Kingston, ON – May 21, 2013 – Five Queen’s School of Business scholars have had their research projects funded by Canada’s two major national research funding agencies, it was announced in April.

Jane Webster, Sandy Staples, Michael Welker, and Jean-Etienne de Bettignies are being supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), while Chialin Chen’s work attracted the attention of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

The two agencies offer substantial, multi-year funding for ground-breaking research. Applications are peer-reviewed, and the grant process is highly competitive.

Click here for details on their research projects which include investigations on:

* Persuading employees to be environmentally responsible with social media;

* Accounting data manipulation in international trade disputes;

* Product market competition and innovation; and,

* Analyzing smart grid systems design decisions with dynamic pricing, innovation diffusion, and policy control mechanisms.

Outstanding students, professors and staff recognized

Kingston, ON – April 5, 2013 – The Commerce graduating class was out in full force to celebrate the end of their four-year journey. The Dean’s Scene — an evening of presentations, a few speeches and a reception in the Bio-Sciences building — brought together the Commerce Class of 2013, faculty and staff for the festivities.

Class Valedictorian Ben Jain gave a thoughtful and rousing speech, and the following awards were presented by Dean David Saunders.

* Comm’74 Award — for contribution to the class during their four years in non-academic, non-athletic matters, to Nicola Plummer.

* Comm’96 Award —for contribution to the spirit of the graduating class in its final year, to Katherine Moraca.

* Outstanding Contribution to Student Success — to the IT Help Desk.

* Comm’89 Award —the Professor-Student Life Award, to Professor David McConomy.

*Commerce Society Teaching Excellence Award — to Professor Peter Kissick.

Jeffrey Ralphs, Comm’14, KRG Racing

KINGSTON, ON – Mar. 29, 2013 – Jeffrey Ralphs, Comm’14, took top honours at the annual Paul and Tom Kinnear Business Plan Competition held March 28 at Goodes Hall. His venture, KRG Racing, is a paddling equipment company that engineers, manufactures, and markets high performance products to help flat-water paddlers of all levels excel in their sport.

Says Jeffrey, “The competition served as the impetus for me to develop and write a comprehensive business plan with a clearly defined strategy and execution plan. I was able to bring to life the skills and knowledge I gained through my Commerce studies in the process.”

Jeffrey faced some challenges in competing. He is on exchange in Australia, studying at the University of Adelaide.

“Being on exchange on the other side of the world and delivering my presentation at 1:00 a.m. over Skype wasn’t easy, but it all came together,” he says.

Established in 2008 by Dr. Tom Kinnear, BCom’66, LLD’02, the competition awards the winning team $5,000 to launch or further the ongoing operations of its venture. Each year, teams that comprise at least one QSB Commerce student submit their business plans. After a preliminary round, the final four teams present to a panel of judges that selects the winning team.

This year, the judges were: Jane Wu, BCom’12, a past winner and co-founder of Penyo Pal, a mobile application that teaches English, French and Mandarin language skills; Dr. Shyam Ramchandani, a Queen’s adjunct professor in Opthamology and CEO of Lab-2-Clinic Solutions Inc.; and Elspeth Murray, BSc’85, MBA’87, Associate Dean, Queen’s School of Business and Director of the Queen’s Centre for Business Venturing.

KINGSTON, ON, April 8, 2013 – After nearly a century of innovation, Queen’s School of Business is blazing another new trail with the introduction of a re-designed 12-month MBA program. The versatile new approach allows students to stand out with career-focused options matched to their individual goals. These include specializations in high-demand sectors, the ability to rapidly earn an additional business Master’s degree, and a January start date allowing for optimal alignment with corporate hiring cycles. 

“Queen’s School of Business has always been known for innovation, and now we’re creating a better way to experience the MBA,” said David Saunders, Dean, Queen’s School of Business. “Queen’s MBA delivers the personalized experience our students want, and the elite candidates global recruiters seek.” 

