Building a home for the Goodman School of Business
Goodman family sees return on investment
Student makes Goodman Summer 2018 experience her own
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Dean’s message
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Goodman family sees return on investment
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Goodman students see competition success
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International exchange leads to a world of opportunity
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Goodman student gains global perspective
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Goodman signs unique international co-op partnership with UN
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Goodman’s in the house
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Goodman by the numbers
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Student makes Goodman experience her own
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Ambition knows no borders
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Alumni join network of close-knit grads
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MSc students showcase research at 3MT competition
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Usman Raja: Distinguished Scholar of the Year Award
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Abdul Ashraf: Emerging Scholar of the Year Award
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Pascale Lapointe-Antunes: Goodman School of Business Excellence in Teaching Award
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PUBLICATION MANAGER Susan LeBlanc
DESIGNERS Jenny Halinda, Sal Sidani
WRITER Jane van den Dries
PUBLISHER Goodman School of Business
PRODUCTION Brock University St. Catharines, Ontario ISSN 2561-6706 (Print) ISSN 2561-6714 (Online) goodman@brocku.ca
Cover: Interior rendering of the Goodman School of Business expansion project
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DEAN'S MESSAGE It gives me great pleasure to introduce our new publication, Goodman: The Magazine. This publication will proudly report the activities of our students, staff and faculty, as well as the global community that regularly interacts with us. Since my arrival in August, we have had many exciting advances and I am proud to share some highlights with you in this first issue. The big story at release of this issue is our building’s expansion and renovation. Last fall, I had the honour of touring the construction site with Ned, Dan and Anthony Goodman, sharing with them our vision for the School. Today, we are into the final stages of construction, and I am pleased to report I am writing this message from the new Office of the Dean, and we remain on schedule. Also this year, Goodman students once again showed their strength in both undergraduate and graduate case competitions. In this issue, we highlight the 17 medals won across several categories at DECA U Provincials, and an ICBC second place. When it comes to JDC Central, it was the weather that dominated, since the event was cancelled due to winter storms, and so we were unable to defend our School of the Year (which means the trophy remains on display within the Goodman School of Business). We continue to witness our students shining on an individual basis with stories of great accomplishments, such as BBA student Olivia Poulin, who was among 18 in Canada chosen for CEOx1Day. This is a unique CEO-shadowing program run by search consultancy firm Odgers Berndtson, and Oliva had the exceptional opportunity to work with PayPal President Paul Parisi. Our MSc students were able to showcase their research at 3MT, a research-based competition, where student Ali Anwar was selected as a finalist. In this issue, we also recognize some of the accomplishments of our alumni and faculty and I am confident you will see the impact the Goodman School of Business is having in the broader community. I hope you enjoy viewing this summer issue of Goodman: The Magazine and welcome your comments.
Andrew Gaudes, PhD, ICD.D Dean Goodman School of Business
Summer 2018
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Aerial rendering of the Goodman School of Business expansion project. Right: Goodman School of Business Dean Andrew Gaudes, Ned Goodman, Dan Goodman, Anthony Goodman and Project Lead Ken Klassen look over the plans for the Goodman expansion project.
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GOODMAN FAMILY SEES RETURN ON INVESTMENT
F
or Dan Goodman, seeing the Goodman School of Business building under construction is a point of pride. The founder and CEO of investment counsel firm GFI is the son of Ned Goodman, who established the Goodman School of Business in October 2012 through a transformational gift from the Goodman Family Foundation. At that time, Ned Goodman, who was in the midst of his 10-year term as Brock's Chancellor, told The Brock News, “We did not do this to be celebrated or for publicity, but because during my time as Brock’s Chancellor, I have come to know that the Faculty of Business is a stellar operation, often hitting above its weight class.” The announcement that the Goodman name was backing the business school had an immediate effect, as it became clear that Brock’s Faculty of Business had attracted the attention of one of Canada’s most respected businessmen. The Faculty of Business had spent years bolstering a healthy track record that included a strong co-op program, experiential Service-Learning programming, strategic partnerships and case competition success. Now that it had a name, the business school was ready to tell the world about its achievements. A crowd of close to 200 enthusiastic students, alumni, faculty and staff gathered to celebrate the gift, kicking off a flurry of marketing and communications efforts that resulted in the Goodman community embracing their new identity. Since 2012, the Goodman School of Business has hired 16 additional faculty members, significantly expanded its staff roster, accepted a record number of students — providing hundreds of them with scholarships — and built its brand as a robust business school that is prepared to meet the needs of today’s students and employers. One of the biggest milestones was in 2015, when the University announced it would undertake a capital expansion project, which would include additions and renovations to significantly update the Taro Hall building that houses the Goodman School of Business. In September 2017, Ned Goodman toured the construction site with his son Dan and his grandson Anthony. “It was very special to walk through and see the fruits of everybody’s labour, and it was a moment of extreme pride for us,” Dan Goodman said.
“We’re passing this on to a third generation now, so it’s a great sense of accomplishment for the Goodman family to see what’s come of the Goodman School and where it’s headed, especially given the new facilities and the incredible management and teaching that’s occurring there.” The Goodman family joined Goodman School of Business Dean Andrew Gaudes on the tour. “Andrew has a ton of energy and enthusiasm to carry the Goodman School forward, so we're extremely excited and confident that there’s going to be some great new initiatives for the School that will really set us apart,” Dan Goodman said. The succession of the Goodman family’s involvement through the generations is important for the School’s success, Gaudes said. “We’re extremely privileged to have the Goodman name associated with our School and to have the family engaged in its activities. “For Ned to put his name behind the school through a commitment and investment is a tremendous honour for us, and to see that sustained through the succession of interest in younger generations underscores our appreciation and humility in the kind of confidence that’s being given to us by such a well-respected name in Canadian finance.”
“
It was very special to walk through and see the fruits of everybody’s labour, and it was a moment of extreme pride for us.
