amongst other inspirational examples.
In addition to this visit, students taking this course benefited from participating in a three-day immersion in running a Triple Bottom Line business through the Green Lab simulation and heard from two guest speakers from the community – John Purkis of The Natural Step and Mike Gerbis of Delphi Consulting, who both provided examples of leadership, strategy and sustainability in practice.
Within the course, students are also working on community service learning projects through the Michael Jean Centre for Global and Community Engagement with the both the Office of Campus Sustainability and CFUW (Canadian Federation of University Women).
About Zibi
Zibi is a world-class sustainable community and redevelopment project by Windmill Development Group and Dream Unlimited Corp. Through this multi-phase development, Windmill and Dream will transform derelict land into a blend of residential housing types of low and high rise condominium towers and townhomes, commercial and office space, unique waterfront plazas and outdoor squares, recreational facilities, and more. Truly one-of-a-kind, Zibi combines unparalleled views of the Ottawa River, Parliament Hill, Chaudière Falls, and downtown Ottawa and Gatineau skylines framed by a modern architectural design that still respects the heritage of the area. Zibi is where nature, culture, heritage and the joys of life culminate.
From November 11 to 13, 4th year students from the BCom participated in the Intopia Strategy Simulation, a competition created as a component of the 4th year Strategic Management class.
The CPA Ontario Intopia Strategy Simulation aims to teach students the concepts of strategic management in a simulated online world, known as Intopia, where students get immediate feedback on their decisions.
According to Victoria, a student who participated in the simulation over the weekend: "Intopia is a weekend long business simulation that lets the students who play it experience running a company in a competitive industry with all the stress of running said company over 9 years compiled into 3 days."
She also mentioned the hectic energy of the activity and how the Desmarais building was full of eager and motivated students that were running around. She adds that every team struggled to get their decisions in as the clock counted down.
Alexandre Maisonneuve, another student who participated in Intopia, says that his biggest takeaway is that Intopia allows students to practice the most basic skills of all in business: that art of negotiating.
Congratulations to members of the overall winning team: Team 20!
(Left to right) Andrew Lim, Zachary Page, Ioana Lazescu, Catherine Chu, Oluwatobiloba Afolabi, and Genevieve Walton (CPA)
Individual Award winners were:
Best Negotiator: Christopher Chan (Left), with Genevieve Walton (CPA), Noureddine Elkadri, & Abdenour Slaouti.
Most Congenial Player: Taylor Davidson (Centre) with Genevieve Walton (CPA), and Noureddine Elkadri.
Most Valuable Player: Zachary Page (Left) with Genevieve Walton (CPA), Noureddine Elkadri.
Honourable mention:
For a superb performance overall and top performance as an R&D specialist, Team 60:
Cheuk Sze Ng, Hoi Tung Lau, Ming Tak Liu, Zihan Gao
This capstone activity has recently been renamed to recognize CPA Ontario’s comprehensive contribution of $370,000 to the Telfer School to support students, teaching and research.
The University of Ottawa is pleased to invite students and faculty who have created startup ventures to participate in a competition that will result in up to five companies being selected for an exclusive trip to Silicon Valley in the spring of 2017. Each selected startup will receive $4,000 (CAD) in financial support for the trip.
Before sharing my experience, I’d like to extend my sincerest thank you to the Telfer School of Management for sending me to the One Young World conference this past September. It was an opportunity to hear the first hand experiences of individuals from around the world who through adversity and oppression continue to fight for awareness and change in their respective humanitarian causes. While it was comforting to watch the likes of CEOs, actresses, philanthropic figures, current and former prime ministers talk about how they help enable progress, the true change makers were the young men and women, victims turned entrepreneurs when faced with injustices. A special focus was towards refugees as a result of war and climate change. Climate change poses a very real threat to our globe, but an urgent threat to coastal communities quickly decaying to rising sea levels. Peace and security (extremism), the environment (saving it with technology), human rights (LGBT), global business, health (suicide and depression), and education (unemployment) were the six key topics covered.
All to say, we are so blessed to be living in Canada, in the capital city of this great country. And while there are others that devote their lives to tackle issues in their communities, it is our responsibility as leaders of the world that we are in part, doing the same. Ethically investing, starting socially conscious businesses, giving back to the community in any meaningful way. These are the things that will determine whether our generation leaves this world for better or for worse.
A resounding quote I’d like to share is one by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the opening ceremonies on Parliament Hill:
"I do not think you are the leaders of tomorrow — I know you are already leaders today. Your generation is politically engaged, educated, innovative, inclusive and progressive. You need to harness that potential to make the world a better place … Please remember, what you say, and the choices you make, have the power to change the world" - Justin Trudeau
When it comes to climate justice, we might not be able to see the effects of climate change in our city, but there are certainly millions around the world who are experiencing first-hand the repercussions of our actions as we continue to act irresponsibly. Let's think about what actions we are taking and the conditions that others are living in because of climate change...because at the end of the day we are all "one world". The 4 days I spent at the OYW Summit were both heartwarming and heartbreaking. I've was surrounded by the most influential leaders from 196 countries to talk and learn about world issues, from gender inequality to climate change.One of the Queen's University Young Leaders at the summit said something that I wanted to share: "Don't wait for permission to become a leader. Sometimes you might question yourself and ask 'am I really the best person to do this?'”. And well, the truth is, you might be the only person to do this". So here's the thing, you don't need a world summit in order to sit at the table. Don't wait for permission to challenge the status quo...Thinking of sustainable change is not only the good thing to do, but it is also your responsibility.
Hearing the stories of other delegates was the most humbling experience, so I encourage you to step outside of what you're used to by learning and asking tough questions TOGETHER. I, or anyone else, can't fight these issues alone. We do, indeed, need each other. A huge thanks to Telfer and uOttawa for giving me the opportunity to represent Canada at the One Young World summit. #OYW
Kloe Desrosiers, Telfer School of Management and Enactus uOttawa
The One Young World is not only an intellectual feast but also a compelling call for social action.
In today’s digital age, it is very easy for us to stay connected with the rest of the world through the screen of our laptop, thus giving us a feeling that we are very aware of what’s going on around the globe. However, we might not be mindful of the fact that what we see in the media and on the internet is often tailored to our interest and might offer us a relatively narrow view of the world around us.
At the One Young World Summit, I was able to meet in person with some of the most exceptional young leaders from some 196 different countries who gave eye-opening speeches about their progressive initiatives throughout the field of education, human rights, entrepreneurship, healthcare, and peacemaking. However, I also learned some frightening challenges that the world is facing. It is appalling how some 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper eye treatment, how 1 out of 3 people do not have access to adequate sanitation and how nearly half of the world's population live on less than $2.50 a day.
This conference showed me the great social achievements that are being done elsewhere in the world, and the work that is still ahead of us. Although the world is facing some challenging issues, the inspiring accomplishments of the speakers and the delegates make me believe that there is still hope in humanity.
Call for action: As Canadians, we are the most privileged, either by education or by wealth; therefore it is our responsibility to make the world a better place. So take a second to close your eyes and to think about the hardest time of your life and, who do you wish would have been there to help you. Be that person.
When the purpose of the Laurie Strano Memorial MHA Scholarship was decided, it certainly had someone like Carolyne Mondoux in mind. As the second recipient of the scholarship, Carolyne embodies leadership, community involvement and excellence in athletics.
Her career path – which began with an undergraduate degree in biology and continued with jobs in retail, public service and finance – led her to discover a passion for nutrition and administration. To further mesh her skills in management and health care, after finishing a degree in Nutrition from uOttawa, Carolyne decided to pursue a Master of Health Administration (MHA).
Carolyne’s commitment to health extends beyond her day job. A mother of two young girls, she enjoys going on outdoor activities such as mountain and road cycling, running and cross-country skiing. Her private practice, Fine Balance Nutrition, focuses on gastro-intestinal health, lipid management and sports nutrition for new athletes. But beyond that, Carolyne is the co-leader of a not-for-profit group which aims to bring together local RDs and welcomes new graduates through networking events and professional development opportunities. What’s more, she also volunteers for the fundraising committee at her daughter’s school. As a registered member of the College of Dietitians of Ontario, Carolyne also volunteers as a local “Nutrition Month” media representatives for Dietitians of Canada.
“Receiving a scholarship in memory of Laurie Strano is a great honour. In my eyes, this scholarship acts as a thank you for my contributions and the ones of past and future MHA students. It also serves as a reminder that these commitments are recognized, and highlights the importance of community involvement.”
What matters to Carolyn is nutrition, health promotion, disease prevention and working with children. As an enthusiastic and motivated individual, she hopes to work as a leader for a dynamic, health-focused organization which embraces creativity, strives for innovation and cares about its community.
For more information about the Laurie Strano Memorial MHA Scholarship, please contact Roxanne Chénier, Development Officer, at (613) 562-5800, ext. 4760 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
MISA, or the Management Information Systems Association, kicked off its year with MISA Connects, held on October 18, 2016, at The Albion Rooms. MISA Connects was the first of two semi-annual networking events that promote the study and growth of information systems in every business sector. In a more intimate setting, students were given the opportunity to connect with Telfer faculty who teach MISA-specific courses and business professionals who believe in the value of data and analytics.
MISA would like to thank everyone who made MISA Connects a successful event. We will continue to advocate for the importance of information systems and analytics in a business setting.
The 6th Telfer Trading Competition (TTC) was held on Saturday, October 1, 2016 and continued to build on its legacy as one of the most anticipated competitions and events of the year. The competition consists of about 100 students from 1st to 4th year who are looking to take part in friendly, faced-paced trading competition which helps enhance their student experience. It’s also an opportunity for like-minded individuals to meet each other and compete in a simulated environment designed to mimic real-life trading scenarios. For the second year, students from Telfer’s Financial Theory class (ADM2352) were encouraged to participate in order to apply the theory they learn in class and earn some additional bonus grades. The TTC is organized and hosted by the school’s Financial Research and Learning Lab, which is a state-of-the-art teaching and learning facility with leading industry standard software and databases such as Bloomberg, S&P Capital IQ and WRDS.
