Jamie Robinson (BCom'03) is in as the new CFO of Liberty Leaf Holdings, and is replacing outgoing CFO and Director P. Joseph Meagher.
Mr. Robinson is a chartered accountant with experience in auditing and financial analysis at Deloitte, Whistler Blackcomb, and Corinex Communications. He is joining a company that supports the cannabis sector on several fronts, including growing, research and supply-chain solutions.
Cannabis company INDIVA Corporation is actively navigating the process of becoming licensed to cultivate medical marijuana. As part of its business activities, the company has entered into a reverse-takeover deal with Rainmaker Resources Ltd., which includes equity funding of $15 million that is partly earmarked for helping INDIVA expand its production facilities.
INDIVA was founded by President and CEO Niel Marotta (BCom'96) who previously served as a resource-company executive and an investment banker. The new company aims to be listed on the TSX.
A two-person team from Quebec has brought home first place at the annual Championnat de d茅bat francophone at the 脡cole Normale Superieure in Paris.
One of the team members is Desautels student Djavan Habel-Thurton (BCom'17), who was VP of the First Year Council 2014-2015, as well as President of the Jeux du Commerce 六合彩开奖结果 in 2016.
Andrea Courey (BCom鈥�82) was newly divorced, with three kids to feed and no money in the bank when she started Grandma Emily鈥檚 Granola. She credits her BCom education with giving her the tools she needed to get through the early days of her business, but notes that real-world experience is a very different thing than classroom knowledge.
After less than a year at the job, Ericsson Senior VP and head of North American operations Rima Qureshi (BCom鈥�87, MBA鈥�96) has left the company. Chief Strategy Officer Niklas Hueveldop has stepped in on an interim basis, and the company has started the search for a permanent replacement. Ericsson is in the midst of a turnaround, streamlining operations and bumping up its investment in R&D.
J. Pearce Bunting聽 (BCom'52) grew up during the Great Depression, then rose through the ranks of his father鈥檚 brokerage firm to become president in 1967. Ten years later, he became president of the TSX and modernized the operation by introducing a computerized trading system.
The technology was immensely unpopular with old-guard floor traders, but times were changing鈥攁nd Mr. Bunting is now remembered as having been good for the exchange. Patrick Mars, who ran Bunting鈥檚 old company, said that 鈥淯nder his watch the exchange prospered and did well.鈥�
Rima Qureshi (BCom'87, MBA'96) knows all about learning to adapt. In an interview with Desautels Professor Karl Moore, she says that as a highly analytical, self-contained decision-maker, her position as senior VP and North American head of Ericsson has taught her the importance of listening, getting others involved in decision-making early, and finding a common position to build on.
Congratulations to Desautels undergraduate students: Evan Coulter, Valentyn Litvin, Meagan Prins, and Marina Simonian who won the top prize at the prestigious PRMIA International Risk Management Challenge- marking a second consecutive victory for the Faculty at this competition.
鈥淚鈥檓 not looking at fashion through a Canadian lens, or even a Western lens, but a global lens,鈥� says Imran Amed (BCom'97). Indeed, he doesn鈥檛 even look at it through the eyes of someone who grew up steeped in fashion. Mr. Amed started Business of Fashion as a personal blog while he was working as a management consultant with zero fashion training. Today, his London-based site is the go-to source for news-hungry glitterati.
West Vancouver-based PNG Gold has announced the appointment of Wesley Marstaller (BCom'05)聽as Executive Vice President of the corporation. Before coming on board at PNG Gold, Mr. Marstaller served in several capacities at the Macquarie Group, then as COO of the Rennie Group. PNG Gold CEO Greg Clarkes praises Mr. Marstaller, saying that his expertise will help with 鈥渂uilding the management group necessary to achieve the Company鈥檚 near and long term goals.鈥�
PNG Gold is a mining company specialized in gold exploration in Papua New Guinea.聽
Northleaf Capital Partners has brought former Goldman Sachs banking analyst Simon Bibeau聽(BCom'15) on board to perform market research and asset management duties in its infrastructure team. Northleaf Capital is a Canadian private-markets investment firm with over $9 billion in private equity and offices in Toronto, Chicago, Menlo Park and London.
For reading week, Desautels Associate Professor Karl Moore took a group of students on the ninth edition of the Hot Cities of the World Tour, which is an annual trip that gives 30 六合彩开奖结果 undergrads and alumni a close-up view of the cities and towns powering some of the world鈥檚 fastest-emerging economies.
As Kevin Donovan enters his second year as head coach of a high-school lacrosse programme, he talks about his first game with the team, improving the squad鈥檚 place in the standings, and how accountability helps student athletes develop into adulthood.
Business partners Audrey Bolduc and Mitalie Makhani won the 2015 Dobson Cup with their pitch to make fertilizer from used coffee grounds. Now CEO of GroundIt, Ms. Bolduc returns to judge the 2017 Dobson Cup. She sat down with The Dobson Chronicles to talk about her company鈥檚 all-natural fertilizer, her incredible experience as a Dobson Cup contestant, how her time at Desautels has moulded who she is as an entrepreneur, and just what possessed her to found a startup while she was still in school.
An undergraduate team from Desautels came home from a case competition in Portugal with an invite to go back for a month-long project aimed at making the city of Porto more attractive to startups. The prize is doubly sweet, as neither the team nor the officials saw it coming. Team member Aarushi Kumar says that 鈥淚t was not something we were expecting and it was not something the organizers were expecting to do, either.鈥�
