Queen’s MBA team Green Gold members Ben Reynolds and Adam Grahn

Queen’s MBA students, Ben Reynolds and Adam Grahn, were second place finishers in the Sustainable Technology Track at the 2009 McGinnis Venture Competition at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business.  The McGinnis Venture Competition revolves around emerging industries such as information technology, biotechnology, sustainable technology, robotics, nanotechnology and telecommunications. Participation from top business schools from across the US and internationally included teams from Lund University (Sweden), Dartmouth College, and Boston University.

Ben and Adam’s venture, Green Gold, will rehabilitate mine tailings from abandoned gold mines as many of these tailings are contaminated with toxic wastes that have a terrible impact on the local environment. Green Gold will bid on government contracts to clean up the tailings by processing them and removing the metals to rehabilitate the mine sites.

Other top five finishes by this team were at the University of Nebraska’s New Ventures World Competition where they placed fourth behind University of Louisville, MIT and the University of Texas. To view Green Gold’s presentation at the McGinnis competition click here.

(l to r): UCLA presenting sponsor Rick McAlpin, Parsons Corporation, Dr. Scott Carson, Ben Reynolds, Karim Hemani, Brenna Donoghue, Adam Grahn, Farnaz Shahed

A team of Queen’s School of Business MBA students took home first place and $25,000 at the 2nd annual Global Business Leadership Competition hosted by UCLA Anderson School of Management. The GBLC is a two-day, invitation only, case competition featuring MBA students from 16 top business schools from around the world including HEC School of Management (France), London Business School (UK) and University of Chicago Booth School of Business (USA).

Teams competed in three case modules focused on leadership issues in the global environment.  This competition addresses dilemmas faced by global leaders by engaging student teams in interactive, task-oriented scenarios that simulate leadership challenges. Participants heard from keynote speakers Amit Tripathi, president and CEO, Pyxix Corporation and Jeff Berg, Chairman and CEO, International Creative Management, Inc.

The second place prize of $10,000 went to National University of Singapore Business School while University of Chicago Booth Business School took home the $5,000 third prize. QSB teams have proven their superior leadership skills for two years running receiving second place honours in last year’s GLBC.

Representing Queen’s School of Business was Adam Grahn, Ben Reynolds, Farnaz Shahed, Brenna Donoghue and Karim Hemani. Faculty advisor for the team was Dr. Scott Carson, Director, Queen’s MBA and Professor of Strategy.

In its inaugural year, Queen’s Commerce Initiative Abroad (Q’CIA) took a group of Queen’s School of Business students abroad to volunteer over Reading Week. Q’CIA is an internal committee of the Commerce Society that aims to empower young business students to become more globally active and aware. Its core mission is to engage, inspire and motivate business students to develop a connection with the nations and people in need of our support and aid around the world. This year, Q’CIA was composed of 25 Queen’s School of Business first and second year students, led by Co-Chairs Adam Mitchell and Heather Gorham (BCom’11).

The group spent time in the capital city of Ecuador named Quito. Throughout the trip, Q’CIA worked to improve the infrastructure of a child day care centre painting murals and adding a fresh coat of paint to their playground materials. The team leveled out their playground area and laid seed in order to give the children the opportunity to play safely on grass. They also created a concrete area for the kids to play, which was one of their greatest wishes. On top of the work Q’CIA did on the playground, they were able to help the staff at the child day care centre with food preparation, feeding, teaching classes and giving the children as much attention as possible.

The trip was a success and the entire Q’CIA committee felt they had a cultural, eye-opening experience and also made a valuable contribution to the child care centre in Ecuador. The team is looking forward to planning future events.

At the Queen’s School of Business Commerce Society Annual General Meeting, a motion to ratify Oil Thigh Designs (OTD) as the Commerce Society’s first official business passed unanimously. For Canada’s largest undergraduate business student society that hosts 14 national and international conferences and competitions, while operating 20 internal committees, entrance into the operation of businesses is the next area of strategic growth in its mission to enhance the Queen’s Commerce experience by representing student interests, inspiring leadership and empowering students to pursue their passion.

OTD operates three lines of business: retail, customized clothing and Commerce leather jackets. Similar to the Commerce Society, employees of OTD receive no financial compensation for their services, but amass critical business and leadership skills, while ultimately enhancing the undergraduate experience of themselves and their customers, in alignment with the objectives of the Commerce Society. The Commerce Society Executive approached the management team to begin discussions after recognizing the mutually beneficial synergies of OTD joining the Commerce Society.

At the Annual General Meeting, OTD Co-Manager Natasha Zelmer and Strategy Coordinator Michael Brewer presented their strong financial situation and strategic outlook for the business. Commerce Society President Matthew Price and incoming President Spenser Heard recognize that OTD offers an important service to Queen’s students, and offers Commerce students the ability to embrace an opportunity different from the current offerings of the Commerce Society. OTD will be governed by the newly introduced ‘Policy on Business Enterprise’ with immense future prospects by leveraging the infrastructure and network of the Commerce Society.

A team from Queen’s Executive MBA in Ottawa were the first prize winners in the New Venture competition of the Queen’s EMBA and Cornell-Queen’s EMBA programs.

This is the first year the two New Venture program competitions were combined to allow for a larger prize total and a wider geographical range of competitive teams. The competition is unique as it features teams of Queen’s Executive MBA participants from across Canada and the US presenting their business plans to be judged via video conferencing.

