Schulich Alum Shares His Experience, and More – Toronto News
Toronto’s business schools have seen some exciting developments from students, alumni, and faculty this week. Let’s take a look at some of the high points.
Alumni Stories: Michael Zanella – MMgt – Schulich School of Business
A Schulich School of Business alum was recently profiled on his time in the school’s new 12-month Master’s of Management program.
Michael Zanella, a 2017 graduate, who turned his education into a role with Ceridian Dayforce as an Implementation Consultant Associate. You can watch his full interview below.
Wine, Beer, Spirits Brand-Builder WX Names Michael Lukan CFO – North Bay Business Journal
Michael Lukan was recently named the official new CFO of WX Brands, a company that creates wine, beer, and spirits. Lukan, an alum of Western University Canada’s Ivey Business School, co-founded Wine Hooligans in 2013. He has also worked at Purple Wine Company and Sonoma Wine Company. With news of the Lukan’s arrival at the company, WX Brands President and CEO Peter Byck says, “His well-rounded experience and entrepreneurial mindset will make him a great asset for WX Brands to continue to build on our tremendous growth.”
Regarding his new role, Lukan says, “Peter and the WX team have positioned the company for tremendous growth by delivering an exceptional customer experience and I’m looking forward to helping realize this opportunity.”
You can read more about Lukan and WX Brands here.
What Is Less Scary in the Dark? – Scientific American
Ping Dong, a Professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and Chen-Bo Zhong, Professor at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, recently conducted a study that examined the, “impact of visual darkness on people’s perceived risk of contagious-disease transmission.” The researchers predicted that the darkness would make people feel more separate or insulated from one another, so they would be less squeamish about the germs of those around them. In fact, the study concluded that being in a darker environment would make subjects reduce their caution when it came to unethical behavior, of which might include cheating on one’s significant other and other acts of selfishness.
Their research showed that perceived risk of contracting airborne illnesses decreased when participants were in more dimly-lit rooms, as well as when they were wearing sunglasses. “In addition,” writes Scientific American writer Cindi May, “visual darkness increased participants’ perceived distance from the confederate, and this increase in distance mediated the reduction in perceived risk of contagion in the dark. Their fear of non-contagious diseases did not depend on the lighting.”
You can read more about the duo’s research here.
Future U.S. Relations, Fullbright Scholars, and More – Toronto News
As summer roles on through North America, lets take a look at what has been going on at Toronto’s business schools.
Lessons in Chinese History As America Shuts Off From the World – The Conversation
Walid Hejazi, International Business professor at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, recently wrote about how the possible trajectory of the U.S. under President Trump would be similar to that of China’s downfall in the 1800s.
Hejazi warned that Trump’s isolationist actions, such as his rejection of the Trans Pacific Partnership and imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, could close the U.S. off to the rest of the world.
“There is a clear contradiction between ‘make America great again’ and closing off from the world,” Hejazi wrote in The Conversation. “If the U.S. closes itself to the world, its future as a world leader in every way is at significant risk.”
You can read the entire Hejazi’s piece here.
CIBC Mellon Appoints Karen Rowe Chief Financial Officer – CIBC Mellon
Investment services company CIBC Mellon has announced that Karen Rowe will fill in as the brand new CFO. Rowe is also an acting member of the Advisory Council for the School of Accounting and Finance at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management. In a recently released statement, Rowe says:
“CIBC Mellon is well-regarded by institutional investors as Canada’s leader in asset servicing, and I am proud to join the company and support its financial management. I am looking forward to contributing to CIBC Mellon’s strong operational execution, service excellence and continuous improvement.”
You can read more about Rowe’s role at CIBC Mellon here.
Fulbright Scholar Award Powers Adam Fremeth’s Energy Policy Research – News@Ivey
Ivey School of Business Associate Professor Adam Fremeth has been officially named as the newest Fullbright Canada Scholar Award winner—the first school recipient to earn the award since 1990. He will be joining Indiana University in the U.S. from January to May of next year, “where he’ll research how electric utility firms are interacting with state regulatory bodies as well as the impact of energy policies, particularly in the area of renewable energy,” according to an Ivey press release.
Ivey Associate Professor Adam Fremeth, the newest Fullbright Canada Scholar Award winner / Photo via ivey.uwo.ca
“A lot of my work deals with energy policy issues in the U.S. and being in Indiana and the Midwest more broadly allows me to get exposed to a lot more of those issues and to interact with, not just the academic community, but also the business and public policy communities they serve,” Fremeth said in the release. “I hope to bolster my research agenda, get some firsthand interactions in the areas I’m studying, as well as perhaps broaden my work with exposure to what people outside of Ivey and Canada are doing.”
You can read more about Fremeth’s work and the award here.
Toronto Playoff Success Is Good For Business, and More – Toronto News
Playoff Fever for Leafs, Raptors Fans – CityNews Toronto
With the NBA and NHL playoffs about to begin, Schulich School of Business sports marketing professor Nitish Bissonauth talked about the underlying financial positives of repeated playoff appearances. Which is pretty good news for the Toronto Raptors and Maple Leafs.
Watch the video below, via CityNews Toronto.
Golf and Tennis Executive Raises His Game After Earning MBA – The Globe & Mail
David Main, the general manager at the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club, has held senior management positions at various Ontario golf and tennis clubs for the past 10 years. He credits his MBA education from Western University Canada’s Ivey Business School with giving him the tools he needed to thrive in this field. Due to Main’s use of his MBA education to pursue a career in the golf and tennis industry, The Globe And Mail featured him in its most recent addition to a series on graduates utilizing their MBAs in non-traditional fields.
“Mr. Main says he started his MBA at 34 and was part of a small group of students at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., who were about 10 years older than the rest of the class. He felt comfortable enough in the room – and more comfortable than the year prior, when he took a few undergrad business classes to brush up on basic concepts alongside 18 and 19-year-olds—until he said what he did for a living.”
“‘I was the oddball,’ he admits. ‘We’re going around the room and introducing ourselves. And there were people in finance at TD [Toronto-Dominion Bank], working at KPMG, working with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and I was like, ‘I’m a golf professional.'”
Read more about David Main’s trajectory here.
The Global Housing Crisis – CityLab
Richard Florida, the Rotman School of Management professor and director of cities, along with Benjamin Schneider, recently wrote with CityLab about how the housing crisis has moved beyond a regional issue into a truly global one.
“The global housing crisis reflects a fundamental paradox of contemporary capitalism. Cities around the world are more economically powerful and essential than ever. This creates tremendous demand for their land, leading to escalating housing costs and competition.
Meanwhile, housing has been financialized and turned into an investment vehicle, which has caused an oversupply of luxury housing and a lack of affordable housing in many cities across the world. The global housing crisis is defined by a chronic shortage of housing for the least advantaged, and in many cases, for the working and middle classes as well.”
The two also noted that the perceptions of the world’s most expensive cities to live is a bit misguided. “The world’s most unaffordable housing markets are not New York, London, and Los Angeles, or even San Francisco, but Hong Kong, Sydney, Vancouver, and Melbourne,” they write. “London, Toronto, and Brisbane are also high up the list. Housing is also terribly unaffordable in Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Moscow, Paris, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Geneva, Rome, Milan, and Barcelona, according to other studies.”
A sweeping view of Villa 31, Buenos Aires / Photo via Natacha Pisarenko/AP
You can read more from Florida and Schneider here.
Get Ready for These March MBA Deadlines
Be on top of the MBA application process and submit your graduate school applications in a timely fashion. Getting applications in early can increase your chances of scholarships and other not-to-miss opportunities when applying for your MBA. Here’s your guide to the March MBA deadlines in some of the biggest metros. Continue reading…