The competition consists of two parts, an ice-breaking Social Outcry competition and computer based case simulations which uses the order-driven Rotman Interactive Trader (RIT) platform. The Social Outcry tries to mimic olden day trading pits where individuals are required to buy and sell shares of the Telfer 500 Index (a simulated market) that is driven by news items appearing at various intervals. Just like actual markets, news is interpreted differently by the 100 traders who make the experience a fun, loud and fierce environment.
After students have had a chance to meet each other during the Social Outcry in the Camille Villeneuve Room, they move down to the Financial Research and Learning Lab in order to compete on 5 different cases exploring different financial theories: Liability Trading (2), Options, ETF Arbitrage, and Equity Valuation. Students competing at the TTC get access the cases 2 weeks in advance and have the opportunity to create their strategies for each case. Many students build complex financial models and macros which completely automates their decision making. During the competition, each case is run 3 rounds in order to reward consistency of strategy over speculation. The tension in the room can be cut with a knife as students focus on generating consistent profits and avoiding losses. Since all traders in the room affect liquidity in the rounds, at many times the room bursts in uproar from a potential manipulation by a competitor. This generally causes a sudden market spike, which only enhances the dynamic environment and feel of a trading floor.
After a full-day of competing (noon to 6:00 p.m.), students made their way back to the Camille Villeneuve Room for a well-deserved dinner while the results are tabulated. Cash prizes are awarded not only to the top 3 finishers, but also for each of the 5 cases and Social Outcry.
The TTC is also the method used to select the team for the prestigious Rotman International Trading Competition, which is an annual invite-only competition held in Toronto each February. The RITC is the world’s largest trading competition and includes 50 teams from the best schools around the world (Columbia, Princeton, Queens, Western etc.). The parameters of the RITC is similar to that of the TTC and as such those that perform well at the TTC make good candidates. Those that finish in the top 12th get invited to apply to the Telfer RITC team in hopes of representing Telfer on the international stage.
The 6th Telfer Trading Competition was again a huge success, and continued to build its reputation as one of the school’s best and toughest competitions. Events like these help give students of all years a chance to dive deeper into applying theory into practice, learning new skills, and understanding the financial industry a bit better. A big thank you to the Financial Research and Learning Lab, its lab assistants and volunteers for organizing and running this event, as well as the Telfer Marketing Department and Capital Markets Society (CMS) for sponsoring it. As we close out this iteration of the TTC, we look forward to a successful showing at the Rotman International Trading Competition as well as continuing to grow the TTC.
Overall Rankings:
Dmitry Shorikov
Roma Stepanchenko
Tsoi (Jack) Yuen Lau
Danika Fu
William Tu
Evan Friend
Case Winner:
Social Outcry: Tsoi (Jack) Yuen Lau
Liability Trading 3: Tsoi (Jack) Yuen Lau
Liability Trading 4: William Tu & Beau Keppler
Options: William Tu, Dmitri Shorikov & Tsoi (Jack) Yuen Lau
This page is for the 2017 Entrepreneurship Foundry Course. For information on the upcoming session, visit this year's page.
The Entrepreneurship Foundry is a cross-campus initiative that leverages University and community start-up resources to help you start and/or grow your business venture in a for-credit 13-week long course.
The Entrepreneurship Foundry course will act as an accelerator for your entrepreneurial venture; you will have access to external mentors at themed sessions as well as frequent access to “lab” time to allow you to focus on your business. .
Your venture will be evaluated by using a pre-survey and interview to determine where you are at with your venture and set goals.
At the end of the course you will be interviewed to measure the progress
Mandatory 3 slide check-ins on a bi-weekly basis; will allow you to develop your pitch skills, as well as gain valuable feedback from professors, mentors and peers.
An interview and acceptance process will ensure only those most committed to real entrepreneurship will be accepted.
The course will run this winter on Thursdays from 4-7 p.m. and space is limited to 25 students. Student teams are eligible and not all members need to be registered for the course to participate. The deadline to submit applications is December 12, 2016.
To learn more and to apply for the course, please contact Stephen Daze.
The Telfer Executive MBA will be hosting more than 35 candidates from the Sun yat-Sen University Executive MBA program from Guangzhou, P.R. China., during the week of October 2 – 7, 2016. This will be the third and final stop for these senior executives as a component of the Program's “Overseas Business Trip”. Prior to Ottawa, the group attended executive development programs at Columbia and Yale University.
One of the Telfer Executive MBA’s key objectives is to provide an impactful contribution to our business community through its executive leadership and competency development platform along with growing a global network that serves its business community.
This academic exchange program is an extension of a close relationship between our two programs. The first in 2014 was the direct result of the Telfer Executive MBA’s International Business Consulting Trip to Guangzhou, P.R China in April of that year. Since then the partnership has grown to include Summer Business Consulting Projects, known as the G9 [Guangzhou 9]. Working in teams of three, nine selected Telfer Executive MBA candidates complete a smaller scaled International Business Consulting Project for Chinese organizations throughout the summer months between their first and second year. This experience includes a one-week trip in Guangzhou to present their findings and meet with key stakeholders. The G9 was piloted in 2015 and the Class of 2017 recently closed off another successful year of the projects.
The activities during their stay will provide excellent opportunities to promote the University of Ottawa and the City of Ottawa, to many senior-level executives from China. It will also provide opportunities for engagement and insights from our community leaders through company visits, in-class sessions with distinguished professors, and several networking opportunities with Telfer Executive MBA alumni and leaders in the business community. It is important to note that more than 2000 of Sun yat-Sen’s alumni are in leadership roles of large and medium-sized enterprises in China.
With a focus on promoting local entrepreneurs and Canadian organizations, the Telfer Executive MBA has arranged for the Chinese visitors to enjoy the culinary and ale delights of Millstreet Brew Pub located in the historic Thompson-Perkins Mill building. The week also includes executive briefings at Ottawa’s Kivuto Solutions Inc., and the Royal Canadian Mint; as well as enjoying fall activities such as apple picking at Mountain Orchards and zip-lining adventures at locally owned Camp Fortune.
The visit is capped with a University of Ottawa / Sun yat-Sen Business School Delegation Dinner Reception on October 5th. The Mayor's office, in partnership with Telfer Executive MBA Program and Gowlings, will be hosting the reception with guests from the business community at the elegant Château Laurier. Special guests will include the mayor of Ottawa Jim Watson, senior officials from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China and senior executives from the University of Ottawa.The academic portion of the week will be three fold; Global Competitive Intelligence; Economics for the Global Manager; and Self-Leadership and Branding.
During their scheduled leisure time, the executives will enjoy Canada’s rich history with visits to Parliament Hill, the Rideau Canal, as well as Ottawa’s ByWard Market.
During the weekend of September 23 to 25, Telfer School of Management students in the ADM4317 Leadership, Strategy and Sustainability course engaged in an intensive simulation called The Green Business Lab.
“The Green Business Lab is unique in that it is the only interactive, live, comprehensive business simulation that can provide students with a hands-on experience in running a business while at the same time solving the most pressing problems arising from environmental and social issues facing organizations today” said Daina Mazutis, Endowed Professor of Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability at the Telfer School. “It connects students directly to important strategic decisions that they will need to make as future business leaders.”
Working in teams, the students were immersed in running a business where each team member played a key function in the company. They had to shape the company’s strategic direction, design and build a new product and improve performance. Yet, due to mounting pressure from various stakeholders — including customers, governments and NGOs — success depended on triple-bottom-line (economic, environmental, social) metrics.
Teams made final presentations to a panel of judges who evaluated their strategy. This board of directors was composed of Robert G. White, CA, CMA, CPA, Independent Investor and Adviser (Telfer BCom 1992), Kristina Haakman, VP Finance at Brookfield Renewable Energy (Telfer BCom 2003), Salim Charabati, B.Arch. MBA, Consultant BuildGreen Solutions (Telfer EMBA 2016) and John Purkis, Senior Associate, The Natural Step.
Spherical Solutions (George Amidjinov, Kacey Cryan, Francis Desjardins, Alexis Harrison, Adam Khawas, Philippe Lafontaine and Vanessa Mangano) finished first in the “Industrialized Nations” category and “Eco-Impact Spheres” (Patrik Hashem, Andrew James Low, Olivia Le, Cassandre Pomerleau, Isabelle Trudeau and Jacob Sousa) finished first in the “Developing Nations” category. These teams developed the best overall strategy from a triple bottom line perspective.
“Speaking on behalf of the majority of participating students, the Green Business Lab is a real life, fast paced scenario involving tough decisions” said student Francis Desjardins. “This weekend simulation gave us the possibility to apply our acquired knowledge in a sometimes stressful, but always fun environment. We not only learnt multiple typical business lessons, for example the importance of profits and cash flow, but also the impacts of other bottom lines: the importance of the environment and of social awareness. I would like to thank our Green Business Lab facilitator, our professor, my class colleagues and the Telfer School of Management for this great experience.”
The simulation tests the students’ leadership skills, knowledge of core management disciplines, as well as broader understanding of business’s responsible role in society. The Green Business Lab simulation has previously been run in well-regarded universities such as Cornell University, Georgia State University, Central Michigan University, Denver University, University of Michigan, Georgetown University, University of Iowa, Wayne State University as well as major multinational organizations such as General Electric, Rio Tinto and Chrysler Financial.
The University’s Co-operative Education Programs and the Entrepreneurship Hub have teamed up with RBC Royal Bank to launch an innovative CO-OP program designed to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Read the complete article in the Gazette »
Stefan Sjöstrand, President of IKEA Canada, with 2016 CEO x 1 Day finalist, Maria Poonawala.
