aspire - the sustainability issue - summer 2011

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LOCAL CHANGEGLOBAL VISION

THE SUSTAINABILITY ISSUEMacEwan’s annual magazine for those who aspire to business success

VOL. 3 ISSUE 1 SPRING 2011

GROWING IN PLACEMacEwan’s single sustainable campus plan

BUSINESS CLASS ABROAD

Study tours cross oceans and continents

NewSchool

Sustainability principles guide the next generation

of business leaders

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TEAM SPIRITGlobal leadership club inspires MacEwan students

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R B C D o m i n i o n S e C u R i t i e S

Professional Wealth Management Since 1901RBC Dominion Securities Inc.* and Royal Bank of Canada are separate corporate entities which are affiliated. *Member-Canadian Investor Protection Fund. ®Registered trademark of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under licence. RBC Dominion Securities is a registered trademark of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under licence. ©Copyright 2011. All rights reserved.

RETHINK THE WAY YOU INVEST The Academic Approach to Portfolio Design

“Every client is unique and so are our recommendations surrounding their investment, business succession, retirement, tax, estate, and charitable giving solutions”

With an academic approach, Randy can help you build a portfolio that focuses on achieving what matters – your long-term goals.

Visit www.randyperram.com to learn how to rethink the way you invest. Or contact Randy at [email protected] to arrange a complimentary consultation.

Randy Perram Assistant Branch Manager

& Investment Advisor 780-493-7757

[email protected] www.randyperram.com

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000ASP.ICAA_1-2H.indd 1 5/27/11 10:19:13 AM

3 aspire

MACEWAN SETS A ‘PRME’

EXAMPLEA United Nations initiative for

business schools around the world comes to campus

LONG DISTANCE LEARNING

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8By Students, For StudentsThis year’s Student Business Conference put the planning in the hands of its audience

15Community ConnectionsHow a generous donation from RBC will enhance the curriculum of MacEwan’s Bachelor of Commerce degree

21PRME in PracticeThis international marketing class project is about more than marks

28A Bright FutureEnvironmental initiatives at MacEwan include the single sustainable campus plan

31Practicum ProvidersFive years of living and working in Asia helps Ron Huber connect practicum students with overseas work opportunities

36Fresh FacesInternational students from India and the Ukraine adjust to campus life

38Welcome HomeDr. David Atkinson, MacEwan’s new president, returns to the province where he started his career

42Faculty Profi lesA keen interest in effi ciency guides Victor Bilodeau’s work, while interdisciplinary expertise defi nes Rickard Enström’s classes

44Graduate Profi lesRecent graduates Ryne Cender and Joshua Davison give back to the school that gave them their start

HELPING HANDS

Global business leadership is at the core of a new student club

LOCAL CHANGE • GLOBAL VISIONTHE SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE

4Message From the Dean

5Message From the Editor

6Around MacEwan

12Allard Chair Profi leRecipient Irving Kipnes believes giving back

should be part of everybody’s being

46Exit InterviewWhat I Learned at MacEwan

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

On the cover: Melissa Ta and William Pasieka, MacEwan School of Business students

CONTENTS 2011

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A group study tour to Brazil and work terms in Japan help MacEwan students internationalize their degrees

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MESSAGEfroM thE dEAn

ElsiE Elford

The momentum here at Grant MacEwan University has never been so strong. Our transformation from a college to a university set the pace and we aren’t slowing down.

Our status as a university comes with great, and growing, responsibility. As we engage more with the local and academic communities, we are recognized as a stronger and more reliable community member. To set an example of commu-nity leadership it is up to us to establish and maintain sustainable practices; and through our programs and partnerships, have an ongoing conversation about the way we operate and educate.

MacEwan is pleased to establish itself as a leader in sustainable and socially responsible practices. Through the adoption of several initiatives and academic programming – we are showcasing the value and benefits of changed behaviours and social responsibility to students. We know that students will take what they’ve learned at MacEwan and apply it once they enter the workforce.

In late January, we became members of the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative. Our faculty is now starting to incorporate sustainable practices into their teachings and our students are quick to follow suit. A student committee has been formed to participate in Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), a dynamic program that brings together a diverse network of university students, academic professionals and industry leaders to collectively create a better, more sustainable world through the positive power of business.