”
– Dan Goodman
Summer 2018
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GOODMAN STUDENTS SEE COMPETITION SUCCESS
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n the end, countless hours of preparation boiled down to a single 15-minute window. And during those critical moments on an international stage, two Goodman School of Business students proved they work well under pressure. Clara Fennuk and Preya Parikh placed second at the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition hosted by Queen’s University from Jan. 18 to 20 in Kingston, Ont. As Canada’s oldest and longest-running undergraduate business case competition, the event attracts student competitors from all over the world. Fennuk and Parikh competed in the human resources category after successfully passing the preliminary round with their written case analysis, which they prepared over two weeks. Based on the written submissions, only a handful of teams — seven at most — are chosen to compete in each category. Fennuk and Parikh’s report advanced them to the final round, which included an in-depth analysis of a complex human resources case — this time under a time crunch. With the timer counting down from 15 minutes, the pair presented their recommendation after spending five and a half hours in an isolation room, where they analyzed the case and prepared a
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presentation. The competitions are designed to test students’ problem-solving and oral communication skills through cases that describe real-life challenges faced by companies. For both students, the experience was an exhilarating one that provided them with a chance to network with industry professionals and business executives. During the same week, a team of Goodman students was also attending a provincial DECA competition. With a seasoned veteran at the helm, they had one goal in mind: victory. Fourth-year accounting co-op student Simran Arora led the charge and helped her peers lay claim to 17 medals at the DECA U Provincial competition held in Toronto from Jan. 19 to 21. More than 1,300 students competed in the fast-paced event that tested their analytical and communication skills in several categories. Students were given short, realistic business scenarios and had just 15 minutes to understand the problem and formulate a recommendation to pitch to industry professionals. Arora took the reins as President of Goodman DECA — the University’s chapter in the DECA U Ontario organization — last May and started recruiting and training students in September.
The Brampton native helped train her team for at least six hours every week, ramping up training to as much as six hours per day as the competition drew near. And it paid off. Seventeen students came away with medals in either individual or team events, a total that broke the Goodman team’s historic record for the number of students receiving awards. “Our team was hardworking with a winning attitude from the beginning,” Arora said. “Their efforts really showed at the competition.” More than 10 students, apart from the ones who placed, received marks above 90 per cent for their presentations. “Our team’s scores show how competitive the event was and how well they did individually. I’m so proud of them,” she said. In addition to training the team, Arora also won first place in the Project Management Institute Case Boss event with her teammates, Zaman Dubey and Arusa Mithani. Separate from the standard 15-minute cases, the Case Boss challenge requires students to prepare a case analysis in the month prior to the competition. This marks the third consecutive year Goodman students have won the unique challenge.
FULL DECA RESULTS The following teams received medals for their final award standings:
FIRST PLACE • Project Management Institute Case Boss Challenge: Simran Arora, Zaman Dubey and Arusa Mithani • Sports and Entertainment Marketing: Kido Okeleke and Mile Peles
SECOND PLACE • Business Law: Riya Barot and Vishrut Shah • Business to Business Marketing: Shanen D’Souza and Natalie Tosello • International Marketing: Jasman Bisram and Avneet Rehal
TOP 5 The following students received medals for placing in the Top 5 of their individual categories: • Corporate Finance: Shehryar Khalid and Eric Shelton • Human Resources: Charnjot Brar • Restaurant and Food Services: Preami Navaranchan • Travel and Tourism Marketing: Brennan Froud and Jayna Sutaria
Left: Goodman School of Business students Clara Fennuk and Preya Parikh won second place in the human resources category at the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition hosted by Queen’s University from Jan. 18 to 20. Above: Under fourth-year accounting co-op student Simran Arora’s leadership, a team of Goodman students came away from the DECA U Provincial competition with 17 medals. Right: Goodman students Riya Barot and Vishrut Shah arrive on stage to accept their award for second place in the business law category at the DECA U Provincial competition held in Toronto from Jan. 19 to 21.
Summer 2018
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“
...I began to see what career opportunities I could have in Europe.
”
– Jingwen Luo
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE LEADS TO A WORLD OF OPPORTUNITY
J
ingwen Luo (BBA ’13) had a specific reason for choosing the Goodman School of Business. Hailing from Chengdu, China, Luo’s goal was to earn a Canadian business degree with co-op work experience before returning home. Her decision was easy after learning about the strength of Goodman’s co-op program, where students graduate with 12 to 16 months of relevant work experience. However, once Luo got to Goodman, something she had not anticipated changed the course of her life and further shaped her career. Half a world away from home, learning a new culture and studying in a second language became second nature for Luo. It was an experience she repeated in her fourth year when she joined the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar, Germany as an international exchange student. “That exchange made me more adaptable and empathetic and gave me the ability to see things from different perspectives,” she said in a Skype interview. Although her classes were in English, she started to pick up German. Nearing the end of the semester and reluctant to leave a new country she had fallen in love with, Luo used her connections at WHU to secure a five-month internship at Henkel in Dusseldorf. “The internship made the exchange even
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more valuable for me because I began to see what career opportunities I could have in Europe,” she said. After coming back to Goodman to finish her bachelor’s degree, Luo had her heart set on returning to WHU for the Master of Science in Management. Once she was accepted, she looked for a way to repeat the international student experience once more. This time, she chose Sydney, Australia. “I knew how valuable my German exchange was, so naturally I wanted to do another one and see a new continent, which is why I chose to study for three months at the University of New South Wales,” she said. Now in the final year of her master’s degree, Luo works as an intern in global procurement at BASF while writing her thesis on supply management in collaboration with the chemical company. Looking ahead to a career in international business, she recognizes the life-changing effect Goodman’s exchange experience had. “If I didn’t go on exchange, I wouldn’t have had the internship at Henkel, which is what led to me settling here in Germany,” she said. Right: Jingwen Luo touring the Eurotower in Frankfurt, Germany, during an international exchange semester.