CEO x 1 Day is on the Hunt for Canada’s Top Students!
Stefan Sjöstrand, President of IKEA Canada, with 2016 CEO x 1 Day finalist, Maria Poonawala.
The CEO 1 x Day program, run by executive recruiting firm, Odgers Berndtson, matches Canada’s top students with CEOs from across the country. Today’s students are the leaders of tomorrow and the yearly program aims to uncover some of Canada’s most promising future talent by giving them an unforgettable real-world experience.
Launched in 2013, CEO X 1 Day has matched close to 50 third and fourth year undergraduate students from across Canada with leading Canadian CEOs from organizations like Purolator, IKEA, the CFL, Manulife Financial and Economic Development Canada. This year, we have another fantastic line-up of CEOs from organizations in the private, public and not-for profit sectors including Siemens, Campbell’s Soup, CBC/Radio-Canada, Germain Hotels, The Red Cross and the Canadian Museum of Nature.
Past CEO x 1 Day students who have taken part in the program say that they received valuable experience that equips them with the tools to start building their careers. Because the selection process has several stages, there is an opportunity for students to get feedback on their leadership and interview skills, even if they don’t make it to the final round. The different phases of the selection process include an online leadership assessment, as well as phone and in-person interviews and a half day with Odgers Berndtson recruiters.
The application process kicks off September 29th until October 28th and the actual day spent with the CEO occurs in February of 2017.
Why Should You Apply?
The program gives third and fourth-year students an opportunity to take in-class learning and apply it to a real-world situation while providing them with the tools and skills needed to start building their career.
What Are the Benefits?
There are many benefits of going through the CEO x 1 Day application process – even if you don’t reach the finals:
2 out of 3 applicants will have the opportunity to receive a personalized leadership report from Hogan Assessments
Semi-finalists will be considered for an interview with McKinsey & Company for a summer internship or full-time job
Semi-finalists will spend a half day participating in group exercises and one-on-one interviewing which will strengthen their presentation and interviewing skills
And ultimately, the winners will spend a full day shadowing a CEO (including one-on-one time), learning about his/her background, career path, and leadership approach
The Mining Association of Canada has selected Alexander (Al) Pritchard as the 2016 recipient of the Paul Stothart Memorial Scholarship in Mineral Economics, a $3,500 value. Al is currently a student in the MBA program at the Telfer School of Management. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Engineering from Queen’s University.
With this prize, Al is being recognized for his extensive work experience in the minerals industry and his strong academic achievements. Since 2006, Al has worked for Ottawa-based Sander Geophysics Ltd., presently in the area of Operations Management. He brings this technical experience in mineral exploration and development to his current MBA studies.
Al cites his early interest in natural resources to having grown up in Thunder Bay, Ontario. His vision essay on the future of Canada’s mining industry focused on the opportunities that the Ring of Fire presents to his hometown and throughout the region of Northern Ontario. He has a particular interest in the socio-economic benefits responsible mineral activity can bring to Aboriginal communities in the area and how it can lead to deeper, long-lasting relationships between mining companies and Aboriginal peoples.
From July 8 to10, 4th-year students from the bachelor of commerce participated in the Intopia Strategy Simulation. This competition was created as a component of the 4th-year Strategic Management class.
The CPA Ontario Intopia Strategy Simulation aims to teach students the concepts of strategic management in a simulated online world, known as Intopia, where students get immediate feedback on their decisions. This simulation gives the students a chance to test the knowledge they have accumulated over their 4 years at university.
Congratulations to the members of the winning team:
The Telfer Executive MBA Class of 2017 has spoken and the candidates will be going to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The votes were cast and decision was made during the week of June 6, 2016, after insightful presentations from 7 teams that form the cohort. The presentations focused on four key factors:
Strategic importance of respective international market to Ottawa and Ontario.
The number of Canadian organizations already invested in the market.
Market interest or focus by local associations such as Export Development Corp and the Canadian government.
The level of impact each respective international market would have on the cohort’s international market experience, careers and global resume going forward.
This was the final step of the International Market Evaluation & Selection course that started in March. In total 14 different international cities were evaluated and Kuala Lumpur was selected on June 8, 2016. The course mirrors the strategic approach that an organization would take when evaluating and making a decision on a specific international market on expanding its global footprint. The process forms the compelling nature of the Telfer Executive MBA program, a program that strictly focusing on a Global, Practical and Relevant curriculum by anchoring key learnings on the Signature Series of Six Business Consulting Projects. The program works with over 50 client organizations in addressing business challenges and market opportunities. The Class of 2017 will be working with Canadian companies on exploring the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market as it marches the client organizations to Kuala Lumpur in April 2017.
About Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia and is located in Southeast Asia bordering with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei. It is home to a diverse and multicultural population of 30 million, with over seven million located in its most populated urban centre. The country’s annual GDP growth for 2015 was down from their 2014 growth of 6% but exceeded economist expectations by closing at 5%, reported by Financial Times in February 2016. Malaysia’s growth and opportunity has caught the attention of several of Canadian international groups, including Global Affairs Canada that listed the region as a priority market for Canadian business. Export Development Canada recognized Malaysia as a key market and it is also listed on Ontario’s top ten Asian markets.
Kuala Lumpur (KL) is the economic and business centre of the country and is considered one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions in South-East Asia. KL is one-hour flight time from the highly-developed and dynamic business environment of Singapore. The frequency of business is evident by the over 30 daily flights between KL to Singapore.
This is the second time a cohort of Telfer Executive MBA program has chosen Kuala Lumpur as a market destination for their International trip. The Class of 1997 departed to Kuala Lumpur to pursue opportunities of Malaysia’s emergence as a high-tech hub of the Far East exactly 20 years ago.
The Next Steps for the Class of 2017
Over the course of the next eight months the Telfer Executive MBA teams will be engaging with seven Canadian organizations that are looking to increase their business footprint in the Malaysian market. This global component of the Telfer Executive MBA curriculum focuses on leveraging both primary and secondary sources to conduct a market and business analysis, and to validate the market potential prior to the teams traveling to KL. The Class of 2017 will be in KL in April 2017, respective teams will leverage other data gathering methodologies including in-country with key stakeholders to validate the market potential.
The Telfer Executive MBA consistently provides compelling business value to respective client organizations as each candidate learns international business is not difficult with solid planning and precise implementation.
Interested in organizing the next edition of the largest academic competition among French high schools in Ontario? We are currently seeking candidates for the Executive Committee for the 13th edition of Place à la jeunesse in November 2016. The event will host more than 200 high-caliber students in the field of business among dozens of high schools across Ontario. It's your turn to offer a unique and unforgettable experience to the next Telfer cohort, all while developing your strategic planning, team management, and financial management skills, among others. If you wish to apply for the presidency or for the three other positions available on the Executive Committee, submit your online application by Friday, June 17, 2016.
In the spring of 2016, the Telfer School launched a video competition. With the intention of building a promotional video that would feature key aspects of our undergraduate program, we thought who better to unveil what we have to offer than our very own students?
Created by Sharanya Tharmarajan and Conor O’Doherty, both of whom are in their third year of Accounting in the BCom program, the winning video showcases our connection to our brand, to our student experience, and to our target audience. It also demonstrates the hard work and dedication of our students and is a prime example of what defines our student body at the Telfer School.
How does Telfer connect you to what matters? Let us show you.
Teams from the Telfer Executive MBA Class of 2017 wrote about their experiences in Silicon Valley as a part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Business Consulting Trip which took place from May 14 - 20, 2016.
Surviving in an Innovative Playground
Written by: Team Canopus- Amanda Bernier, Scott Johnston, Matt Lundie, Kimberley Marr, Ryan Peatt and Sukri Sharbini
On Wednesday, May 4, 2016, the Enactus uOttawa team was in Toronto to defend its National Champion title at the 2016 Enactus Canada National Exposition, in front of a 65-person panel of judges comprising top Canadian CEOs. Each participating team was scored on its ability to enable social, environmental and economic progress through entrepreneurial action.
The Enactus uOttawa team made it all the way to the finals, along with three other teams: Memorial University of Newfoundland, Ryerson University, and Saint Mary's University. The Memorial University of Newfoundland team was named the 2016 Enactus National Champion, and will advance to represent Canada at the Enactus World Cup taking place in Toronto in the fall of this year.
The team’s President, Corey Ellis, a 3rd year Management student at the Telfer School, commented on their most recent success by saying his team “started with a mainly new team this year and launched a new portfolio of projects. We’re extremely grateful for all the support from faculty, staff, alumni, and the broader community that have helped us along the way. We’re all very excited for what’s ahead this year for our organization.”
The Telfer School was awarded the University Administration of the Year Award by Enactus Canada for its support of youth entrepreneurship. This award, which recognizes the university administration which did the most outstanding job of supporting their Enactus team on their campus, was accepted on behalf of the school by Stephen Daze, Telfer Entrepreneur in Residence and one of the mentors of the Enactus uOttawa team.
Additionally, just last week, one of the projects presented at the 2016 Enactus Canada National Exposition by the uOttawa team, the Northern Innovation Hub in Iqaluit, was awarded $30,000 by the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation. This project aims to solve two problems at once by collecting unused sea shipping containers that litter the local coastline and repurposing them to provide badly needed commercial and residential space. The goal is for the Northern Innovation Hub to become a catalyst for further change in Iqaluit, which needs a space to facilitate the planning required to adapt to increasing local urbanization.
Congratulations to the Enactus uOttawa team for their achievements!
Each year, students in the 4th-year class Case Studies in Accounting (ADM 4340) participate in a case competition in which they analyze a real company and report on accounting issues being faced by the company.
This year, a total of 72 students took part in the competition, and the best groups presented their cases in front of a panel of judges on April 13.