As a university with four Edmonton campuses, our focus has shifted and we are in the beginning stages of creating one single sustainable campus in the downtown core. This collaborative endeavour will provide students with greater flexibility in their scheduling, increased accessibility to on-campus resources and more opportunities to get involved in student-driven initiatives.

MacEwan will forge ahead, continue growing, and always look for the next step forward. This third issue of Aspire will tell you the story of how MacEwan School of Business faculty, staff, and students are all working together to contribute to the sustainability of our classrooms, campuses and community.

Elsie Elford, BA, LL.B Dean, School of Business

www.macewan.ca/businessp.4 aspire

MESSAGEfroM thE Editor

I was spending a typical evening at home, sorting my pop cans and milk containers – trying to validate my ongoing efforts to be environmentally friendly. I hopped on the recycling bandwagon a few years ago but the mindless effort of hauling my refuse to the recycling centre once a month didn’t seem to be enough. I wanted more. I didn’t feel as though these little tasks could possibly equate to real change.

Since accepting a job at MacEwan, I was quick to realize that I had inadvertently signed on to be part of a community full of environmental activists and initiatives, a sort of environmental club, if you will. I got the hint when my welcome gift was a reusable cof-fee mug. Were they trying to tell me something? MacEwan faculty, staff and students are all changing the way they teach, learn, and succeed. I am suddenly immersed in a world of sustainable practices – and am excited to see what is ahead.

In our sustainability issue of Aspire, you’ll see how we’ve come together as a univer-sity to align our focus to shape a sustainable future. From the adoption of the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME), to our ongoing international partner-ships, and the recent appointment of a MacEwan student committee to Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) – we are on the pursuit of sustainability, and making strides.

Our namesake, Dr. J. W. Grant MacEwan, was a recycler before it became mainstream, deciding well into his 70’s to hand-build a log cabin from old telephone poles, preferring to walk over drive, and using public transportation. He left behind a legacy of sustainabil-ity, a legacy that is still maintained at Grant MacEwan University today.

I think Dr. MacEwan is a true example of how one person can create real change and impact an entire community, including our academic community.

Victoria Boutilier Editor of Aspire, Communications Advisor,MacEwan School of Business

MacEwan School of Business aspire p.5

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Victoria Boutilier

CONSULTING EDITOR Cailynn Klingbeil

EDITORIAL ADVISORS Fernando Angulo, Bob Butler, Tom Carter, Joel Fridman, Shawna Jansen, Sheila Mozejko, Joong Son, John Tanasichuk, William Wei

ART DIRECTOR Charles Burke

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Brnesh Berhe

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Joel Fridman, Julia Klein, Erin McCarty, Geoff Morgan, Robin Schroffel, Asia Szkudlarek

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS AND ILLUSTRATORS Bluefish Studios, Victoria Boutilier, Jana Clarke, Ellis Photo, Raymond Reid, Stephen Wan

Aspire is published by MacEwan School of Business to celebrate student, faculty and staff successes.

Aspire is published by Grant MacEwan University in conjunction with Venture Publishing Inc.

Grant MacEwan University10700 - 104 AvenueEdmonton, AB T5J 4S2 780.633.3785

Contents copyright 2011 by Grant MacEwan University. No part of this publication should be reproduced without written permission. Canada Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement # 40063489. Return undeliver-able mail to Grant MacEwan University 10700 - 104 Avenue Edmonton, AB T5J 4S2

VOLUME 3 Issue 1Spring 2011

Master Marketers How do MacEwan’s business students overcome the winter blues? They feel the heat at the Manitoba International Marketing Competition (MIMC). At the MIMC, student groups from Canada, U.S., Europe, Africa and Central America go head-to-head to show off their versa-tility and marketing skills. The final stage of the MIMC, one of Canada’s largest business student competitions, was hosted by the University of Manitoba.

Teams were challenged to dive into marketing simula-tions and apply their analytical, decision-making, and communications skills to respond to changing condi-tions. They concluded with final presentations where they showed their results and discussed their strategy. This year in Winnipeg the MacEwan team – Melissa Ta, Mizhda Hakimi, Paul Kobewka, Alex Court, and William

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Pasieka – made the School of business proud, taking home the “best Spirit” award.

