October 2024

Dear colleagues,

I hope you’re enjoying the beautiful autumn colours as we pass the halfway point of fall term. Lots of great things are happening at our School and I’m delighted to share them all with you. I invite you to take pride in our accomplishments and celebrate each other’s successes.

Celebrating our successes

Shuffle results

I am so proud to share that the John Molson team not only reached its initial goal of $6,000 but more than doubled it by raising an incredible $12,170! This put us among the top teams at this year’s event in support of our students.

You can see photos here and read more about the success of this year’s Shuffle in this Concordia news story. Special thanks to our team captain Alexandra Karnezis, executive secretary to the dean, for motivating us to be part of this great cause.

Rankings

We continue to improve in a number of rankings. Recently, our MBA was ranked number two in Canada by Bloomberg Best B-Schools MBA ranking. That’s up two spots from last year. You can get more details here. In addition, we placed in the top 10 in the category of business program reputation in Canada according to Maclean’s 2025 University rankings.

The QS Business Master’s Rankings 2025 show strong results as well: our MSc in Marketing ranked 2nd, MSCM 3rd, MSc in Management 5th, MBA in Investment Management 6th and MBA 8th in the country. All these rankings are a great source of pride that we should all take to heart. Bravo!

Hosting events

Open House

I’d like to acknowledge the efforts of our faculty, staff and students who participated in Open House on Saturday, October 26. Thank you for sharing your time to showcase all that our School has to offer. You are our best ambassadors, and we appreciate you!

Dean’s Homecoming reception

Concordia’s 50th anniversary celebrations kicked off with our homecoming reception on September 19. We focused on the impact of our case competition program with two panel discussions. I had the pleasure of moderating the first panel, where I was joined by the Honourable Senator Tony Loffreda (BComm 85) and Ken Brooks (MBA 99), senior vice-president, EY Orenda Corporate Finance Inc. The two talked about the many ways they have been involved with our case competitions and imparted some wisdom to the audience.

The second panel, with Nora Baronian, director of the undergraduate case competition program, and two alumni who participated in our case program – Sara Cholmsky (BComm 23) and Lisa Malachowski (MBA 23), was moderated by Tim Field, director of the MBA case competition program.

All our speakers agreed that the case program has put John Molson on the map as a school to beat. It was a great way to highlight the strength of our case competition program. We also premiered a video of students talking about their experiences with the case competition program. You can view it here and see photos from the event here.

Lise Watier Foundation graduation ceremony

On September 23, we celebrated our Lise Watier Foundation graduates. We are always so proud to host the graduation ceremony for participants in the Lise Watier Foundation Let’s Start Up program and we wish these women the best in the future. The goal of this initiative is to offer courses on entrepreneurship so the participants can develop their business acumen and assume their financial freedom.

Career Management Services career fair

The annual CMS career fair, hosted by Desjardins and held at the beautiful Windsor Ballrooms on September 23, was a huge success with over 60 companies and almost 800 students! When I spoke to employers, they said again and again that this is the best career fair hosted by a business school in the entire city. A huge congratulations to the entire CMS team for putting together such a wonderful event. Check out photos from the career fair here.

Case competitions

Congratulations to the Kenneth Woods Portfolio Management Program students who secured 1st place in the inaugural Canadian Student Investment Fund Case Competition. The program is celebrating its 25th anniversary and this is a great way to kick off the occasion.

Convocation

At our October 15 convocation ceremony, I had the pleasure of meeting our honorary doctorate recipient Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, a truly inspiring woman and a pioneer of India’s biotechnology industry. It was also Jonathan Wener’s last ceremony as Concordia’s chancellor, a role he held for the last 10 years. We are grateful to Mr. Wener for his time, support and generosity towards our community. I want to thank everyone who attended in support of our students. It’s always such a joy to see their smiling faces and to acknowledge this major achievement in their lives. You can see photos from our ceremony here.

Partnership with emlyon business school

As part of our strategic goal to cultivate strong and sustainable partnerships, we were proud to host members from France’s emlyon business school on October 17. We’re embarking on an exciting collaboration and look forward to the value it will bring to our students. This new initiative is aligned with our previous partnership with NEOMA with whom we have established a double degree at the undergraduate level.