We would like to congratulate the winning team:
Arya Farahani
Dylan Humphries
Vishwa Rachamalla
Martina Reabel
Thank you to CPA Ontario for sponsoring the event and to Professor Sheldon Weatherstone, as well as Matt Prime, Lee Tessmer, and David Albers, who were all members of the judging panel.
Each year, students in the 4th-year Equity Valuation class (ADM 4350) take part in a case competition in which they estimate the value of a real company and propose recommendations to improve performance.
This term, the ADM 4350 students did an excellent job analyzing Blackberry Limited.
We would like to congratulate this year’s winners:
First place:
Alexandre Richard
Sadaf Naziri
Second place:
Wenjun Tian
Zhuohang Yu
Third place:
Xu Zheng
Yaozong Zhou
“Best Poster” Award:
Patrick Joseph Murphy
Spencer Robert O'Brien
We would also like to thank the judges: James Yearsh, Cassy Aite, Jivan Maharaj, Bart M. Bagrowicz, Evan Johnson, Kailin Araujo Noivo, Pouya Safi, and Allan Riding.
On Tuesday, March 29, the Telfer School of Management held the 12th annual Beta Gamma Sigma induction ceremony. The 2016 cohort was the University of Ottawa Chapter’s largest yet, with 96 newly inducted members, proof of Telfer students’ commitment to academic excellence and achievement.
This year, 27 MBA students and 69 undergraduate students were inducted by Chapter President, Dean François Julien, who presided over the ceremony. Also inducted were faculty member Professor Barbara Orser and 2016 Chapter Honouree Stephen Daze.
Beta Gamma Sigma is the global honour society of AACSB International whose mission is to encourage and honour academic achievement in the study of business, to foster personal and professional excellence, to advance the values of the Society, and to serve its lifelong members.
Dasha Shakov, a third year BCom Marketing student, is an innovative entrepreneur who is sure to inspire and impress everyone she meets for years to come. As a student juggling a part-time job, yoga, travelling and extracurricular activities, Dasha still managed to find time to found Parcelly with her mother, an online parcel shipping company. The idea behind Parcelly is that it offers a unique gifting solution for long distance friends, family members, and loved ones. They throw 4-5 special items together which is catered towards a specific theme, like for a birthday, a wedding or even a breakup. Once a person orders a package from their online store, the mother-daughter duo puts the items together in a box and ships it to the recipient’s address. “It’s a hassle free, meaningful, and creative way to show someone you care,” she says.
Dasha also spends a lot of her time being one of the Event Directors of the Telfer Business Law Association. She was involved with planning the club’s Mooting Competition, Wine and Cheese and Third Annual Speaker Series. “Getting involved in a club allows you to engage with amazing people, organize and participate in various activities,” she says, “It’s a really fun way to make long lasting memories!”
Dasha feels like she belongs at the Telfer School of Management. With it being located in the heart of the Nation’s capital, she likes getting to meet other bright students coming from around the world. “The Telfer School has allowed me to broaden my horizons and meet an enormous amount of incredible, like-minded people. It’s a fulfilling place to learn,” she says.
What matters the most to Dash is being true to herself, proactively facing herself with new challenges, embarking on new opportunities, and saying “yes” to things outside of her comfort zone. She recently applied to study in France next year though the Telfer's International Exchange Program. “Living and learning away from home, in a foreign country, is definitely outside of my comfort zone, however it would be an amazing experience that I would remember for the rest of my life,” she says.
The University of Ottawa Enactus team just competed in the regional competition rounds of the Enactus Canada championships, and received distinguished awards among a gathering of over 25 different universities and colleges for their excellence in entrepreneurial action and community leadership. Enactus, Canada’s largest entrepreneurship focused student organization, fosters today’s youth to advance the economic, environmental, and social growth of their communities.
Hosted at the Hilton Meadowvale in Mississauga, Ontario, the Enactus Canada regionals 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 116 motivated young leaders from seven different faculties at the University of Ottawa, competed in all four categories. In recognition of the amazing impact they made through a variety of innovative and impactful projects, the team was awarded as the first place Runner Up in the Scotiabank EcoLiving Green Challenge, the Capital One Financial Education Challenge, and the Scotiabank Youth Empowerment Challenge, and was the winnner of an Impact Award in the TD Entrepreneurship challenge. In addition to these achievements, VP Project Management Shevaun Ensor-Harrison was awarded the 2016 HSBC Woman Leader of Tomorrow for Central Canada, in recognition of her contributions to Enactus and her commitment to improving the livelihood of people in her community through entrepreneurial action.
The Enactus University of Ottawa team will now move on to compete in the Enactus Canada National Exposition taking place from May 2nd to 4th in Toronto, Canada at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, striving to retain the title of Team Canada once again for 2016. Follow the team’s progress on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Enactus uOttawa would like to thank all of their supporters and advisors, and would like to congratulate all participating teams on their positive impact on their communities.
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."
Given the recent surge in entrepreneurial activity on the University of Ottawa campus, it is appropriate to recognize and celebrate the culmination of each annual cycle of teaching, competitions, workshops and hard work that lead to exciting start-ups.
In the fall of 2015 and early 2016, we conducted the 2nd annual search for the Top 5 Start-ups on the uOttawa campus. This is a collaborative effort between the Telfer School of Management, the Faculty of Engineering, Startup Garage and the uOttawa e-hub.
“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”.
The Top 5 uOttawa start-ups, in no particular order, are:
Helix (Powered by MicroMetrics)
Cofounders: Andre Richards, CTO (Honours Bachelor of Science 2011, uOttawa) and Artem Abramov, CEO.
MicroMetrics is a software company with a focus on customer experience innovation. Working together with TripAdvisor, they’ve developed Helix – a robust guest experience management platform that empowers hotel staff to conduct real-time service recovery. Since its introduction, Helix has helped brands like Starwood and IHG deliver memorable guest experiences, improve occupancy rates and outperform their competitive sets at premier properties across North America.
GymTrack
Cofounders: Lee Silverstone, CEO and Pablo Srugo, COO.
Gymtrack is a platform that brings personal training to all exercisers through their gym and impacts the $80BN gym industry. Gymtrack provides gyms with virtual coaching that automatically tracks everything in an exerciser’s workout, from weight lifting to cardio and helps gyms reduce churn.
Go Give-Back
Cofounders: Lemuel Barango, (Bachelor of Science 2015, uOttawa) and Liora Raitblat (Telfer BCom 2015, uOttawa).
Go Give-Back (GGB) is providing a solution for charitable causes by offering a mobile donation platform that accepts donations, catering to the “in-the-moment” factor. GGB will include detailed demographics for the organization with “on the go” analytics used to retain and engage donors.
TruReach:
Founder: Jeff Perron, MBA (Clinical Psychology PhD Candidate, uOttawa), Clinical Lead: Dr. Joti Samra, PhD, C. Psych.
TruReach provides instant access to scientifically proven cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). It eliminates the stigma associated with mental illness and helps people get better, faster. TruReach cuts costs associated with the management of mental illness and their analytics give organizations data to prove it.
Spectrafy
Cofounders: Richard Beal, CEO and Viktar Tatsiankou (B.A.Sc., M.A.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, uOttawa).
Spectrafy has reinvented the way we measure sunlight and the atmosphere. Spectrafy’s solution, the SolarSIM, combines simple hardware and breakthrough software to slash the cost of measuring sunlight and the atmosphere by over an order of magnitude.
How were the Top 5 start-ups on campus selected?
A working committee of the 4 leaders on campus who run the various entrepreneurship activities select possible candidates from the start-ups they see in their programs. In addition, a public web-based call for nominations allowed start-ups to show their interest. The nominees were then evaluated by the 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 five “Top Start-ups” is selected. From the Top 5, selected start-ups will be invited to visit Silicon Valley for a learning and business development experience. The exact number of start-ups who are invited to go to Silicon Valley will be a function of available funding.
Photo: Liora Raitblat, Go Give-Back cofounder, at Startup Weekend 2015 (Feb 27 - March 1)
The 24th edition of Happening Marketing(in French only) took place at the Université du Québec à Rimouski – Levis Campus on March 18-20, 2016. The Happening Marketing, which includes more than 10 universities and brings together more than 500 students, is the largest inter-university marketing competition in eastern Canada. This competition includes several components: academic, athletic, social and participation.
Our students took home five trophies:
Social - 1st place
Dominic Piscopo, Victoria Obeid, Natasha Heinz, Sarah Pétrin-Perron
Social Queen: Natasha Heinz
Sports - 3rd place
Curtis Lu, Sophie Nadeau, Mike Shaheen, Myreille Chouinard, Mathieu Brunet, Emily Potvin, Qusai Saleh, Michèle Marchand
Coach: Ross Dilks
Marketing Strategy - 3rd place
Holly Todd, Samantha Rao, Maral Elliott
Coaches: Hantz Prosper and Germain Aoun
Member + (MVP): Maral Elliott
Full Campaign (“Le contrat”) - 3rd place
Tarek Mansour, Marie-Pier Harvey, Maxime Trépanier, Sarai Castrejon
Coach: Michael Guolla
Member + (MVP): Maxime Trépanier
Surprise case - 3rd place
Richard Laberge, Maria FitzPatrick, Camille Porier
Coach: Jesse Dunn
Relationship Marketing
Member + (MVP): Roma Stepanchenko
Congratulations to our students for these great results!
Testimonial written by Jia Li, 4th year BCom in Accounting student
My name is Jia Li, and my dream is to become one of tomorrow’s leaders.
The Futures Fund recognizes the accomplishments of 10 university students, each from a different school of management across the country. I am honoured to have been selected by Telfer to receive this prestigious scholarship. It gave me the opportunity to represent Telfer at an exclusive gala in Toronto, and I received a $7,500 bursary to support me in my studies. When I learned that I was selected last November, I was ecstatic. I felt an overwhelming sense of joy that the efforts I had made throughout my four years at Telfer had been recognized this way. I knew the gala in Toronto was a high-profile event, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that it would be an experience that would change my life forever.