After acquiring key business fundamentals in the first half of the program, in the second half students have the opportunity to choose from several areas of specialization, such as Consulting, Finance, Entrepreneurship & Innovation or Marketing and Sales. Those who specialize will earn both a Queen’s MBA and a Graduate Certificate in the area of specialization.

Students aiming to elevate their credentials even more can apply qualifying MBA credits towards a second, specialized Master’s degree in Law or a business-focused discipline, such as Finance or Management Analytics. Conversely, candidates also have the flexibility to pursue a specialized Master’s degree first, and later apply qualifying credits from that degree towards a Queen’s MBA.

“Like any good business decision, the changes we’ve made to the Queen’s full-time MBA were driven by the needs of the market. This is the MBA degree business wants,” said Shai Dubey, Program Director at Queen’s School of Business. “Our community of students, alumni, faculty and recruiters told us about the importance of greater specialization, flexibility and the ability to stand out with enhanced credentials, and we’re delivering.”

“In today’s complex, evolving global economy, we’re looking for graduates who possess knowledge that goes beyond the fundamentals and into emerging areas such as management analytics,” said Jim Leech, President and CEO, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. “The move by Queen’s School of Business to incorporate more specialization into its MBA program answers that need, and we’re looking forward to meeting their grads.”

Recruiting is now in full swing for the January 2014 intake of the new MBA program. In addition to the new program enhancements, the re-designed MBA will continue to offer its existing suite of popular program features such as: Career and Lifestyle Coaching, International Exchange Programs, Personal Coaching and Experiential Learning opportunities.

“Both students and alumni told us these core features were essential to the Queen’s experience,” said Dubey.

For more information on the new 12-month MBA program and corporate Canada’s perspective on the new full-time MBA at Queen’s, check out the latest video at qsb.ca/newmba or visit queensmba.com.

About Queen’s School of Business:

Queen’s School of Business is one of the world’s premier business schools—renowned for exceptional programs, outstanding faculty and research, and the quality of its graduates. Canadian executives regard Queen’s as Canada’s most innovative business school, offering students academic excellence and a superior overall experience. Queen’s School of Business—where Canada’s first Commerce program was launched in 1919—is located at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. The School also delivers programs at locations across Canada, as well in the U.S. and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

For more information please contact:

Amber Wallace
Queen’s School of Business                
613.533.3151
awallace@business.queensu.ca

Nick Pateras and Carolyn Saunders

TORONTO, ON – Mar. 26, 2013 – Two QSB Commerce students captured second place honours at the seventh annual Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec (CNTAE) competition. Carolyn Saunders and Nick Pateras shared $5,000 in scholarship funding from Chevrolet Canada as well as a Microsoft prize package.

This nationwide case-study competition drew 200 entries from students at 30 universities, so the competition was fierce. Contestants were tasked with developing a marketing plan for the 2013 Chevrolet Equinox in Canada.  Two students from the University of Guelph won the grand prize of two 2013 Chevrolet Cruz LTZ RS.

The CNTAE competition is dedicated to providing experiential learning opportunities for students interested in the marketing and advertising industry. The top ten finalists had the opportunity to interview for internships offered by GM, PepsiCo and Canadian Tire.

The competition is entirely student-run with the support of sponsors and advisors. For more information, visit http://www.topadexec.com, http://www.facebook.com/cntae, or follow the competition on Twitter at @TopAdExec.

“QSB faculty generate a lot of content that we believe will be of great interest and value to the business community,” says the project’s leader, Dr. Jay Handelman, Associate Dean of Research and MSc/PhD Programs.  “The new platform makes these resources accessible in one central location.” 

Thought-provoking articles, white papers and research briefs distilled from professors’ academic research cover a wide variety of business topics. Videos of presentations from visiting scholars and business executives enable qsbinsight.ca visitors to ‘listen in’ on a lecture and learn from renowned experts in a variety of fields. Free webinars featuring QSB professors discussing a range of business topics are also available. Not only can visitors download archived sessions, they can also register for upcoming free webinars.