“our team has done very well, their performance was very powerful,” remarked Dr. Makarand Gulawani, an instructor with the bachelor of Commerce program. “In this competition the most important thing is that our students gained great insight, experience, and understanding of the international business environment.”

Simulated case competitions don’t follow the traditional learning methods of the classroom setting. Instead, students are given the opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge, gain experience working in a team, and to develop a greater understanding of marketing from an international perspective. It is this hands-on experience that helps to develop business leaders of the future.

team spirit: L to R: Melissa Ta, Mizhda Hakimi, Paul Kobewka, Alex Court, and William Pasieka


AroundMacEwan

In early March, over 100 business women from across the province gathered at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald to share an inspirational and informative evening with one of Canada’s most powerful busi-ness women, Arlene Dickinson.

Dickinson, the CEO of Venture Communications, is also well-known as the lone female dragon on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, the television phenomenon that has ignited a national conversation on entrepreneurship in Canada.

In a discussion moderated by Ruth Kelly, President and Publisher of Venture Publishing, Dickinson answered audience questions and shared the wealth of knowledge that helped her to grow her company to one of the largest independent marketing agencies in Canada.

The event received outstanding feedback from Alberta’s business women, who had the opportunity to gain insight into what it takes to be a success in their respective industries.

International Partnerships Continue at MacEwan

The School of Business at Grant MacEwan University hosted a delega-tion from China’s Jiangsu University of Science & Technology (JUST) in November, 2010. During their visit the parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate international education opportunities for both parties. JUST is located in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province. The school’s four campuses teach approximately 20,000 students and in-clude programming at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels.

Office Assistants Unite

MacEwan’s office Assistant program recently co-hosted the Alberta business Education Association (AbEA) Conference with norQuest College. About 50 people gathered in Kananaskis from May 12-14 for the conference, which brings together the faculty and staff of business and office administration programs around the province. Attendees were encouraged to disconnect from everyday life and connect with their col-leagues, surrounded by the stunning scenery of Kananaskis.

“It’s so important to share ideas,” says Eileen Matthews, Curriculum Coordinator of MacEwan’s office Assistant program and one of the organizers of the conference. “I don’t know how many times we’ve tried something that someone else has suggested at the conference or we have suggested something that others have tried.”

A Winning Social Media Strategy

On November 30, 2010, Sheri Braun, Kristen Dougan, Bronwyn Irvine, Rae Thygesen, and Crystal Komanchuk worked together to develop a social media plan designed to increase the number of police recruits for all 12 policing agencies in Alberta. This creative group of MacEwan Public Relations students were selected to represent the university at the provincial finals for this year’s Scholastic Achievement Awards.

The MacEwan Digital Media class was approached by Alberta Career Opportunities in Policing Services (C.O.P.S.) and EdVenture Partners Inc., to participate in the 2011 Scholastic Achievement Awards Competition.

The judging panel was made up of Alberta C.O.P.S. and representa-tives from various policing agencies including Calgary Police, Edmonton Police Services, and the RCMP.

Zachary Bartel and Nicole Tupechka’s winning streak continues. The second-year Management Studies diploma students were on the team that took home the top honours at this January’s MacEwan Amazing Case Competition – a competition their team also won last year. Bartel and Tupechka, along with teammates Chao Di and Levi Koenig, were given a case on Friday night. They had to give a 12-minute presentation to the panel of judges the next afternoon, at the competition held at MacEwan’s South Campus. This year, the winning team took home a cash prize of $2,000. For Tupechka, the competitions are a place that she can bring everything she’s learned in the classroom together and use it in a practical way. Bartel agrees: “It’s an experience that you learn from, and one that you don’t really get inside the classroom,” he says. Bartel and Tupechka were also on last year’s winning team for both the Alberta Deans of Business Case Competition at SAIT in Calgary and the MacEwan Amazing Case Competition.