The Toronto event was held over two days, February 9 and 10, 2016. The first day, the recipients were invited to a reception at the Bennett Jones office, where we were each interviewed by BNN. In addition to us students, some 50 business leaders also attended the reception. It was not until I was shaking the hand of a man who was six and a half feet tall that I began to realize the significance of the event. The man was George Cope, the President and CEO of Bell Canada, and next to him was Jim Balsillie, the co-founder of BlackBerry. We had some fascinating discussions and shared a few anecdotes.
The second day, we attended the “Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year” gala celebrating the success of Mr. Cope and of Bell Canada over the past few years. Over 400 of our country’s most prominent leaders attended this event at the Royal Ontario Museum. To name just a few, I met the Honourable Bill Morneau (Minister of Finance), Frank Vettesse (Managing Parner of Deloitte Canada), Hugh MacKinnon (Chairman and CEO of Bennett Jones), William Downe (CEO of BMO) and Kevin O’Leary (Chairman of O’Leary Financial Group). I had the opportunity to speak with some of the most distinguished executives in Canada about their journey to the top, and here is a summary of what I learned:
Regardless of the hand you are dealt, follow your passion; the money will follow.
Be genuine and kind; the most powerful people are also the most considerate.
Be humble; the most fortunate, most successful people are also the most modest.
Networking is crucial to your success. The most powerful people all seem to know each other.
In short, this event was an incredible life lesson that truly opened my eyes. Meeting these individuals helped me to understand that the magic formula to success is often universal; with perseverance, strength and long-term relationships, we are all capable of reaching the top.
In the photo, from left to right: George Cope, Bell Canada; Jia Li; Hugh MacKinnon, Bennett Jones Toronto
The Redefine Conference took place from March 4th to March 6th, 2016 at the University of Waterloo. Delegates were required to use their creativity and problem-solving skills to present their solutions to real-world business cases to industry professionals. Competitive events included: Marketing Management, Fashion and Retail Marketing, Finance, Accounting, Sports and Entertainment Marketing, and International Business.
DECA uOttawa sent a delegation of five students to this competition, three of which came home with first place medals. Congratulations to Zach Zhang (1st place in the Pitch Competition), Anna Halawa (1st place in Fashion and Retail Marketing), and Andy Yu (1st place in Finance).
DECA uOttawa would like to recognize all of the participants at the Redefine Conference: Jordan Monaghan, Eva Lin, Anna Halawa, Zach Zhang and Andy Yu. The DECA uOttawa executive team would also like to extend a huge thank you to Matt Archibald, Diane Mugeni and the Telfer School of Management for their involvment and support. Lastly, the chapter’s competitive success would not have been possible without the immense dedication, member empowerment, training and mentorship provided by this year’s President, Eva Lin.
What’s next for DECA uOttawa? The chapter is sending delegates to Montreal next week for the final competition of the school year, DECA McGill’s Spring Invitational. The executive team and the entire chapter wish all delegates the utmost success.
(From left to right: Carl Burlock, Export Development Canada; HEC team, Ben Mansoura, Amandine Michaud, Niki Parassidis, Abdelghani Zniber; Michel Brazeau, Deloitte)
On March 4th and 5th 2016, the Telfer School of Management, in partnership with Export Development Canada and Deloitte, hosted the first annual Diversity and Inclusion MBA Case Competition.
The rationale for this event, which addressed a topic not often found in typical MBA case competitions, was that despite the advances being made in promoting and integrating diversity in organizations, the fear of being different is still a common occurrence. This case competition was conceived to highlight and explore current issues and potential solutions related to Diversity and Inclusion in contemporary organizations.
The MBA case competition included the following teams:
DeGroote School of Business McMaster University
HEC Université de Montreal
John Molson School of Busines Concordia University
Lazaridis School of Business & Economics Wilfrid Laurier
Odette School of Business University of Windsor
Ted Rogers School of Management Ryerson University
Telfer School of Management University of Ottawa
The team from HEC Montreal took home first place (pictured). Wilfred Laurier’s Lazaridis School of Business & Economics came in second and McMaster’s DeGroote School of Business third.
“Given our global mandate, having a diverse and representative workforce is a strategic business advantage that is critical to EDC's success – now and in the future,” says Justine Hendricks, Vice President Loans Value Stream Transformation, EDC. “Sponsoring this competition provides an opportunity to demonstrate to future business leaders that diversity is critical for a trading nation like Canada, and therefore critical for its companies.”
Kate Morican, Partner, Ontario Lead for Human Capital Services and National Lead for Strategic Transformation and Change Services at Deloitte, adds: “At Deloitte, our vision is to lead by building a culture through commitment and mutual accountability. A culture where all our people feel like they belong, feel free to live and work openly and understand that inclusion is core to who we are. Our Diversity and Inclusion journey is key to achieving this vision, and developing inclusive leaders is a key component of our journey. We commend our partners, Export Development Canada and the University of Ottawa for recognizing the importance of Diversity and Inclusion and taking the steps required to create a more inclusive and diverse community within their own organizations, while taking the time to educate others on diversity and inclusion and the tangible benefits which can be realized when one adopts a diverse and inclusive culture."
Abdelghani Zniber, member of the winning team from HEC Montréal, says: “This competition deals with a subject that has been getting traction recently. A competition on diversity and inclusion is a great initiative to further raise awareness about a topic that is unfortunately not taught in schools, but that MBA students will surely have to manage during their career.” Amandine Michaud adds: “The Diversity & Inclusion case competition hosted by the Telfer School of Management is one of its kind. It focuses on a strategic aspect of management that is oft forgotten and it prepares tomorrow’s leaders to help companies to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.”
In addition to the team competition, the event included a workshop on Unconscious Bias and a keynote by Bank of Montreal Senior Vice-President Justine Fedak on the practical issues along with her personal reflections related to Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace.
We thank all the schools for sending along excellent representatives for this competition.
Written by Paulo Guedes Moreau, 2nd year Telfer BCom (International Management) student
I consider myself fortunate to have participated on Junior Team Canada (JTC) on behalf of the Telfer School of Management. In October, I was looking for a scholarship which reflected the growing importance of multiculturalism in business. At the time, I was applying for the Ontario Global Edge scholarship with the help of Kimberley Barclay, a professional Relationship Manager at the Telfer Career Centre. We had an interesting chat about the importance of understanding the interconnections among nations in today’s business world. She suggested I speak with Amy Giroux. Amy as it turned out was the head of an organization called Global Vision.
Global Vision is a national not-for-profit, registered charitable organization that provides youth with real world experience to make meaningful connections between business, government, and community. JTC is the flagship program of Global Vision. Each year a delegation of 20-30 Canadian youth leaders are selected through a nationwide competition to promote Canadian industry and culture abroad through a JTC trade and development mission. JTC Ambassadors are representatives for their communities, province and country.
After two hundred letters, one hundred cold calls and fifty meetings in January, I received my total sponsorship amount. Obtaining the funds was difficult, but worth it as it allowed me to experience an international business mission and to apply the concepts taught in my International Management program.
Being a dual citizen of Canada and Peru, Global Vision further appealed to me when I found out that its upcoming mission was to Peru, a country in South America and a trade partner to Canada in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Further, Peru will be hosting the APEC summit this year. These trade agreements require an understanding of the growing importance of multiculturalism in business. This mission allowed me to gain valuable insight about cross-cultural teamwork, a value I strongly believe in.
The courses at Telfer have a professional focus on “Unlocking the Value of Globalization” – the Telfer School’s fifth Learning Objective. My courses prepared me to grasp the intricacies of international trade and developing business relationships. For example, prior to leaving for Peru, the CEO in Residence speaker Nick Quain encouraged me to read Dale Carnegie’s novel for better business communication. As well, the concepts taught by Matthew Archibald about the works of Geert Hofstede provided excellent insights. The cultural dimensions theory by Hofstede gave me further understanding into communicating in Latin American culture. As we had many networking events to secure our mandates in Peru, I was prepared to adjust to the different schedule of Latin American culture.
The Telfer Career Centre’s training events enforced the notions of how much first impressions matter in business. We were able to meet many key officials in Peru’s public and private sectors through our networking events. I am grateful to have participated in the etiquette workshop by Julie Blais-Comeau and the professional attire workshop by Alyssa Beltempo was very useful in maximizing my networking abilities.
I look forward to thanking both the Telfer School of Management and the Career Centre team at their celebration reception in March 2016.
On Thursday, March 3, we hosted our annual leadership discussion with the Ottawa Business Journal CEO of the year, Bernie Ashe (BAdm 1978), Chief Executive Officer of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG).
Bernie Ashe was awarded the CEO of the Year award, a joint initiative of the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce, on November 18, 2015.
“Bernie Ashe is most deserving of this honor as CEO of the Year – and, as a Telfer alumnus, a great example for our students,” said François Julien, Dean of the Telfer School of Management. “Thanks to his incredible leadership, OSEG has remarkable momentum following the successful development of Lansdowne Park and TD Place. The changes he initiated and implemented have and will continue to have a lasting impact on the socio-economic development of our city.”
Before joining OSEG, the organization that owns the Ottawa Redblacks, he was Chief Executive Officer at KOTT Group, a lumber supply company, and at AiT (now 3M-AiT). From 1991-1997, he was Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of the Ottawa Senators.
The global competition pits a global group of universities using IBM Watson Analytics to explore complex data sets. The top ten finalists will be selected July 1, 2016. The top two finalists will be invited to present their solutions at the IBM Insight 2016 event in Las Vegas in October 2016.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition hosted by the CFA Institute that provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. The competition starts with local rounds in October, followed by a regional round in April, and ends with a global final in one of the global financial centers. Students work in teams to research and analyze a publicly traded company - sometimes even meeting face-to-face with company executives and conducting conference calls.
