ACTUALS SEEN AND HEARD IN THE SAUDER WORLD
Sauder finance conference draws global scholars Sauder’s Finance Division hosted its tenth annual UBC Summer Finance Conference between August 3 and August 5, 2012. Assistant Professor Jason Chen and Professor Ron Giammarino chaired the event, which brought together more than 70 finance academics from North America and around the world. The conference is sponsored and supported by Sauder’s Phillips, Hager & North Centre for Financial Research, and the Bureau of Asset Management. This year’s speakers included researchers from the University of Chicago, Duke University, Carnegie Mellon University, Imperial College London, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The Phillips, Hager & North Centre for Financial Research’s summer conference has become one of the top gatherings for finance researchers from around the world,” said Professor Giammarino. “In addition, the conference raises the profile of UBC faculty and doctoral students and is the most important activity of the Centre.” ■
Economist editor-in-chief at Sauder to talk future of business John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of The Economist, one of the world’s leading business and current affairs publications, recently visited Sauder to speak on the state of international business as a part of the Canaccord Learning Commons lecture series. An award-winning journalist, prolific author and broadcaster, Micklethwait draws on his background in history and banking to offer a unique perspective on today’s complex economy. Regarding the importance of innovation in the global marketplace, he said, “I think innovation in business has seldom been taken quite as seriously as it is now. You look at companies that are worth a great amount—like Apple—it’s all about ideas. At the moment, particularly in the western world, the companies who are doing well are the ones who continually produce clever ideas.” ■
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FALL/WINTER 2012 VIEWPOINTS
Sauder alumnus rings NYSE opening bell On August 20, 33-year-old Sauder alumnus Nolan Watson, President and CEO of Vancouver-based Sandstorm Gold, rang the NYSE opening bell as the company listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Metal streaming company Sandstorm Gold is generating considerable interest from US investors. “They’re looking to make money on gold and the streaming model is the perfect way to do it in a sense that we don’t take a lot of the operating risks that mining companies do,” Watson said in an interview with “Business News Network.” Watson graduated from Sauder with a BCom in 2001 and co-founded his gold streaming company in 2009. Last year, The Globe and Mail featured Watson as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for his business and humanitarian accomplishments. Known as “the mining CEO with a humanitarian heart,” his charity, Nations Cry, works to train teachers and build schools in Central America and West Africa. He was profiled in the Winter 2012 issue of Viewpoints. ■
Associate dean discusses globalization of MBA at international conference MBA students exposed to global social, political, and economic issues will be fully equipped to engage on an international level, said Murali Chandrashekaran, Associate Dean of Sauder’s Robert H. Lee Graduate School at the Third Annual Indian Management Conclave in August. The conference, held in New Delhi, attracted close to 300 academics, policy makers and recruiters to discuss the future of Indian business schools. Associate Dean Chandrashekaran was invited to give a key session on the globalization of MBA education. “In the context of educational institutions, globalization means a process of changing the engagement footprint beyond borders,” he said. Immersive global exchange experiences are part of the core curriculum of the revamped UBC MBA program launched by Sauder’s Robert H. Lee Graduate School in September. ■