GOODMAN STUDENT GAINS GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE S
econd-year BBA Dual Degree student Mila Race’s international experience is just beginning. The St. Catharines, Ont. native chose Goodman for its unique BBA Dual Degree program. During their studies, students split their time between Goodman and one of three European partner schools while gaining co-op experience in Canada and Europe before graduating with degrees from both universities. Race will travel to Ireland in September, where she will study for the next two years at Dublin City University, but that didn’t stop her from seeking an additional international experience. At the end of her first year, Race participated in a short-term summer exchange program at Toulouse Business School, where she spent six weeks in Toulouse, France and Barcelona, Spain. “I wanted to prepare myself to live in Ireland for two years by experiencing a shorter international program, because I had not travelled on that scale by myself before,” she said. “It taught me how to navigate conversations when I’m unfamiliar with other cultures and it made me more independent and a better leader when I pushed myself out of my comfort zone.”
GOODMAN SIGNS UNIQUE INTERNATIONAL CO-OP PARTNERSHIP WITH UN
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rock University’s Goodman School of Business is the first business school in Canada to form a co-op partnership with the United Nations Association in Canada (UNA-Canada).
The new partnership will make it possible for Goodman students to work at a United Nations agency on an eight-month co-op work term, starting in September, while receiving up to $1,000 from Brock’s Co-op Education office and an additional $8,000 in financial support from the business school resulting from the Goodman Family Foundation gift made to the school in 2012.
important elements in addressing global needs,” he said. “Through this collaboration, our students have a wonderful opportunity to be placed around the world to be prepared for a wide variety of needs. We’re addressing individual students’ personal and professional fulfilment objectives and recognizing that they are interested in participating and contributing in a meaningful way beyond the boardroom.” Past junior professional consultants have worked for the United Nations Development Programme in Cambodia, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Peru and International Organization for Migration in Ghana.
In its 23rd year, UNA-Canada’s International Development and Diplomacy Internship Programme includes a network of more than 600 Canadian youth who have worked in various roles in many countries around the world.
Like all Brock University co-op work terms, UNA-Canada co-op opportunities will be evaluated to ensure students are provided with valuable transferable skills that are relevant to their degrees.
Although the internship program has connected hundreds of interns with international work opportunities, this is the first time UNA-Canada has partnered with a university co-op program.
The program will also help students launch careers in international business and give them an understanding of Canada’s role within the United Nations system.
The partnership opens a world of possibilities for students who could be placed in any country while working as a junior professional consultant in a specific area of business including business analytics, finance, accounting, strategic communications and international trade. Goodman School of Business Dean Andrew Gaudes said the partnership means students will have access to opportunities that will give them a global perspective. “We recognize that non-governmental organizations and social responsibility are
Selected students will be provided with pre-departure training and orientation sessions and will be coached by UNA-Canada throughout their work term. UNA-Canada President and CEO Kathryn White said the partnership will make a lasting impression on students who are selected. “UNA-Canada is very pleased to work with our valued partner, Goodman School of Business, to provide remarkable international development experiences for Canadian youth with our UN partners where they will get to accelerate their careers and build long-lasting networks,” she said.
Summer 2018
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Crowds gathered in front of Schmon Tower to sign a steel beam slated to be included in the Goodman building Feb. 16, 2017.
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GOODMAN’S IN THE HOUSE
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t business case competitions like JDC Central, a business school’s cheer becomes very important. Students practise shouting it in unison in preparation for the competition, and once there, they learn the cheers of all the other schools as a show of camaraderie and support. In fact, students often return from competition hoarse from all the cheering.
The new building will feature 79,000 square feet of new and renovated space, six new and nine refreshed classrooms with state-of-the-art technology, a large twostorey engagement atrium, five employer interview rooms, a Bloomberg financial research lab, graduate student study space, faculty research space and additional offices.
After Brock’s Faculty of Business was named the Goodman School of Business in 2012, it was time to update the cheer.
Goodman and Brock partnered with Cooper Construction Limited and +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.) on the project. Construction crews broke ground in September 2016. They poured the foundation and put up the structural metal skeleton. Before being raised, the final beam was wheeled over to the front of Schmon Tower on a chilly February morning where the Goodman community was invited to make their mark on the building by signing their name.
Students quickly adopted: one student shouting “Who’s in the house?” and the rest of the team responding, “Goodman’s in the house,” repeating the banter three times in quick succession. It was an announcement to business students all over Canada that the Goodman School of Business had arrived and was there to prove their mettle and live up to their name. But in a literal sense, Goodman was outgrowing its home. Goodman’s physical building, Taro Hall, was quickly becoming outdated and too small as the business school expanded. The solution came in 2015 when Brock University announced it would complement funding from the Goodman Family Foundation’s transformational gift to expand and renovate Taro Hall. The Government of Ontario stepped forward with a $10-million commitment. Contributions from BMO Financial Group, KPMG, Deloitte, Wormald Masse Keen Lopinski LLP and others followed. A building committee was formed. Blueprints were drawn up, renderings developed and timelines planned. Everything was meticulously chosen, down to carpets, classroom seats and office chairs.
The overall project was split into two main phases: expansion and renovation. When the additions on the west and east ends of the building were ready to be turned over for the business school’s use, construction crews turned their attention inward as they began to renovate everything in between the two additions. Ahead was a significant challenge: there was not enough space on campus to move faculty and staff out of the building while renovations took place. Faculty and staff are moving offices in waves to allow for pockets of the building to be renovated with minimal disruption. Carpets were ripped up, walls were painted and new furniture installed. It’s full steam ahead to finish the project that will bring a prominent, modernized facility on board. It won’t be long now until Goodman is, in fact, in their house.
Summer 2018
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With the help of a large crane, construction workers from Niagara Rigging and Erecting Company Ltd. hoisted the steel beam bearing the signatures of more than 1,000 members of the Brock University community into place July 25, 2017, embedding it into the school’s structural support. Below: Ironworkers walk a fine line 40 feet above the ground as they assemble the atrium framework Jan. 27, 2017.