Dean’s Awards call for nominations

These annual awards recognize faculty and staff members who go above and beyond in their efforts to support the School and the John Molson community. Read through the nomination and eligibility criteria and return the nomination form with supporting documents to Kelly Hall, coordinator, special projects and events planning, via email no later than November 8, 2024. You still have time to nominate a great colleague of yours.

Save the date: The Dean’s Awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, December 5, 2024. Come celebrate our awardees!

Recognizing the contributions of staff and faculty

Internal academic appointments and renewals

My congratulations to Eva Lagou, ETA in accountancy, on her reappointment as director of the CPA program, and to Li Yao, associate professor in accountancy, on his reappointment as director of the MBA and graduate programs. I would like to thank Reena Atanasiadis, ETA in finance, for accepting the directorship of the Van Berkom Case Competitions for this academic year.

Big congratulations to Jordan LeBel, professor in marketing, on being named director of the John Molson Case Publications initiative. He is replacing Raymond Paquin, professor in management, who successfully launched it six years ago and secured an important partnership with Ivey Publishing, allowing all cases written by a John Molson faculty member to be co-branded with our logo next to Ivey’s showing on the case materials. More than forty cases have already been published since this new partnership and several case writing workshops have been offered on a regular basis over the years. I am confident that Jordan will continue this wonderful momentum that enhances our reputation.

Jordan is also the new academic director of the John Molson Executive Centre. As announced last year by email, JMEC is now under the purview of the Centre for Executive and Professional Development, led by Isabel Dunnigan. Jordan will be our academic representative and contribute to the promotion and outreach of JMEC and its activities among faculty members and JMSB partners. I want to sincerely thank Sandra Betton, associate dean, professional graduate programs, who oversaw JMEC’s operations, working closely with the team that is now working with Isabel’s team.

Arman Sadreddin, assistant professor in BTM, is now the director of John Molson Perspectives. I would like to thank Ehsan Derayati, ETA in management, who successfully launched this initiative in collaboration with Kathleen Boies, former associate dean of research and research programs, and UCS in March 2023. With dozens of articles already posted, this great platform allows us to share practical, relevant and impactful research findings with the broader community.

Finally, Denis Schweizer, professor in finance, has been named scientific director of our new Climate Business Institute.

All the best to everyone in their appointments and thank you for all your work!

External academic appointments

Claudine Mangen, professor of accountancy, was recently invited to join the 2024 Chair on Gender by the Institut du Genre at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France. The chair was created to promote research and research collaborations on gender inequalities. Congratulations Claudine!

BSAC end of mandate

The annual conference of the Business Schools Association of Canada was held in Carleton, Ontario last week where deans and associate deans gathered to share best practices and discuss the business education landscape. We are all struggling with the same reality: decline in enrolment, especially in MBA programs, and the negative impact of the various regulations regarding international students and immigration. It also marked the end of my contribution to the BSAC board, after seven years of service. I started as the Quebec regional director for one year, followed by three consecutive mandates of two years each as vice-chair, chair and past chair. It was a great honour to represent our school and a privilege to work with esteemed business deans from across Canada.

Staff changes

Bertha Magalhaes started in the position of PhD program assistant in the Office of the Associate Dean, Research and Impact. Bertha joins us from enrolment services. Note that she recently completed our Graduate Diploma in Business Administration. Welcome Bertha!

Lori Feng joins us as advisor, student academic services in the Office of Undergraduate Programs. Lori was also in enrolment services where she previously held the role of academic scheduling analyst. Welcome Lori!

Michelle Sarrazin started her position as department assistant for Supply Chain and Business Technology Management. She joins us from the Ombudsman and Rights and Responsibilities Office.

Closing Remarks

As you can see, there are a lot of great things happening in our school and our colleagues are very involved and engaged in activities that help us grow and have a positive impact on our internal and external community. I am so grateful for everyone’s contributions, public or private. Please don’t hesitate to nominate someone for the Dean’s awards as indicated above.

Continue to keep in touch about successes happening in your unit by contacting our Communications Manager Taylor Tower at taylor.tower@concordia.ca. After all, it is part of our 2023-2026 strategic plan to share and celebrate our successes. I would also like to remind you that we have presentation materials for our strategic plan on the JMSB SharePoint site. You’ll also find the plan available to read in full.

Warmest regards,
Anne-Marie Croteau, PhD, CDir
Dean