The user-friendly site is searchable by topic. Users can then review all of the resources in that subject area, regardless of the medium.

The launch of QSB Insight is just the first step. Jay and his team are keen to increase the level of the website’s interactivity to fully engage users in discussion and debate.  “Our goal is that QSB Insight will become the “go-to’ site for leading-edge thinking in all aspects of business,” he says.

Natalie Fisher and Gary Tam compete at the NCSC in Atlanta

KENNESAW, GA – Mar. 4, 2013 – Commerce students Natalie Fisher and Gary Tam made quite an impression on judges at the US National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) at Kennesaw State University, outside Atlanta, GA.

Gary placed fourth overall while Natalie placed 7th in a field that comprised 134 competitors representing 67 universities across the US (QSB was the only international  team that competed at the undergraduate level.) Based on a points system, QSB placed second overall in this prestigious annual competition, now in its 15th year. The pair were coached by QSB sales and marketing faculty member Jim Hamilton.

The NCSC is the largest and oldest role-play sales competition in North America.  The format of this year’s competition required students to become subject matter experts on corporate sponsor ADP’s first free mobile payroll app and then role-play closing the deal with a potential client, all the while facing numerous objections and distractions.

KINGSTON, ON – Mar. 25, 2013 – Throughout much of the month of March, Commerce students exercised their entrepreneurial chops in support of a good cause. The annual Queen’s Micro-Credit Challenge is a student-run micro-financing initiative that gives budding entrepreneurs experience in running their own businesses, with profits from these ventures benefitting Kiva, which offers micro-loans to entrepreneurs in developing nations. 

Teams create and operate their businesses for one week, using $100 provided by the Commerce Society as start-up capital. More than 25 students from various faculties participated, fielding eight teams who had access to QSB faculty mentors to help guide their efforts. 

This year’s winning enterprise is Knots for Kiva, led by Kathy Sihavong (ArtSci’16), Jenna Ellis (ArtSci’16), and Sarah Chin (Con-ed’16), mentored by Jean Paul de Silva, MBA’10, Founder and Managing Director of Social Focus Consulting.

They produced hand-made charm bracelets from string and common items provided by sponsor Canadian Tire.  By integrating social entrepreneurship and sustainable practices into their business project, Knots For Kiva successfully raised more than $650 in profits.

KINGSTON, ON  – Mar. 20, 2013

Organized by the Commerce Society, this year’s event attracted 80 Commerce students who rolled up their sleeves and helped with renovation efforts at Dawn House Women’s Shelter and Martha’s Table by painting many of the rooms. Students at Canadian Cancer Society also helped in making donation boxes and rolled over 20,000 pennies.

Speakers Tania Carnegie, Joyce Sou of the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing,
Norm Tasevski of Venture Deli, and Adam Spence of the MaRS Centre’s Social Venture Exchange Project.

KINGSTON, ON – Mar. 16, 2013 – A full weekend of speaker presentations and discussions on social innovation attracted 45 Queen’s Commerce, MBA, Arts & Science, and Policy Studies students to the inaugural Social Innovation Bootcamp at Goodes Hall on March 15 and 16.

The bootcamp, hosted by the QSB Centre for Responsible Leadership, was designed to teach students how to drive social change in their careers and in society using tools for social innovation central to both social intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship.

The Centre brought together a roster ­­­of nine inspirational speakers including Tania Carnegie, Executive Director, Community Leadership at KPMG, Russ McLeod, Chief Operations Director of Me to We, and Andreas Souvaliotis, Founder of AIRMILES for Social Change.

The Centre intends to continue to convene events around the topic of social enterprise, an emergent field that speaks to students’ growing interest in finding innovative ways to put their business acumen towards social good.