MORE THAN
1,000 PEOPLE
FROM THE GOODMAN COMMUNITY ADDED THEIR SIGNATURE TO THE FINAL STEEL BEAM.
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$22-million EXPANSION PROJECT
FEATURING • 79,000 square feet of new and renovated space • Six new and nine refreshed classrooms with state-of-the-art technology • Large two-storey engagement atrium • Five employer interview rooms • Bloomberg financial research lab • Graduate student study space, faculty research space and additional offices
PROFESSOR KEN KLASSEN TAKES ON GOODMAN PROJECT LEAD ROLE A
n important part of the leadership team for the Goodman School of Business Expansion Project is Goodman Professor of Operations Management Ken Klassen. With a passion for scheduling and knowledge of the construction industry from his summers spent framing houses while he was a student, Klassen proved to be the right person for the role. As Project Lead, Klassen spends his days switching between teaching, attending building-related meetings and spending time on the construction site in his hard hat, safety vest and steel-toed boots. Klassen facilitates the collaboration between the Goodman School of Business and Brock’s Facilities Management department, Cooper Construction and +VG Architects. Klassen is a Goodman alumnus (BAdmin ’87) who discovered a passion for operations management as an MBA student. “I took an introductory operations class in the first semester of my MBA and realized that’s the way my brain works,” he said. “It’s really about becoming more efficient and more effective – doing things faster, cheaper and better. I just fell in love with operations and the scheduling and layouts that are part of it.” Klassen holds a PhD in Operations Management from the University of Calgary and teaches project management at Goodman.
Summer 2018
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GOODMAN BY THE NUMBERS 2018 UNDERGRADUATE ENROLMENT BY DEGREE BAcc (Co-op)
704
BBA
of all Brock students (international and domestic) are Goodman students
1,023 TOTAL
2,825
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM APPLICATIONS INCREASED BY 8% since the previous year
BAcc
350 BBA Dual Degree
BBA (Co-op)
107
18.29%
16.61% of all Brock undergraduate students (international and domestic) are Goodman students
641
UNDERGRADUATE ENROLMENT PER YEAR 2860
2774
2013/14 2840
2787
2014/15 2820
2 840
35.48% of all Brock graduate students (international and domestic) are Goodman students
2015/16
2800
2 855
2016/17
2780
2 854 2017/18
2760 13/14
14/15
15/16
16/17
17/18
2018 GRADUATE ENROLMENT BY DEGREE
39% of all international undergraduate students at Brock are Goodman students
MBA ISP
200 GRADUATE PROGRAM APPLICATIONS INCREASED BY 47% since the previous year
TOTAL
590 MBA
MAcc
236
62 MPAcc
MSc in Management
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73
69% of all international graduate students at Brock are Goodman students
GOODMAN STUDENTS ON EXCHANGE 2013 / 2014
43 50
2014 / 2015
70
2015 / 2016 2016 / 2017
65 83
2017 / 2018
NUMBER OF STUDENTS ENGAGED IN EXPERIENTIAL SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECTS
NUMBER OF FACULTY MEMBERS 128
118
126
3000
118
2500 2000
121
122
2015/16
1500
12 3
1000
2016/17
120
12 8
118
2017/18 13/14
14/15
15/16
16/17
17/18
3433
2013/14 2014/15
124
3500
2 017 17 2 0 1269
1315
13/14
14/15
500 0 15/16
16/17
17/18
IN GOOD COMPANY
Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (CPA Ontario)
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International)
Member of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD)
Chartered Managers Canada
Summer 2018
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STUDENT MAKES GOODMAN EXPERIENCE HER OWN
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s she looks back on her university career, Olivia Poulin recognizes how much her time at Brock has shaped her. The fourth-year business student from Niagara Falls, Ont. joined Goodman because she wanted to pursue a career in business. But she wasn’t content to simply go to class in her quest to earn a business degree. Instead, she wanted to play an active role in her school and her community. Now, as she prepares to graduate, Poulin has taken time to reflect on the personal and professional development she has experienced in the last four years. She started by getting involved in Goodman student clubs, including the Brock Marketing Association and Goodman Student Ambassador Association, which led to her taking on an executive position in her second year. Poulin also competed in JDC Central, Canada’s largest undergraduate business school competition, and the Grant Dobson Case Competition hosted by Brock’s Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film in the Faculty of Social Sciences, where her team placed first for their marketing and advertising pitch to raise awareness of brain disease. Following these successes, she then gained eight months of work experience at the Government of Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation in the Corporate Services Division. As she was searching for her next co-op opportunity, Poulin learned about the Deborah E. Rosati Entrepreneurship Award. The award, generously donated by Goodman alumna Deborah Rosati (BAdmin ’84), was established in 2014 to make it possible for students to spend four months in the summer working as full-time entrepreneurs. Poulin had already started working on her idea for Pupadise Inc., a personalized inhome pet care service. After receiving the award, she received $10,000 in funding, support services, mentoring, networking opportunities and office space in BioLinc — Brock University’s business incubator run by the Goodman School of Business. It proved to be a springboard, allowing Poulin to spend her summer dedicating her full attention to the business. With more than 300 clients in the Niagara region and a full team behind her, Poulin has since incorporated her business and is well on her way to success. Poulin also presented her business to four prolific investors at Monster Pitch, a competition modelled after CBC’s hit TV show Dragons’ Den and hosted by the Brock Innovation Group in partnership with Goodman and BioLinc. In recognition of her ongoing business success and entrepreneurial mind, Poulin
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was nominated for a Niagara Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Everything was looking up. Then, something happened that took things to another level. She was one of only 18 students in Canada chosen for a unique job-shadowing program that matched top university students with CEOs of leading companies. The CEOx1Day program, led by search consultancy firm Odgers Berndtson, matched Poulin with Paypal Canada CEO Paul Parisi. Her dream of becoming a CEO was suddenly much closer than she thought. The pair spent the day together on March 6 at PayPal Canada’s office in Toronto. Jacqueline Foley, Odgers Berndtson’s Chief Marketing Officer, said the program was designed to uncover Canada’s future leaders. “Students have the opportunity to observe what makes a great leader, how business decisions are made and how CEOs surround themselves with good people. They also get actual insight into the business, as the CEOs will often share their vision and plans for the business throughout the day.” The selection process was a rigorous one, comprised of a psychometric test, a phone interview and a half-day office visit where students navigated one-on-one speed interviews and group dynamic exercises. Foley said multiple factors are taken into account before the final 18 students were selected. “We look for well-rounded students who have ambition and who have done more than just academics in their university careers,” she said. “Through the psychometric testing, we look for things like resiliency, ambition, sociability, curiosity, group leadership, teamwork — things we know are key characteristics important for today’s leaders.” Poulin said her time at Goodman prepared her for the rare opportunity. “I got involved at Goodman at the beginning of my first year, and I feel like all the experiences I’ve had in the last four years have led me here,” she said. Poulin’s journey demonstrates that students can shape their experience, said Goodman School of Business Dean Andrew Gaudes. “Olivia is an excellent example of a student who has taken hold of these opportunities and has seen tremendous success as a result. “Who we are as a business school and a leader in experiential education drills into the very fibre of the opportunities students, like Olivia, have both inside and outside the classroom,” he said.