In the local first round hosted by CFA Society Toronto, the Telfer School of Management team competed with eleven undergraduate teams from other Canadian universities such as Queen’s, the University of Toronto and Western University. Teams were tasked with the creation of an equity research report on Canadian Tire Corporation’s class A shares and providing a buy/sell/hold recommendation on the shares based on their analysis. Following evaluation and feedback from industry experts and investment professionals, the top four teams would enter the local final to present and defend their recommendations.
Ethan Zhang, Portfolio Manager of the student managed Telfer Capital Fund (TCF), is leading the Telfer Team with Rabbi Kazi (Portfolio Manager, TCF), Alejandro Fiszman (Analyst, TCF) and Dmitry Shorikov (Analyst, TCF). As a part of the challenge, Aaron Sapelak was the designated mentor for the team and Pouya Safi, Finance Lab Manager, the faculty advisor. During a two-month research period from October to December, the team dedicated upwards of a hundred hours to produce a top quality 30-page equity research report and its complementing financial models.
Only in its first participation in the competition, the Telfer team has been selected to be one of the top four finalists qualified to the local final. The team is scheduled to present their investment recommendation on February 25, 2016 in Toronto to a panel of judges. Only one of the four teams will be selected to advance to the Americas regional round on April 13, 2016, taking place in Chicago. Finally, winners from regional rounds will advance to the Global Finals on April 14, 2016, where one team from each region (Asia Pacific; Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); Americas) will compete to become the 2016 CFA Institute Research Challenge Champion.
The Telfer School of Management sent two students to the Instituto Panamericano de Alta Dirección de Empresa (IPADE) case competitions held in Mexico City on February 5-6, 2016. Sponsored by Deloitte and Novartis, this competition is unlike any other. Students from a number of universities around the world are invited and placed onto teams. MBA students Mark Stuckless and Tavis Weigand were the Telfer representatives.
According to Mark Stuckless (second from the right), a member of this year’s winning team: “It was a wonderful experience in Mexico City. The campus was beautiful, the students were friendly and the sun was shining! Working with such a diverse group proved challenging, but interesting. Learning about different school's approaches to solving problems really opened my eyes and widened my perspective. Winning topped off an incredible couple of days and I am grateful for this opportunity to have come my way.”
It’s the second year in a row that our MBA students have done well in this international competition. Last year, MBA students Germain Aoun and Scott Bridgeman also took first place honours.
Article written by team member Brandon Larochelle, BCom Finance
January 14, 2016 marked the first time Telfer School of Management had been invited to the annual CFA Ethics Challenge held in Toronto. As a newcomer, there were obvious expectations set on us, as a school, to do well and to showcase the strengths and skills that can be gathered through our four-year undergraduate Finance program.
The third event of its kind was hosted by Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and the participants, albeit small in numbers (four in total), were very high in quality and consisted mostly of graduate students. The participating schools were:
Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto)
Schulich School of Business (York University)
Smith School of Business (Queen’s University)
Telfer School of Management (University of Ottawa)
The Competition
The CFA Ethics Challenge spanned from mid-October until mid-January. The purpose of the challenge was to read and identify underlying ethical problems in the provided case, as well as provide viable solutions to solve the issues moving forward for all parties involved with guidance from a Faculty Advisor (Pouya Safi). On January 14, 2016, all teams were required to present their findings in front of a panel of four judges, in addition to an audience filled with colleagues of CFA members, event organizers, and even friends and family of other teams. In the end, the three-month process dwindled down to a two and a half hour event filled with four ten-minute presentations and ten-minute question periods.
The Environment
As Telfer had been granted the honour of first presenting group, the reality of competition sunk in. There was also an additional intimidation factor that we, as a group, had not taken into account. Where all of the students from our team were fourth year undergraduates, every other team had been composed of Masters’ students who had already made their way into the financial markets. However, we did not let change our confidence going in.
After our presentation and question period was over, we had the luxury of sitting in to watch the remainder of the event. After listening to the next three presentations, we remained confident in our team’s chances to win based on the feedback we had gotten during the competition compared to the three other teams. We felt that as a group, we adequately demonstrated Telfer School of Management’s ability to cultivate outside the box thinking in its students, and it seemed to impress!
When the results were finally announced at the networking event that had taken place after the presentation period, we took the loss with pride fully knowing that we had just marginally been beaten out by Rotman School of Management. Judges and audience members alike came to congratulate us on our content, presentation skills, and team unity. I could not be more proud of my group, and to be a part of Telfer School of Management.
Photo caption - Left to Right: Eric Goneau, Jeanne St-Louis, Riccardo Najem, Brandon Larochelle
The 10th edition of Omnium financier took place from January 29 to January 31, 2016 at Université Laval in Quebec City. The Telfer School of Management sent a delegation of 30 BCom students to compete in eight different cases in finance and accounting. The competition is the biggest of its kind in Canada and welcomes over 350 students and volunteers from eleven Canadian universities.
This year our students took home the first place in the Managerial Accounting Case. Congratulations to Sonia Alb, Patrick Tumbas, Jianyi Li (Coach: Marc Tassé)
The Omnium financier Telfer executives wish to extend a thank you to the entire delegation (Financial Accounting - Joshua Ayer, Kristjan Luik, Maxim Goldenberg; Managerial Accounting - Sonia Alb, Patrick Tumbas, Jianyi Li; Taxation - Mélissa Iskandar, Caroline Dupéré Tremblay, Julie Séguin; Personal Finance - Elliott Foley, Patrick Kaminski, Frank Lixin Lu; Market Finance - Andy Chen Yu, Dmitry Shorikov, Zach Zhang; Corporate Finance - Steven Benoît Ménard, Margaret Omodu, Felipe Izquierdo; Financial News Quiz - Alexandre Blais, Jiazhe Li, Claudtzlie Desormes; Stock Simulation - Robert Millan, Philip Niwinski, Cameron Hayes, Andrew Nzomo; Volunteers - Anne Armstrong, Mathilda Murray, Serge Kuiya Lajoie) for their devotion in the various pre-competition practices and their continuous motivation. The executive team also wants to thank the godfather of the delegation, Samuel Soucy, for his support throughout the entire weekend and the coordinator, Kim Angèle Vallières, for her hard work throughout the school year towards making this project happen. The committee finally wants to thank the coaches on behalf of all teams for their great help.
A special thank you is extended to the organizational committee of this event who has done incredible work towards the organization of this competition and who demonstrated great professionalism throughout their mandate.
DECA is a professional development organization, with chapters spanning various countries across the globe. It develops young leaders, putting to the test students’ presentation skills and business knowledge in intense competitions with both a written and an oral component, in categories across many areas of business.
On January 15 and 16 in Toronto, University of Ottawa’s DECA Chapter shone onstage at the annual DECA U Provincial Competition at the Sheraton Centre. Of the chapter’s 148 members, 81 competed. Rivalry was strong, with delegations from 20 universities and colleges attending, and certain delegations reaching well over 100 competitors. However, for uOttawa the results of many months of intense training were evident with the following achievements:
Miranda Taing and Olga Koppel: 1st Place International Marketing Role Play
Miranda Taing and Olga Koppel: 1st Place International Marketing Overall
Aayush Shah: 2nd Place Travel and Tourism Role Play
Andy Yu: 2nd Place Role Play Business Financial Services Role Play
Sonia Alb and Anna Halawa: 2nd Place International Marketing Overall
Maxim Goldenberg: 3rd Place Accounting Role Play
Catherine Li: 3rd Place Human Resource Management Written
Josh Wamanga and Dustin Gao: 3rd Place PMI CASE BOSS Special Event
Neekita Bhatia and Divya Mehta: 3rd Place Business-to-Business Role Play
DECA uOttawa wishes to thank Matt Archibald, Diane Mugeni and the Telfer School of Management for providing the chapter with academic training and unwavering support over months of preparation. It would also like to recognize the dedication of Eva Lin (President) and Anna Halawa (Vice President), as well as Maxim Goldenberg, who spearheaded this year’s training program. What is more, the delegation’s immense success would not have been possible without the countless hours of work put in by the rest of the executive team: Aayush Shah, Shivdeep Pal, Nikita Gupta, Bobbi Nguyen, Andy Yu, Carissa Wong, and Rula AlHalbouni.
What’s next for DECA uOttawa? The chapter will be sending delegations to upcoming invitational competitions this semester at various universities across Ontario. It also has a chance to participate in the International Career Development Conference in Washington, DC.
DECA uOttawa has set high expectations for next year, but the chapter is confident that the soon-to-be-selected executive team will be up to the challenge.
This winter, the University of Ottawa's Co-operative Education Programs achieved the milestone of placing its 40,000th student.
After dropping a few hints on social media, the details of the 40,000th placement were unveiled in a ceremony at Deloitte's office in downtown Ottawa. To mark the occasion, a plaque was awarded to Robyn Smith, an accounting student at the Telfer School of Management, and Erica Newman, a recruitment specialist with Deloitte.
"I'm proud to work at Deloitte and surprised to be the 40,000th placement. If I had any advice to give to students, it would be to get involved early in their time at university. Not just to stand out from others, but to create opportunities and gain the confidence they need to approach leaders like Deloitte."
“For the CO-OP program, the 40,000th placement is a significant accomplishment. However, behind this large number are 39,999 other experiences that are just as significant,” says Gaby St-Pierre, director of CO-OP and the Career Development Centre at the University of Ottawa.
“Thanks to CO-OP, students eager to learn both theory and practice have had impressive careers all around the world. Since the program began in 1980, hundreds of employers acting as mentors have dedicated over 20 million hours to train the next generation and pass on their knowledge,” adds St-Pierre.
In short, CO-OP is partnership between the University, students and employers. It’s a real example of intergenerational communication and assistance, of knowledge management and transfer. Most of all, it’s about over 40,000 experiences that have made a difference.