The esteemed judges are members of the business community in Kingston, Ontario and included Dwayne Dulmage of Business Development Bank of Canada, Steve Gammon of KPMG and Mark Hanley of the Kingston Economic Development Corporation. The Queen’s Centre for Business Venturing sponsors the cash prizes for the top two teams.

The top team and $10,000 cash award winners were Shelley Dooher and Lo Chiang Cheng. Aided by their prize money, their new venture plan has now become a reality with their company, School Ready Supplies, up and running. This Canadian company specializes in pre-packaged school supplies for elementary aged students. The company aims to reduce the stress of equipping students with back-to-school supplies by offering customized kits at affordable prices, while providing school councils with an attractive fund-raising opportunity. Their idea took shape in the New Ventures and Management Consulting Project courses during their Queen’s EMBA program.

Joost Wentick, from the Montreal EMBA, won the second prize of $5,000 for his new venture Xoopla, a “wiki” where visitors can learn all about products and services from each other.

(l to r): Queen’s MBA team Epitherapeutics members Ryan Son Kee, Amit Bhalla and Shyam Ramchandani

A team of Queen’s School of Business MBA students took home the grand prize of $25,000 in a recent win at the 2009 IBK Capital/Ivey Business Plan Competition. Team Epitherapeutics, which is developing an anti-cancer drug, was judged best of the business plans from twelve teams from universities across Canada. Recent competitions saw the team tied for second place splitting an $8,000 prize at the University of Louisville and tied for 3rd place at the University of San Francisco receiving a $1,000 prize in addition to patent and legal advice from a San Francisco law firm valued at $5,000.

Selected from over 300 business plan teams from around the world, the MBA team comprised of Shyam Ramchandani, Ryan Son Kee and Amit Bhalla will travel to Houston, Texas this April 16-18 to compete against 36 international teams for more than $800,000 in prizes at the ninth annual Rice Business Plan Competition. This event remains the largest and richest, graduate-level competition in the world. FORTUNE Small Business and CNNMoney.com will again cover the competition. Teams will be profiled on CNNMoney.com prior to the competition and winning teams will be featured in the June issue of FORTUNE Small Business.

In May, the team moves on to be the sole Canadian representatives at the Global Moot Corp Competition at the University of Texas. Known as “The Super Bowl” of world business plan competitions, the team will have the opportunity to compete against graduate students from around the world for up to US$100,000 in cash and prizes to start their new venture.

Queen’s School of Business student, Michael Koichopolos is one of four new members admitted to the Tricolour Award Society this year. The Agnes Benidickson Tricolour Award is the highest tribute paid to students for service to the University in non-athletic, non-academic extra-curriculars. This year’s recipients were: Aaron Myran (ArtSci ’09), Eveline Traxler (Nursing ’10), Allison Williams (ArtSci ’09) and Michael Koichopolos (Commerce ’09). Michael served as School of Business student Senator and member of the ComSoc Board of Directors, Speaker of AMS Assembly, and President of the Main Campus Residence Council for the past two years.

Critical economic development challenges faced by Eastern Ontario’s rural communities are the focus of a major conference at Queen’s University on April 8th. Community leaders will join academics and policy makers to discuss Eastern Ontario’s changing economic landscape at the 2009 Knowledge Impact in Society (KIS) Showcase at Queen’s School of Business.

Led by The Monieson Centre,  the 2009 KIS Showcase brings together leading researchers from Queen’s and other universities, the Prince-Edward/Lennox & Addington Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC), the Eastern Ontario CFDC Network, Inc., and over thirty community and government partners to discuss issues including tourism potential, developing a green economy, and creating vibrant downtowns.

Keynote speaker Dr. Robert MacKinnon, Vice-President of the University of New Brunswick’s Saint John campus, notes Canadian regions “which have for many years depended on manufacturing and industry to sustain their growth, and which are now experiencing stable or declining population bases, are struggling to chart new directions for the future.”  During the day, Dr. MacKinnon will relate how university-community partnerships can lead to renewed business development for these communities in a changing economic climate.  Other speakers include Queen’s University Principal Tom Williams, Queen’s Vice-Principal (Research) Kerry Rowe and Kingston Mayor Harvey Rosen.

The event will also highlight how Queen’s School of Business is helping Eastern Ontario make the transition into a new economy.  “Our goal is to assist businesses throughout Eastern Ontario and across Canada by putting academic knowledge to practical use,” said Dr. Yolande Chan, Director of The Monieson Centre.  The Centre’s research includes the Creative Communities blog, which discusses how Eastern Ontario can compete in the emerging creative economy.

The full conference program and list of speakers is available at http://www.easternontarioknowledge.ca/.

Queen’s School of Business was awarded first place at the fourth annual Technology Strategy Business Case Competition hosted by Boston University School of Management and sponsored by Ericsson. Teams from the world’s leading MBA programs were invited to participate in the 24-hour case competition and tasked with solving a market challenge focusing on technology in business strategy and operations.  Adam Gordon, Luba Protopopova, Jason Vopni and Farnaz Shahed took home the grand prize of $25,000 after delivering what one judge stated was “the most logical, reasonable and possible strategy that was delivered crisply and clearly, showing tremendous team alignment and spirit.”