“
I feel like all the experiences I’ve had in the last four years have led me here.
”
– Olivia Poulin
Left: Goodman student Olivia Poulin. Above: Poulin spent a full day shadowing Paul Parisi, PayPal Canada CEO, through Odgers Berndston’s CEOx1Day program. Right: Poulin pitched her company, Pupadise Inc., at Monster Pitch on April 3, 2017.
Summer 2018
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AMBITION KNOWS NO BORDERS FOR GOODMAN GRAD
ALUMNI JOIN NETWORK OF CLOSE-KNIT GRADS
I
W
f there’s one thing Andrews Moses (MBA ’11) knows, it’s that ambition has the ability to transcend borders. Thirteen years ago, Moses was an engineering student at Anna University in India. Fast forward to 2018, and he’s an entrepreneur who serves international clients from a digital solution company he runs in St. Catharines, Ont. “From a young age, I had a desire to be my own boss while helping my community,” he said. The Chennai, Tamilnadu native chose a degree in engineering without a clear idea of what his future would look like. But that didn’t stop him from giving it his all. He threw himself into his studies and earned a Bachelor of Engineering in 2005. After working at a call centre for several years, he was ready for another change. “There’s no thrill in life if everything remains constant, and my life was about to take an unexpected turn,” he said. During a job interview, Moses met Girish Mathrubootham, now the CEO of Freshworks, who would later become his mentor, business partner and what he calls “the driving force behind my entrepreneurial spirit.” Mathrubootham encouraged him to pursue his dream of earning an MBA degree in Canada. After researching his options, Moses realized the Goodman School of Business was where he could achieve this dream. When he arrived as an MBA (International Student Pathway) student in 2009, he was out of his element. He was in markedly different surroundings. A different culture, different teaching structure and different subjects were just some of the challenges. But his ambition level remained the same. He quickly adapted to his new surroundings, embracing Canadian life, switching his focus to business and getting involved in the Goodman Graduate Business Council and the University’s Tamil Student Association. Niagara soon became home. Near the end of his degree, Moses was offered a full-time position where he had worked as a co-op student, but he had other plans. “There was always a hidden entrepreneur in me,” he said, adding that he saw Niagara as the perfect place to operate a startup. Moses set up shop a stone’s throw from the University and has since gone on to launch CloudChoice. “Within a year, we steadily evolved from a customer relationship management consulting company focused in Canada to a solution and custom application provider branching out to the United States,” he said. Thanks to his early success, Moses was in a position to hire more talent. “I wanted to give back to the community that had helped achieve my dream and this was my opportunity to give students a chance to get real work experience locally,” he said. Making a concerted effort to hire students from the Goodman School of Business, Moses has grown his company to eight people. Coupled with his business education, there’s no mistaking that Moses’ ambition and drive has propelled him forward in the business world. “Entrepreneurship is all about passion and the desire to lead, and you can only achieve it by being the best at your work, learning from mentors, giving back to the community that supports your passion, and by never losing sight of your dream,” he said.
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hen Goodman students graduate, they join a network of close-knit Goodman alumni. Since 1964, when Brock University was founded, the network has grown to 14,213 Goodman School of Business alumni members. Goodman alumni reunite in a variety of different formats: annual networking events, smaller roundtable sessions, industry night events, informal online networking sessions and Homecoming reunions. After all, business is all about connections. Recipients of the University's Spirit of Brock award Nick Chrzan (BBA '12), Key Account Manager at Kimberly-Clark Inc., and Anthony Marotta (BBA '15), Manager, Treasury and M&A at Spark Power Corp., currently serve as co-chairs of the Goodman Alumni Network. Chrzan and Marotta were both heavily involved in student life at Goodman when they were students, and both graduated with a full roster of experiences and connections. “When I looked back on my Goodman experience at convocation, I was blown away by the fact that, five years later, I was able to say that I got exactly what I wanted out of my degree,” said Chrzan. “Between co-op work terms, extracurricular activities and case competitions, I graduated with a very full experience.” Chrzan recalls seeing alumni returning to campus and the impact that had on him. “I saw how alumni gave back to the business school and recognized how much it meant as a student to connect with them.” Once he graduated, he saw the value in a connected network of alumni. “After graduation, I found out how difficult it was to stay in touch with the closeknit community we had built because everyone spreads out," he said. "A Goodman alumni event always brings everyone back together, which is why I got involved with the Goodman Alumni Network." Marotta sees his role as a natural progression after being involved with the School as a student leader. “We are helping to enhance the value of every Goodman degree in the workplace, and helping others to do that too,” Marotta said. “I know I got my current position in part because of the case competition experience Goodman gave me, so I’m happy to give back and help all alumni have an experience that doesn’t stop the day they graduate.”