Did you know?
Deloitte has partnered with the University of Ottawa for more than 30 years.
It has offered nearly 200 CO-OP placements over the past 15 years.
It has hired 10% of accounting students for winter 2016.
It offers CO-OP placements and jobs for new graduates of various programs in many Canadian cities.
The University of Ottawa CO-OP summer placement process has begun. Over 1700 of our brightest students are ready to contribute to the success of your team. Click here for more information.
This article was originally published in the uOttawa Gazette.
This year’s MBA Games were held from January 2 to 4, 2016 in Toronto. Fifteen of Telfer’s finest MBA and MHA students travelled to York University to participate in academic case competitions focused around finance, entrepreneurship, marketing, and strategy. They also participated in sports, cultural and spirit activities, displaying excellence in teamwork, leadership, and engagement in every division.
The Marketing Team landed first place in the competition. Members of the team are: John Lachapelle, Ihor Bryden, Sarah Lag and Julio Chiong.
"Being part of the MBA Games was a unique experience that none of us will ever forget,” comments the Marketing Team. “It was an honour representing Telfer and going head to head against some remarkably talented people. Bringing the trophy back home with us was the icing on the cake!"
Other achievements at this year’s Games:
The Spirit Team (Mariam Iqbal, Abeer Sami, Michelle Navarro) won one of the spirit events, in which they had to build a maze out of cardboard boxes with the theme of Outer Space for kids from the Ronald McDonald House Charity.
The Dodgeball Team (Ella Cooper, Lianne Davies, Uyen Ta, John Lachapelle, Ihor Brydun) made it to the quarter finals.
“The MBA games is an annual competition of some 500 MBA students from across the country,” says Greg Richards, Director of the MBA program at the Telfer School. “I'm incredibly proud of the MBAs and MHAs who participated this year. We were a small team but made up in spirit what we lacked in size. Congratulations to all students who participated and to the marketing team for a great performance.”
Meet some of the members of this year’s delegation:
Mariam Iqbal was Telfer’s team captain for the MBA Games, which is her main task as one of the MBA Coordinators on the MBA Student Association (MBASA). She says she decided to participate in the sport section of the MBA Games because to her, it represented a great opportunity to meet and network with students from other universities. “It also allows us to display the skills we have learned, representing Telfer,” she says. Mariam says she chose to study at the Telfer School of Management because: “the faculty comprises of experts and well versed professors and mentors, allowing for maximum growth of [her] network and learning beyond classrooms.”
Julio Cam is also one of the MBA Coordinators on the MBASA. He wanted to take part of the MBA Games because he likes to take advantage of every opportunity he gets during his MBA experience to meet new people, to learn new skills and to have fun. Julio says his most memorable experience at Telfer so far has been taking a Marketing class with Professor Michael Mulvey as he says that his classes were not only interesting, but that he always tried to bridge the gap between theory and practice by giving students real life examples.
Uyen Phuong Ta joined the MBA Games to represent her team and school but most importantly, she says that she wanted “to make new connections, think critically and start the new year with a BANG!” Uyen’s five year goal is to work in the healthcare industry as an administrator and making a difference to Canadians by improving the system delivery.
This year is Michelle Navarro’s second year competing in the MBA Games. She says she signed up again, in the Strategy Case Competition, because she had so much fun competing last year. Michelle says that what matters to her is being able to conduct business in an ethical way, and in a way that benefits all stakeholders and employees: “Telfer has managed to show me that you can have a successful business or segment of the public service and maintain moral and ethical integrity at the same time!”
Hala Migahed took part of the MBA Games because she wanted to learn from and share ideas with other students across Canada with similar aspirations. She chose to do her MBA at Telfer because it is offered in French, because teachers have the practical and theoretical knowledge, and the schedule allows her to maintain her full time job. What matters most to Hala is learning from experience to improve herself on a personal and professional level. She says: “The school has helped me learn not just from a book but from real people with real stories and priceless experience.”
Congratulations to whole team for their determination and valiant efforts throughout the MBA Games!
The JDC Central (JDCC) competition took place January 8-10, 2016, in Toronto, Ontario, hosted by the Canadian Association of Business Students. The JDCC competition is one of Canada’s largest business school competitions that brings together 700 delegates from 14 universities across Ontario, Québec and the Maritimes to compete in academic, sporting and social events.
Congratulations to students for winning the following:
Team Awards
3rd place overall, School of the Year
1st place trophy:
Entrepreneurship (Alamin Mollick, Elliott Foley and Osman Wais) Coach: Sara Valentino
3rd place trophies:
Accounting Case (Jenna Curran, Regina Melnyk, Sui Qu)
Coaches: Sheldon Weatherstone, Sylvain Durocher, Nadia Daskalova
Sports – Futsal (Victor Delage, Philip Kijek, Sunny Khorugdharry, Jeff Davies, Maurizio Ferme, Selena Saikley, Madison Cunha and Samantha Mikhael)
Coach: Justin Sweeney
The 28th edition of the Jeux du commerce took place January 8 to 10, 2016, at the University Laval in Québec City, Québec. The Jeux du commerce competition is an interuniversity event that brings together over 1,000 delegates from 13 Eastern Canadian universities to compete in academic, sporting and social events. This year, our students placed 3rd overall and took home the following trophies:
Team Awards
3rd place Overall Standing
Recognition Award – Diane Mugeni
2nd place trophies:
Strategy (Jaclyn Tokarewicz, Drew Morash, Jesse Dunn) Coach: Alan O’Sullivan
Sport – BroomBall (Andre Caissie, Adnan Shaikh, Austin St.Pierre, Cassandra Perrier, Claudine Soucie, Jean-Manuel Turcotte, Joel St-Denis, Mike Shaheen, Myreille Chouinard) Coaches: Max Hébert and Cameron Harvey
Sport - DBL Ball (Jordano Gonzalez, Alexander Hannoun, Fadi Azzi, Max Frost, Michèle Marchand, Mathieu Brunet, Sophie Nadeau, Qusai Saleh, Mira Azzi and Lucas Ghosn) Coaches: Carl Lafleur and Michel Bédard
3rd place trophies:
Debate (Sonia Alb, Roy Atallah, Joshua Ayer, Sarah Morin) Coach: Matt Archibald and Jed Cross
Recruit Case (Vicky Wang)
Social Team (Dominic Piscopo, Natasha Heinz, Channing Junor, Marie Beaupré-Olsen)
The University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management has received EQUIS re-accreditation from the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). The Telfer School remains one of only two business school in Canada to achieve the triple crown of business school accreditations. There are only 73 schools worldwide, as of September 2015, that have obtained this prestigious recognition.
The Telfer School of Management was initially awarded the accreditation in November 2009 and it was renewed in December 2015 for a period of 5 years.
“As Dean of the Telfer School of Management, I am delighted and proud that our School has been conferred the EQUIS accreditation label for a further period of five years. This is a remarkable achievement which confirms that our triple-accredited School meets the highest international standards of excellence,” said François Julien, Dean of the Telfer School. “I am grateful to EFMD for the advice and guidance they have provided since we were first accredited in 2009 and which allowed us to develop and improve.”
“We owe this success to the outstanding work of our professors, the dedication of our academic leaders and administrative personnel as well as the quality of our students and the commitment of our alumni and members of the community at large who have supported the School on its path towards continuous improvement and excellence,” he adds. “Congratulations and thank you to all for this accomplishment!”
EQUIS is the leading international system of quality assessment, improvement and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration. EQUIS is managed and run by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and its fundamental objective, linked to the mission of the EFMD, is to raise the standard of management education worldwide.
Institutions that are accredited by EQUIS must demonstrate not only high general quality in all dimensions of their activities, but also a high degree of internationalisation. With companies recruiting worldwide, with students choosing to get their education outside their home countries, and with Schools building alliances across borders and continents, there is a rapidly growing need for them to be able to identify those institutions in other countries that deliver high quality education in international management.
A total of 87 students divided in groups were responsible for analyzing a case involving a real-life local or Canadian company and report on accounting issues being faced by the subject company. The best teams had to present in a live case competition that took place on December 9th, 2015. The winners received the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (CPA) Case Competition prize for Case Studies in Accounting.
We would like to congratulate the winners:
First Place:
Yassine Benidir
Caroline Carrière
Jesse Dunn
Brandon Graham
Brenda Lim
Alexandre Sauvé
Second Place:
Angela Clark
Jenna Curran
Nikola Karajovic
Alison Lantos
Taylor Anastasia Murray
Thank you to CPA Ontario for sponsoring the event and to our judges: Valerie Carey, Matthew Prime and Stefka Zaharieva.
All students in ADM4350 (Equity Valuation) and ADM4750 (Évaluation d’entreprises) took part in a case competition where they had to estimate the value of a real-life company and propose a course of action that the company should take to solve its problems. This term, the mandate was to analyse the valuation of Hydro One.
We would like to congratulate:
First place winners:
Zachary Baldelli
Wei Gao
Second place prize:
Connor Flack
Brandon Larochelle
Third place prize:
Rose-Lornah D’Or
Charmarke Omar Omar
Sara Saddiki
Best poster Award:
Xinglin Li
Chuqiao Liu
We would like to thank all judges: Kash Pashootan, Homam Alattar, Danika Chilibeck, George André Skaff and Miguel Jutras and Mike Reynolds.
Startup Weekend is a non-profit organization headquartered in Seattle, Washington that brings people together for weekend-long workshops to pitch ideas, form teams, and start companies.
Now in its 2nd edition, Startup Weekend will be held at uOttawa in February 2016 and is geared for current uOttawa students and recent graduates. The objective is to connect students across all faculties to encourage and promote entrepreneurship regardless of discipline of study. We look forward to seeing the different types of innovative ideas that can come to life when students branch out and connect with those around them with different skill sets and areas of expertise.