An Evening with Arlene Dickinson

BiG WiN: L to R: Elsie Elford, Zachary Bartel, Nicole Tupechka, Levi Koenig, Chao Di and Mike Henry

leGal leaders: L to R: Nikki Van Dusen, Bronwyn Irvine, Kristen Dougan, Rae Thygesen, Sheri Braun and Crystal Komanchuk with police recruits

The Amazing Case

aspire p.7MacEwan School of Business

BY STUDENTS, FOR STUDENTS

Katie winfi eldArlene Dickinson Carla MacLeod


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This year’s Student Business Conference put the planning in the hands of its audienceThis year’s Student Business Conference Student Business Conference Student Business Conference Student Business Conference Student Business Conference


Carla MacLeod Michelle Docking Elsie Elford Brian harker


By Erin McCarty

he Student Business Conference celebrated its 12th birthday on March 1, 2011, welcoming 700 MacEwan students to the Shaw Conference Centre to rub

shoulders with some of Edmonton’s leading business owners and innovators. The conference is the premiere event for MacEwan School of Business. This year, for the first time ever, the conference was organized entirely by students.

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Brian Harker was the project lead for this year’s student organizers. The confer-ence theme was exploring entrepreneur-ship and business innovations and the committee’s goal was to bring in multiple entrepreneurs to interact with students throughout the day.

“Our (afternoon) keynote speaker was Arlene Dickinson from TV’s Dragons’ Den, which was really amazing,” says Harker, a third-year B.Com student with a major in management. “To be able to have her attend was such a privilege.”

The organizing committee consisted of four students who were responsible for everything from sponsorship to choosing a venue.

“Historically the faculty has done all of that, but they were trying to give the event a more ‘by the students, for the stu-dents’ feel,” says Harker. The organizing team also used social media to solicit the input of other students, including who they wanted to see at the conference.

The morning opened with a keynote address from Olympic gold medalist Carla MacLeod. Concurrent speaker sessions ran throughout the morning, followed by panel discussions ranging from accounting to professionalism in the workplace. The daylong event also featured a fashion show with music provided by local radio station 91.7 The Bounce.

For students like Harker, the oppor-tunity to network is one of the most beneficial aspects of attending a confer-

ence like the Student Business Conference. “Because there are so many powerful,

successful people there, it’s a great oppor-tunity to ask questions person-to-person,” says Harker. “It’s also a good way to poten-tially find jobs or internships. We tried to make networking the biggest focus of the event this year.”

Some presenters, like Neall Alden, brought the perspective of both business leader and former MacEwan student. Alden is the co-owner and general manager at Backside Tours, and he graduated from the Public Relations program in 2003.

Alden was thrilled to have the opportun-ity to speak to students during a session entitled “Translating Your Passion Into Business Success.”

“I knew a lot of speakers would be of-fering some pretty tangible things that are often associated with business practices … and I think that something many people miss is the whole concept of passion and what that does in a business.”

Backside Tours is the labour of love of Alden and business partner Tod Caton. Formed in 2001, Backside Tours has earned a reputation as Alberta’s largest ski tour company and has been repeatedly recog-nized by Alberta Venture magazine as one of Alberta’s fastest-growing companies. Alden has applied the skills learned from

his public relations experience to his business practices, and credits the open-mindedness of his partner to new creative directions in communication and branding.

“I say that sometimes passion is the ultim-ate difference between achieving and achiev-ing beyond measure. I think a lot of business people don’t take that into account, and for our company, we’re certainly built on pas-sion.”

Alden sees the business conference as a way for students to see real-world examples of suc-cess that they can learn from.

“Students really need to see people that are out working and that they can relate to. Having a real tangible thing to grasp onto is very valuable, for them to see that they can be anything and create anything, and that anything is possible.”

He added that he sees value in the relation-ship building that occurs through congregat-ing with students in other disciplines and sharing ideas about business.

“You never know who you may be doing business with, so it’s invaluable to work with students who you might not have the oppor-tunity to interact with otherwise.”

MacEwan graduate Alexander Beharry knows firsthand the benefits students can gain from attending the Student Business Conference. Beharry, who graduated with a diploma in Asia-Pacific Management in 2008, served on the conference volunteer committee for two years, first as an executive member and then as a round table host. Beharry says that his involvement in the conference as a volunteer and as a business student has provided him with many positive experiences.

“you never know who you may be doing business with, so it’s invaluable to work with students who you might not have the opportunity to interact with otherwise,” says neall Alden.



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“It was valuable to speak with different people and network,” says Beharry. “It was great to meet people in the same field.”