Learn more about the Goodman Alumni Network at brocku.ca/goodman/alumni Facebook LINKEDIN
/groups/GoodmanAlumniNetwork /groups/2908249
MSc STUDENTS SEE SUCCESS AT 3MT RESEARCH COMPETITION
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econd-year Master of Science in Management student Ali Anwar is one of five student finalists from Brock University’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Challenge preliminary round. Now in its sixth year at Brock, the 3MT Challenge originated in Queensland, Australia in 2008 as a way for students to explain their research to a broad audience in plain, accessible terms. Hailing from Pakistan, Anwar spent seven years working in Italy before joining the Goodman School of Business for the Master of Science in Management program. “My goal is to earn a PhD, so I chose Goodman’s MSc program as a way to prepare myself for that,” he said.
Anwar was attracted to Goodman because of Professor Narongsak (Tek) Thongpapanl’s research publication track record. The pair also shared a mutual interest in mobile commerce research. Thongpapanl later became Anwar’s thesis supervisor and coached him throughout his degree, encouraging him to put his name forward for the 3MT competition. In preparing for 3MT, Anwar spent countless hours refining his research and pitch — hours that boiled down to a short three-minute presentation and snagged him a spot in the competition’s next round. With 180 seconds on the clock, Anwar communicated his comprehensive research project in concise, easy-to-understand terms. Anwar’s research project, called “The personalization-privacy paradox in m-commerce: Loyalty outcomes explained through customers flow experience and regulatory foci,” focuses on how people perceive online services differently.
Second-year MSc in Management student Ali Anwar
His study shows that although consumers appreciate the convenience that online personalization offers, they have to give up personal information as a trade-off. People will have different perceptions of this, depending on how risk-averse they are. Anwar sees the value that the 3MT competition has for students, particularly those in research-intensive programs. “Conducting research is one thing, but being able to present it effectively is different, and students need to be good at both,” he said. “Your research project is of no use if you can’t communicate why it’s worth pursuing or what it is you’re researching.” Although this was his first time participating in a 3MT competition like this, Anwar says the experience helped him understand his own research in a new way. “Adapting to this format was pretty difficult due to the short time limit and because it was a general audience outside of my discipline. But I know more about my research now than I did before the competition and I have a greater understanding of the value it holds for a wider audience,” he said. Since starting at Goodman, Anwar has had the opportunity to present his research not only at 3MT, but also at two academic conferences, an experience most researchers do not have until they are in a PhD program. Similar to Anwar, second-year student Luciano Lapa also pitched his research at 3MT. The paper, called “The role of trust beliefs in shaping m-commerce usage intention,” proved to be an audience favourite, earning him the People’s Choice Award. “It’s all about the story at the end of the day,” Lapa said. “You have your results, data, hypothesis and literature, but it’s all about how you’re going to tell the story in a way that fits the audience you’re targeting.”
Five students advanced to Brock’s 3MT Challenge finals, from left: Ali Anwar (Goodman School of Business), Aly Bailey (Applied Health Sciences), Cody McMahon (Humanities), Kaitlyn Kerridge (Applied Health Sciences); and Shannon Kitchings (Social Sciences).
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USMAN RAJA Goodman School of Business Distinguished Scholar of the Year
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hen Usman Raja, Professor of Human Resource Management, was an MBA student, he did not consider a career as an academic. With a stable job in engineering for close to 10 years, Raja chose to obtain an MBA degree to further progress his career. He did not expect that it would prove to be a pivotal decision for his future. But, after graduating at the top of his class, he was offered a teaching opportunity that shifted his career from engineering to teaching. Although he first taught finance, his specialization has moved to organizational behaviour and human resource management. “I research in this area because I like exploring behaviours, the study of personality and knowing why people behave the way they do,” he said. “When I was an engineer, I did not think about these things, but the MBA degree opened my eyes to all these fields – consumer behaviour, organizational behaviour, human resources and so on.” Once he got a taste for teaching, Raja decided to pursue a PhD and make teaching and researching his fulltime focus. Raja received the Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship, which allowed him to teach in Canada for a few years before returning to Pakistan to teach at International Islamic University, which is where he says his research took off after he helped to found the University's new PhD program. Raja joined the Goodman School of Business in 2009 but returns to International Islamic University periodically to teach in the PhD program when he has time. A research pioneer in Pakistan Collaborating with former colleagues at International Islamic University, current colleagues at Goodman School of Business and international contacts, Raja has built a close-knit team that is pioneering research rooted in Pakistan. “All my research is based and rooted in Pakistan, and we often do not have many benchmarks to compare our research to, so we always find something unexpected and exciting,” he said. Researching dark personalities and behaviours Raja’s recent research activity has focused on deviant behaviours, dark personality issues and the dark side of leadership. “We wanted to study what effect a selfish and deviant leader would have on followers," he said. "Those closer to a bad leader would likely mimic their leader's behaviours, which turns into a liability.” The research contradicts traditional leader-member exchange (LMX) research that shows that a high-quality leader-follower relationship results in followers exhibiting more positive behaviours. How working close to a bad leader can make you a worse employee “We found that exactly the opposite was true when there is a bad leader,” he said, adding that the specifics of their findings show that the worst combination is when there is despotic leadership, high-quality leader-member relationships and high perceived organizational politics. “When employees work closely with leaders, they exhibit positive behaviours, but when the leader has a dark personality, employees may start to adopt some of those negative behaviours, which further spreads these dark personality traits in the