The event will be held February 26-28, 2016.
Details and registration information to follow
Please contact Stephen Daze, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or ext. 4725
A can’t miss event for students interested in entrepreneurship
“Startup Weekends are an international phenomenon being held in the most innovative cities around the world” said Stephen Daze, the Dom Herrick Entrepreneur in Residence at the Telfer School of Management. “The Telfer School and the University of Ottawa are bringing this event on campus to provide our students an opportunity to learn, network, start a business, meet potential co-founders and much more.”
Entrepreneurs, innovators, makers and those curious about starting a new venture that attend this event will benefit from 54 hours of fast-paced start-up experience working with a team of like-minded students, mentored by seasoned veterans from the local start up community.
“Nowhere else can you experience entrepreneurship/start-up in a more concentrated and curated format” said Stephen Daze. “This venue brings together business students, coders and designers, and provides training and mentoring in a cool atmosphere targeted at creating start-ups.”
The Telfer School’s commitment to Entrepreneurship
We are committed to helping students succeed. For many, success will be starting a new venture or contributing to one as co-founder or team member. We provide the tools and resources you’ll need to learn, network and build your innovation and entrepreneurship skills. In addition to hosting Startup Weekend uOttawa, here are some of the other initiatives that are available:
Entrepreneurship Bridges Speaker Series – Co-hosted with the Faculty of Engineering, this 5-part annual speaker series is targeted at students looking to or considering entrepreneurship. The speaker series features local young entrepreneurs who tell their start-up stories and act as a source of inspiration, education and mentoring. The series is also the home for other entrepreneurship-related announcements and competitions such as the final pitches in the Entrepreneurs' Club Elevator Pitch Contest. The series averages 150 students per session and includes the formal talk or panel, as well as networking and refreshments.
Entrepreneurship Foundry Course - The Entrepreneurship Foundry is a new Telfer-led initiative that brings together collaborators from across campus to build, manage and deliver a semester-long, for-credit course that sees participants apply for entry in order to start a venture over 13 weeks. Working in multi-disciplinary teams, students will learn from experts in lecture and workshop environments and complete evaluated work leading to the start of their new venture. It is anticipated that the course will see 25 students in the first session scheduled for Fall 2015.
Telfer Business Traction Competition – Now in its second year, this business competition is a new take on traditional business plan competitions. It's open to full-time undergraduate students at the Telfer School of Management and/or teams comprised of at least 50% Telfer students. It is not about ideas and proposed business plans, it’s about traction. Contestants will demonstrate the achievement of real milestones towards starting, or validating their business ideas as well as realistic goals moving forward. Applicants can be at any stage of their business idea but must be able to demonstrate real milestones completed and future goals. External judges will determine the winner based on actual work to date and planned milestones. $10,000 in prize money is available to be won.
The CPA Ontario Intopia Strategy Simulation is an exciting and integrative learning opportunity for BCom students, as part of their 4th year Strategic Management class, and for MBA students.
From November 11 – 15, 2015, 39 BCom teams and 9 MBA teams participated in this simulation at the Telfer School of Management’s Desmarais Building.
Congratulations to the members of the winning BCom team
Brandon Brown
Euan Smith
Kelsie Throop
Andrea Howland
Filipus Tjong
Congratulations to the members of the winning MBA team
Alexandre Beaudoin
Wendy Hopkins
The CPA Ontario Intopia Strategy Simulation has been a component of the BCom’s 4th year strategy course for close to 20 years. It aims to teach students the concepts of strategic management in a simulated online world known as Intopia. The simulation allows students to practice their skills in a concentrated amount of time where they can get immediate feedback on their decisions.
This capstone activity has recently been renamed to recognize CPA Ontario’s comprehensive contribution of $370,000 to the Telfer School to support students, teaching and research.
This blog post was submitted by Linda Mouhamou, BCom student.
Leave everything you know about conferences at the door, including a dress code, because when it comes to C2 Montreal’s international conference you can certainly expect them to defy the conventional. Imagined by the Sid Lee creative agency and founding Partner Cirque du Soleil, C2 brings a sensational avant-garde approach connecting intellect with immersive experiences through the dynamic interaction of commerce and creativity.
From May 26 to 28, I was able to represent the Telfer School of Management as one of 100 student delegates from across Canada at this prestigious event. My stimulating experience commenced as I was greeted by a large artistic display of hanging doors that guided me into the contemporary “Innovation Village”, a completely transformed industrial warehouse. C2 exclusively created a mesmerizing venue to ooh and ahh the crowd of ambitious visitors. There were clothing boutiques, exhibits fusing art and technology, activities, scrumptious and artsy food displays, creative seating arrangements, and of course, the always impressive C2 Labs. The labs were out-of-the-box workshops that used virtual reality, a gigantic nest, a fog-filled igloo, and chairs suspended over an 5 meter high net. But it didn’t end there. Making my way outdoors, the circus-like decorum, complete with a Ferris wheel and ship container booths for VIP sponsors instantly made you feel like a big kid. This made it the perfect location for the evening social networking, performances, and the massive final celebration.
All the activities, including over 37 keynote speakers and 30 workshops, were devised around this year’s central theme: choices. Each day conversations took place around food, health, and energy by examining how innovation, social entrepreneurship, investment and technology are shaping our future as a society. The key takeaway of the conference seemed to be the importance of instrumenting projects by building eclectic teams, from strategists to musicians, creatively driving change.
On day one, it quickly became evident that despite setting the bar very high, this year’s C2 had missed the mark in terms of instilling inspiration and delivering valuable content. Nevertheless, being surrounded by 5,000 executive attendees representing 42 countries was enough to give me an adrenaline rush. I wanted to meet everyone! Thus, the biggest lesson that I learned was how rewarding it can be to adapt and turn unfavorable situations into even bigger opportunities. ‘What matters’ to me, as the new Telfer brand goes, is personal development and expanding my network. So, I quickly turned my disappointment around in time for day two by re-strategizing and re-focusing my energy on drawing inspiration and content from dating – ‘brain-dating’ that is. ‘Brain-dating’, the buzzword of the conference, is like your typical online matchmaking tool designed to connect people together to share their life experiences, with one key difference: it’s done platonically.
Now, I should note that I was attending this conference alone, an intimidating feat even for an outgoing person. But it presented a clear benefit: I would be pushed to approach more people, and I could do so at my preferred pace. First, I did my homework. I spent hours every day searching through the participant profile database to find my ideal matches, get to know more about them, discover where sponsors were located, and which attendees were attending what workshops. The next step was reaching out to people I wished to meet. I either requested a ‘brain-date’ on the C2 portal, via social media or I simply approached the keynote speakers at the end of their presentations. Finally, it was time to have fun networking! I had the chance to ‘brain-date’ the CMO of Deloitte Canada in the VIP container, the President of Sid Lee Toronto, the Innovation Leader at PwC, and the Senior Insight/Strategy/Innovation Director at Marriot International.
Although I had the privilege of meeting with these high profiled individuals, I made a point to value each attendee, from students to strategists, equally. Everyone has something to offer, be it as a new friend, business contact, or an opportunity to be exposed to that person’s network. Leaving my resume at home gave me the power to expose my vulnerabilities while paradoxically demonstrating my know-how to these truly fascinating human beings. This resulted in genuine open-minded conversations about career and life paths, and facilitated the exchange of ideas, insight and knowledge.
Post-conference, I find myself with potential business partners for my consulting work, mentors, “ins” in my job pursuit, more ‘brain-dates’ and opportunities waiting to happen. I entered C2 Montreal expecting to have my mind blown with its grandiose approach, but at the end of the day, it was the conversations I shared through networking that evoked the powerful effect. This conference proved to be exceptionally invaluable for ‘what matters to me’. I can’t wait to return next year as a volunteer!
N.B. Presale tickets are on sale for 50% until September 30, 2015. Next year, Martha Stewart and Dr. David Suzuki have already been confirmed as keynotes.
What do Queen’s, Cornell, Princeton, Columbia, Peking and the London School of Economics all have in common? These are just some of the schools who were surpassed by Telfer’s team in the 2015 Rotman International Trading Competition (RITC). Following an intense two days of competition (Feb. 20 – 21), among 50 different teams from across the globe, Telfer’s team emerged 9th. This is all the more impressive considering that the competition was largely made up of graduate-level students in finance and quantitative engineering.
This year’s team consisted of six of our highest-performing finance students: Ian Harten, Cassy Aite, Malanga Mposha, Ethan Zhang, William Tu and Daniel Shannon and 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 the Financial Research and Learning Lab was likely to have seen these team-mates preparing for the competition. This 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. Even on the train ride down to Toronto, the team continued to fine-tune its strategies.
RITC is an annual competition that pits teams of finance, economics and mathematics students against one another in six intense competitive events.
First among them 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.
The Optiver Options case, in which the team finished 9th, had the team 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 Sales & Trading case, in which we finished 10th, 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 S&P Capital IQ Equity Valuation case consisted of building a discounted cash flow model for four companies. As news items were released during the competition, updates had to be incorporated in to the model. As these new data emerged, players traded all four stocks to exploit possible market mispricing.
The Algorithmic Trading cash, in which the team finished 9th , 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, Ethan Zhang, sequestered in a closed room.
The most colourful competition was definitely the Quantitative Outcry Case, in which Telfer placed 2nd. This involved two team members acting as market analysts and incorporating market data in to a model of four 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.
This was only the second time for Telfer to participate at the competition, and they saw a huge improvement from last years’ 40th place finish. The practice, hard work and dedication played an instrumental role. Those on the team that are not graduating are already thinking about next year’s competition. However, no one is guaranteed a returning spot, they must all earn their spot next year. The bar is set high for a top 5 finish in 2016. A special thanks also goes to the Telfer Marketing Department, SFUO and Career Centre for their help in funding the expenses of attending the competition.
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