Beharry has been applying what he learn-ed at MacEwan, and from events like the Student Business Conference, in his pos-ition as account manager with Royal Bank of Canada. Beharry has worked at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) for just over two years, and he’s already won a major sales performance award that recognized him as one of RBC’s top performing employees in a company of about 70,000.

“I was honoured to be one of the recipi-ents, after a relatively short time with the company. It’s very exciting.”

Before studying at MacEwan, Beharry earned a degree in economics from the University of Alberta. He says that while he enjoyed his time at the university, it was his overseas practicum in Tokyo through his MacEwan diploma program that provided him with the valuable hands-on experience he uses today.

“The practical experience and contacts I gained through networking were invalu-able. It was wonderful to gain those real-world tools and then apply them to stay on track.”

Harker encourages any students interested in joining the planning committee in the fu-ture to do so. “I’ve never done anything like this before, so it was a really good opportun-ity for me,” he says. “I honestly had no idea what was involved in event planning, so I learned a great deal from this experience.”

The conference is open to all MacEwan students and faculty, though it is geared towards business students.

Strategies for Growing and Sustaining Your BusinessMiles Quon, Lingnan Restaurant

Translating Your Passion Into Business SuccessNeall Alden, Backside Tours

Marketing Yourself Through Professional PresenceJoanne Blake, Style for Success

Advice for Young StartupsCameron Linke, Startup Edmonton

Money Management/ Getting Ahead After SchoolMark Birtles, Financial Strategies Group

Protecting Your PrivacyBrad ‘RenderMan’ Haines, Renderlab

Sustainability and Corporate Social ResponsibilityPaul Hunt, Enbridge

1. Elsie Elford and Arlene Dickinson 2. Panel speakers address students3. Students take notes at a panel session4. The fashion show highlighted dressing for success


ADVICE FROM THE PROS The presentations at the 12th Student

Business Conference were diverse,

with a variety of local business leaders

sharing a range of tips with attendees.

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Irving Kipnes, MacEwan’s 2011 Dr. Charles Allard Chair in Business

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Allard Chair recipient Irving Kipnes shares his

lessons on hard work and identifying opportunities with MacEwan students

s a child, irving Kipnes grew up surrounded by entrepreneurship. “My parents had a small business; their friends had small businesses,” says Kipnes, Executive Chairman and Director of Liquor Stores North

America Ltd. It was this early exposure to business, including working in his father’s convenience store at age 12, which led Kipnes to start his own busi-nesses.

MacEwan School of Business recently honoured Kipnes’ successful and lengthy career by naming him the 2011 Dr. Charles Allard Chair in Business. Kipnes is the 25th person to hold the honorary teaching position, a post that is given to a prominent local business leader each year. The recipient is invited to engage directly with MacEwan students as a teacher, mentor and role model.

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2. Police Constable Flint stands at attention Ugait utat ilisit wis autatet wisis nim adio

“The environment in which I was born and raised was full of small family busi-nesses,” Kipnes says. “It wasn’t a big step for me to see opportunity and to take advantage of it. It’s really a matter of identifying opportunity and then doing something about it.”

Kipnes built Liquor Depot Corporation, one of the original companies involved in the formation of Liquor Stores North Amer-ica Ltd., on that same attitude. He founded Liquor Depot in 1993, obtaining the first approval for a private liquor store in Alberta when the province privatized the industry. “It was a matter of helping to fill a vacuum that was created by the government leaving the business,” Kipnes says of starting the company. “I think that our whole business history has been one of taking advantage of opportunities as they arise.”

1. La Bella Celtica perform at the luncheon2. Premier Stelmach poses with MacEwan students visting from Ukraine3. The Dr. Charles Allard Chair in Business 2011 plaque for Mr. Kipnes’ offi ce4. Irving Kipnes receives congratulations from Dr. Paul Byrne and Mayor Stephen Mandel5. Over 400 guests attend a luncheon at the Westin Edmonton that honoured Irving Kipnes

In 2004, Liquor Depot merged with Liquor World and the new company went public, eventually growing to more than 235 stores located in Alberta, B.C. and the U.S. The company’s current market value is estimated at $350 million.

In addition to founding Liquor Depot, Kipnes is President and Managing Director of Delcon Development Group, a group of private companies that are actively involved

in real estate development.