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workplace, especially when the environment is seen as political.” Raja is the 2018 recipient of the Goodman Distinguished Scholar of the Year award in recognition of his research activity in the last five years. Among other research accomplishments, Raja has co-authored several highquality, high-impact journal publications in the past five years, showing the impact he has made in his research areas and the reputation he has acquired for himself in organizational behaviour literature. “It feels good to be recognized through this award for the work I have done in this area, and I am grateful for the support of my colleagues,” he said. Below is a listing of Raja’s refereed publications for the past five years. Bouckenooghe, D., Raja, U., Butt, A. N., Abbas, M., & Bilgrami, S. (2017). Unpacking the Curvilinear Relationship between Negative Affectivity, Performance, and Turnover Intentions: The Moderating Effect of Time-Related Work Stress. Journal of Management and Organization, 3, 373-391. Jam, F. A., Donia, M., Raja, U., Hui Ling, F., (2017). A Time-Lagged Study on the Moderating Role of Overall Satisfaction in Perceived Politics- Job Outcomes Relationships. Journal of Management and Organization, 3, 321-336. Donia, M., Raja, U., Panaccio, A., & Zheni, W. (2016). Servant Leadership and Employee Outcomes: The Moderating Role of Subordinates Motives. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. 25, 722-734. Naseer, S., Raja, U., Syed, F., Donia, M., & Darr, W. (2016). Perils of Being In-Group of a Bad Leader: Exploring the Combined Effects of Despotic Leadership, Leader Member Exchange, and perceived Organizational Politics on Behaviors. The Leadership Quarterly, 27, 14-33. Donia, M., Johns, G., Raja, U. (2016). Good Soldier or Good Actor? Supervisor Accuracy in Distinguishing between Selfless and Self-Serving OCB Motives. Journal of Business and Psychology. 31, 23-32. Murtaza, G., Abbas, M., Raja, U., Roques, O., Khalid, A., & Mushtaq, R. (2016). Impact of Islamic Work Ethics on Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and Knowledge-Sharing Behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics.133, 325-333. Naseer, S., Raja, U., & Donia, M. (2016). Effect of Perceived Politics and Perceived Support on Bullying and Emotional Exhaustion: The moderating role of Type A Personality. Journal of Psychology: Applied and Interdisciplinary. 150, 606-624. Bouckenooghe, D., Zafar, A., & Raja, U. (2015). How Ethical Leadership Shapes Employees' Job Performance: The Mediating Roles of Trust, Goal Congruence, and Psychological Capital. Journal of Business Ethics. 129, 251-264. Abbas, M., & Raja, U. (2015). Impact of Psychological Capital on Innovative Performance and job stress. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 32, 128-138. Khan, K., Abbas, M., Gul, A., & Raja, U. (2015). Organizational Justice and Job Outcomes: Moderating Role of Islamic Work Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 126, 235-246. Abbas, M., Raja, U., Darr, W., & Bouckenooghe, D. (2014). Combined effects of perceived politics and psychological capital on job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and performance. Journal of Management, 40, 1813-1830. De Clercq, D., Bouckenooghe, D., Raja, U., & Matsyborska, G. (2014). Unpacking the Goal CongruenceOrganizational Deviance Relationship: The Roles of Work Engagement and Emotional Intelligence. Journal of Business Ethics. 124, 695-711. De Clercq, D., Bouckenooghe, D., Raja, U., & Matsyborska, G. (2014). Servant Leadership and Work Engagement: The Contingency Effects of Leader-Follower Social Capital. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 25, 183 -212. Bouckenooghe, D., Raja, U., & Abbas, M. (2014). How does emotion regulation impact employee work engagement: The mediating role of relational capital?"Journal of Management & Organization. 20, 508-525. Bouckenooghe, D., Raja, U., & Butt, A.N. (2013). Combined effects of affectivity and job satisfaction on job performance and turnover intentions. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 147, 105-123. Jamil, A., Raja, U., & Darr, W. (2013). Psychological Contract Breach and Felt Violation as Sources of Job Burnout. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 147, 491-515.
ABDUL ASHRAF Goodman School of Business Emerging Scholar of the Year
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bdul Rehman Ashraf, Assistant Professor of Marketing, is the 2018 recipient of the Goodman School of Business Emerging Scholar of the Year award for his research activity in the past year. When Ashraf first joined the Goodman School of Business as a Master of Science in Management student in 2008, he did not expect that he would return to his alma mater to teach fewer than 10 years later. Ashraf’s thesis supervisor, Narongsak (Tek) Thongpapanl, Professor of Marketing and Product Innovation, proved to be a mentor who would change Ashraf’s life. “I became excited about a career in research while being trained by Tek, and he is one of the main reasons I returned to the Goodman School of Business after my PhD because we continue to work together on research and are co-authors on several papers,” Ashraf said. After graduating from Goodman’s MSc program in 2010, Ashraf obtained a PhD from the University of New South Wales in Australia and began his teaching career at NEOMA Business School in France. Specializing in international marketing, marketing analytics and intelligence, consumer decision making and technology adoption, Ashraf has contributed to these research areas through several channels, including four refereed journal publications and three manuscripts that are currently under review at reputable journals. Ashraf sees more research potential in the growing fields of e-commerce and mobile commerce (m-commerce). “It has an international aspect and I have always been driven to understand different markets,” he said. “There is a lot going in the e-commerce and m-commerce spaces. You see Sears, Toys "R" Us and Target stores closing because people don’t want to go and shop in-store anymore. It’s all about the virtual world now. This is an area that’s really promising and clearly there is a lot more to be understood because you’re not in direct contact with customers.” Through his research papers, Ashraf noticed that people made online purchases very differently. “I wanted to understand how customers behave when they are making online purchases,” he said. “The fascinating concept is that the same website is being perceived so differently across different countries.” How e-commerce retailers should design their websites
influence their purchasing decisions. The research shows that when customers are presented with a website that is in line with their orientation, they process the information more easily and respond more favourably. “We found that promotion-oriented people prefer a beautified version of the website with a lot of photos, colour and video, and prevention-oriented people prefer to rationalize purchases logically through up-front information about warranty and other aspects that would reduce their risk of purchasing.” Channeling customers towards purchases through web design “We’ve now attracted the customer to the website,” Ashraf explains, “but how do you make sure they purchase something?” His research shows that when a website experience is offered that is in line with customers’ orientation, it will channel them towards making a purchase because it is easier for them to process the information. E-retailers’ efforts to offer all types of website experiences to all customers usually result in information overload. Ashraf says that his advice to managers is not to waste resources, but instead to try to gauge customers’ orientation, and customize the website experience from there. Companies can discover their customers’ orientation through analytics Ashraf’s research shows that purchasing behaviour demonstrates a clear pattern that can tell e-retailers if their customers are more promotion- or preventionoriented. Clickstream data, whether purchases happen before or after paycheques are paid, time of day and even weather tell a story about customers’ disposition to seek enjoyment or avoid risk. E-retailers must pay close attention to these factors and design their websites accordingly in order to attract customers and drive online sales.
Below is a listing of Abdul Ashraf’s refereed publications during the past year.
Ashraf found that e-retailers were often using A/B testing in web design because they were not yet sure what customers were looking for. “E-retailers would use A/B testing to design a website a certain way to see if customers like it, then they would design it completely differently to see if customers liked it that way,” he explained, adding that they have now moved towards personalizing websites based on customers’ past purchases. “We didn’t just look at what customers have purchased in the past, we went further to better understand their motivations and their orientation level.”
Ashraf, A., Thongpapanl, N., Menguc, M. and Northey, G. (2017), “The Role of M-commerce Readiness in Emerging and Developed Markets,” Journal of International Marketing, 25(2), 25-51.
Customers have a chronic orientation that predicts their purchase behaviour
Ashraf, A. and Thongpapanl, N. (2016), “Connecting with and Converting Shoppers into Customers: Investigating the Role of Regulatory Fit in the Online Customer's Decision-making Process,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 32 (4), 13-25.
Ashraf used regulatory focus theory, which shows that people are chronically more promotion-oriented or prevention-oriented. Promotion-oriented individuals seek enjoyment, while prevention-oriented individuals avoid risk – outlooks that
Ashraf, A., Razzaque, M. and Thongpapanl, N. (2016), “The Role of Customer Regulatory Orientation and Fit in Online Shopping across Cultural Contexts,”Journal of Business Research, 69(12), 6040-6047. Ashraf, A., Thongpapanl, N. and Spyropoulou, S. (2016), “The Connection and Disconnection between E-commerce Businesses and Their Customers: Exploring the Role of Engagement, Perceived Usefulness, and Perceived Ease-of-use, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 20 (November–December), 69–86.
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PASCALE LAPOINTE-ANTUNES Goodman School of Business Excellence in Teaching Award
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Teaching got integrated into who I am and it’s just part of me...
”
– Pascale Lapointe-Antunes
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ascale Lapointe-Antunes' decision to become an accounting professor was more than a career choice; it was her destiny, something she was always meant to do. Lapointe-Antunes is the recipient of the Goodman School of Business Excellence in Teaching Award that recognizes her reputation for, and delivery of, superior teaching. After ranking first in Quebec and ninth in Canada on the CPA qualifying exam, she obtained the Chartered Accountant (CA) designation in 1999 and started working as an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers before choosing to pursue a PhD in accounting at Concordia University. It was a decision that would change the course of her life. Although she enjoyed her career and could see her future in public accounting, she accepted an offer for a teaching opportunity at Université Laval. “I tried teaching and it was clear that this was going to be my path,” she said. Once she had a taste for teaching, there was no turning back and she joined the Goodman School of Business in 2005. “Teaching got integrated into who I am and it’s just part of me. It’s not that it’s my job, it’s not that it’s work, it’s just part of what I do. Knowing that I make a difference to students is so rewarding,” she said. A highly respected and dedicated instructor, LapointeAntunes has mentored hundreds of CPA candidates in Goodman’s Master of Accountancy program to help them on their way to becoming professional accountants. Connor Gates (BAcc ’16, MAcc ’16), an associate at Crawford, Smith and Swallow Chartered Accountants LLP, says that for most MAcc students, success is measured by performance on CPA Canada’s Common Final Examination. “I can confidently speak for all of my classmates when I say that Professor Lapointe-Antunes provided the most valuable tools for us to be successful on this comprehensive evaluation, arguably the most important examination of our academic career. My success on this exam is owed directly to the dedication and support provided by Professor LapointeAntunes,” he said. Gates remains active at the University as a teaching assistant and says that now that he is on the other side of the classroom, he often finds himself applying the philosophies
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that Lapointe-Antunes instilled in him. “She has inspired me to find passion in teaching and continues to be one of my closest role models,” he said. Lapointe-Antunes has been actively involved with several professional accounting bodies in different capacities over the past 18 years. In 2016, she was appointed editor-in-chief of Accounting Perspectives, a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Canadian Academic Accounting Association, where she also serves on the board of directors. In November 2017, the Council of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (CPA Ontario) bestowed the highest honour in the accounting profession to her when she earned the title of Fellow and the FCPA designation, formally recognizing her as an outstanding CPA member who has demonstrated excellence in her career and contributions to the field of accounting. Goodman School of Business Dean Andrew Gaudes said Lapointe-Antunes is an exemplary faculty member whose impact is clearly felt among her peers, students and graduates. “It’s clear that Pascale is completely committed to the success of her students and wants to see them succeed both personally and professionally, which is exactly what we’re looking for in all of our faculty within the business school,” he said. “She’s an excellent example for all of us to look towards for how you work in the classroom, how you work with your students and how you share in their successes. She has shown her commitment to education and teaching by virtue of working with curriculum content and our re-accreditation with CPA Ontario. “All of these factors contribute to someone who definitely treats her role as a vocation, something she lives by, not something she just shows up for.”
GET ON THE FAST TRACK TO THE CPA DESIGNATION. COME TO GOODMAN.
Allison McConnell
Bachelor of Accounting (‘16) Master of Accountancy (‘16) Staff Accountant, EY
Find out more about the Goodman experience at
brocku.ca/goodman
Summer 2018
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THE LAST WORD
“Without my degree from the Goodman School of Business, it would be difficult to imagine what my life would be like today. I can say with complete honesty that my degree has impacted every part of my life." - Rhonda Klosler (BBA '93), National Chief Operating Officer, RSM Canada
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