Kipnes started his lengthy career in a seemingly different field, as a chemical engineer for Imperial Oil. But Kipnes says that job, which he held for four years, has helped him in his management positions. “I always

think of engineering as structured think-ing; it gives you a way of solving problems,” Kipnes says.

For Kipnes, the number one thing that he

“In many ways when Dr. Allard created his vision for this Chair, he was talking about someone like Mr. Kipnes,” says Mike Henry.

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credits his success to is hard work. “Life-work balance is a real code word for ‘I don’t want to work too hard right now,’” Kipnes says. “If you want to get ahead, there’s no substitute. You can have some luck, but the luck won’t be sustained unless there’s a lot of hard work.”

Kipnes’ success in business has been accom-panied by extensive philanthropy work, which is reflected in the theme of the 2011 Allard Chair, “Entrepreneurship and ‘Giving Back’ to the Community.”

“Mr. Kipnes really exemplifies what Dr. Allard’s vision was when he created the endow-ment,” says Mike Henry, Associate Dean of the School of Business. “Mr. Kipnes is a very


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Accounting MAjorTeam MacEwan takes a spot in the coveted Alberta COPS marketing competition to help attract new recruits to police services.

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successful businessperson who is also fun-damentally committed to our city and our province. He has really made major commit-ments both in word and deed in supporting Albertans. In many ways when Dr. Allard created his vision for this Chair, he was talk-ing about someone like Mr. Kipnes.”

Kipnes’ philanthropic work includes various initiatives with his wife, clinical psychologist Dr. Dianne Kipnes, through the Dianne and Irving Kipnes Foundation, like the Kipnes Veterans Centre and the Alberta Heart Institute. “I think [giving back] should be a part of everybody’s being, in that there are causes and people that need a hand up,” Kipnes says. “The biggest part of what I like to do is set examples for my peers to see that they can get involved too, because it’s so im-portant to give back to the community. You

can’t take it with you anyway.”For young students who might not yet

have the resources to donate money to their communities, Kipnes encourages them to donate their time. “Dedicate some time and volunteer effort and be part of something,” he says. “The advantage of that is that you

meet a lot of people and you get to see a lot more of how the world turns … there are so many doors that it opens in the future.”

That’s the type of advice Kipnes will share throughout his time in the position of Allard Chair in Business. “I think students will see that while Mr. Kipnes is very successful as a business person, he also operates from a very core set of values that’s not just about mak-ing money,” says Henry. “Of course it’s about getting a return on your investment, but it’s also about something bigger than that, in

terms of your contributions to your world.”In March, Kipnes was honoured at a lunch-

eon hosted by MacEwan School of Business that saw a record number of over 400 guests from the corporate, public and non-profit sectors in attendance. Special guests included His Honour, Col. Retired, Hon. Donald S. Ethell, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Premier Ed Stelmach, five Alberta Cabinet Ministers, Mayor Stephen Mandel, and four City Councillors.

Kipnes has also talked to three business classes at both the City Centre and South Campus about his background and experien-ces in business. “Working with the students was interesting because they’ve all got this interest in getting ahead,” says Kipnes.

And while the careers of those students are just beginning, Kipnes notes that his own career isn’t over yet. “Retirement – what does that mean?” he says. “If you enjoy what you’re doing, you don’t really have to retire from it. Because then what do you do, something you don’t enjoy doing? I’m doing things that are just as much fun today as they were 40 years ago.”

Irving Kipnes addressed over 400 guests from the corporate, public and non-profit sector at the luncheon for the 2011 Allard Chair

“If you want to get ahead, there’s no substitute [for hard work]. You can have some luck, but the luck won’t be sustained unless there’s a lot of hard work,” says Irving Kipnes.


A VALUABLE GIFTRBC’s generous donation will help enhance MacEwan’s curriculum

he educational philosophy at MacEwan says it all: “Our links with communities beyond the University – academic and professional, local and international – ensure

the relevance of learning activities and enable students to move confidently into the workforce or on to further educational opportunities.”

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By Victoria Boutilier

One of those links connects MacEwan with Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), in a loyal partnership that has seen RBC support the university since the school’s inception in 1971.

RBC has witnessed MacEwan grow from a community college to a university offering an array of certificate, diploma, applied degree, and baccalaureate degrees. In this time, RBC has demonstrated a continued generosity of community spirit through funding for students and teach-ing at MacEwan.

“The business world is continually changing and we are proud to be able to partner with the School of Business at Grant MacEwan University to help pre-pare graduates for the dynamic business environments they will be entering,” says Michelle Docking, RBC’s Vice President, Commercial Financial Services. “At RBC we believe that investing in education helps to build stronger communities where we live and work.”

At the 2011 Student Business Conference RBC announced a gift of $650,000 to the School of Business, a donation made possible through RBC’s charitable foundation. The Student Busi-ness Conference was an ideal way to make the donation known to students and the community simultaneously, as the event

brought together 700 students and 100 representatives from Edmonton’s business community.

The donation supports a unique Curriculum Enhancement Project that integrates professional skills program-ming across all business disciplines within MacEwan’s Bachelor of Commerce degree – an approach usually reserved for graduate-level programming.

MacEwan students will quickly start to see the benefits of the Curriculum Enhancement Project, as it is already being incorporated into the classrooms, and additional university programming.

The donation also helps solidify RBC’s outstanding reputation as a supporter of post-secondary education, with the com-pany also supporting institutions including the University of Calgary, the University of

Alberta, and Mount Royal University. The funding from RBC will give the

School of Business the opportunity to con-tinue to build on a unique undergraduate degree. Through the integration of seven professional skills that offer students a rel-evant, and thought-provoking education, students will be encouraged to inquire, communicate, navigate, and excel within the context of modern business.

School of Business Dean Elsie Elford says that these skills, paired with the recent donation, will benefit MacEwan students. “We’ve identified several key areas where students are able to gain practical, profes-sional skills and RBC’s gift will facilitate earlier implementation of these curriculum

enhancements and pro-vide funding to develop further innovations to the Bachelor of Commerce curriculum,” says Elford.

Learning and reinfor-cing these skills will serve as a great advantage for any student entering the workforce. These pro-fessional skills, which include everything from

business ethics to presentation skills, were identified and created in collaboration with local business leaders.

The funds from RBC will also be used to generate more interaction between Mac-Ewan students and the businesses com-munity, both locally and internationally. These developments will give graduates a great advantage when competing for jobs in the workforce.

“At RBC we believe that investing in education helps to build stronger communities where we live and work,” says Michelle Docking.


Melissa Ta and William Pasieka

A United Nations initiative for business schools around the

world comes to campus

THE SUSTAINABILITY

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By Victoria Boutilier and Joel Fridman

Participating business schools also commit to sharing progress reports on a regular basis. These reports are uploaded onto the PRME website where they are accessible to the public. This practice is aimed at ensuring the credibility of the initiative and to recognize the best per-formers and the best reporting academic institutions.

THE ORIGIN OF PRMEThe United Nations Global Compact Office (UNGC) first introduced the idea of PRME at a global forum in 2006. The UNGC, which is the branch that coordin-ates the participation of businesses at the UN, then set up a task force to create the six-principle framework. The organization designed the framework to mirror a simi-lar principle-based program for business, called the Global Compact, which was already in place. The Global Compact now has 5,300 business participants in 130 countries.

The Global Compact program and its 10 principles for corporations and small businesses differ from PRME, as PRME targets management education. The UNGC first presented the PRME initiative as a coherent project at the Global Lead-ers Summit in Geneva, Switzerland in 2007 in the presence of more than 1,000 business, civil society and government leaders.

The project was already well-received by 2008. The General Secretary of the UN, Ban Ki Moon, said at the time, “The initiative can serve as an effective guid-ing framework for a systemic curriculum change in the spirit of the Global Com-pact principles.”

Haertle explains that there are three components of PRME that drive the success of the initiative. First, PRME dis-tinguishes itself from other

acEwan School of Business has signed onto a United Nations initiative for business schools

around the world, called the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME). The move is part of MacEwan’s ongoing efforts to internationalize and become an enlightened educational institu-tion for the world’s future entrepreneurs and business managers.

The PRME initiative (pronounced “prime”) is a principles-based platform from which business schools can engage the next generation of business leaders. The initiative places internationally recognized values, such as human rights, labour rights, the environment and anti-corruption, into the foundations of management education.

PRME provides a framework of six principles for each participating business school to adopt. What makes PRME unique, however, is the execution methods of these

principles are open-ended. For example, each school can implement and adapt the principles in a manner which best highlights their strengths.

“Flexibility… is exactly what we have in mind,” says Jonas Haertle, PRME secretariat, speaking from his office at United Nations headquarters in New York City. “This is not like a tic-off [the box] exercise where a

school says that these are the standards that we have to fulfill in order to be part of the initiative.”

As schools join PRME, they choose their own way of adopting the six principles. “It is more about setting very high aspira-tions and the school then takes its own approach; that is what PRME is all about,” says Haertle.

By signing onto PRME, a school demonstrates its commitment to trans-forming aspects of academic life includ-ing curriculum, research and teaching methodologies. Guided by the principles, schools incorporate values that are critical to sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

PRME has more than 350 participants globally including MacEwan School of Business, which joined 12 other Canadian business schools when it recently signed onto PRME.

“PRME really embodies the creed and vision of the wider university that was laid out by our namesake Dr. Grant MacEwan,” says Mike Henry, Associate Dean of the School of Business. “We are very excited about our participation. It will include a range of projects and involvement oppor-tunities for our students and faculty here in Edmonton and abroad.”

“PRME really embodies the creed and vision of the wider university that was laid out by our namesake Dr. Grant MacEwan. We are very excited about our participation. It will include a range of projects and involvement opportunities for our students and faculty here in Edmonton and abroad,” says Mike Henry.

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responsible management initiatives in that it is truly a global call to business schools. It is backed by the UN and, rather than just being regional in scope, it encourages schools around the world to adapt their curriculum and learn new teaching methodologies.

Second, PRME responds to the demand of businesses, many of which are already involved with the Global Compact program. Businesses want the young professional to know how real efforts at sustainability can be infused into their business model. “The corporations that are going forward with putting sustainability and corporate respon-sibility at the core of their own operations,” Haertle says, “are actually asking for young managers coming out of business school to be adept in these new ideas.”

Finally, value is added to both sides. The way each business school tackles the six principles also brings strength to the frame-work of PRME. The flexible approach forms a community whereby schools can learn from each other. It is also a way to recognize a school’s efforts to be a leader in the community and in business.

SUSTAINABILITY AT MACEWANTo implement the initiative at MacEwan, the School of Business has formed a PRME Steering Committee that brings together administration, faculty and representatives from the student body.

Gordon Lucyk, Chair of the MacEwan PRME Steering Committee, was one of the key players who helped initiate MacEwan’s involvement with PRME. Lucyk initially came across the Global Compact business program in his research. He was interested in how the Global Compact emphasized the incorporation of certain values, such as sustainability, into active business models.

Lucyk and faculty colleague Makarand Gulawani attended a New York global

forum on PRME in 2008. At the time MacEwan was not a signatory of PRME, but Lucyk and Gulawani used the trip as an opportunity to learn, observe and meet enthusiastic leaders in business education.

“Most people attending the forum were the early adopters,” Lucyk says. “We were feeling it out, a combination research and networking exercise.”

On their return, Lucyk and Gulawani attended a faculty research focus meeting unrelated to PRME. At this meeting the pair learned definitively that MacEwan would be a good candidate to sign the initiative. No fewer than seven faculty members in the meeting mentioned sus-tainability as part of their research focus. As institutions that sign onto PRME agree to engage in such research, it seemed as though the faculty was already on board. MacEwan administration, including both the dean and associate dean, also showed enthusiasm and strong support towards the School of Business’ involvement with PRME.

STAKEHOLDERS JOIN INAnother important component to MacEwan’s approach to PRME is the way that students are involved with the initiative.

“When some of our faculty first talked to me about PRME, it made perfect sense that we sign on,” says Associate Dean Henry. “My hope for engaging in PRME is that we can encourage our entire aca-demic community, students and faculty, in discussions and debates about what is responsible management.”

The curriculum is a major component in aligning with the PRME principles. In one class, Global Business and Sustain-ability, students go through a number of models that discuss how businesses can approach sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

PRME, however, is about having more than just one course. It’s about weaving the six principles into the fabric of the curriculum. MacEwan is currently undertaking a curriculum review to evaluate how courses are incorporating PRME values in hopes to better integrate the principles across departments.

MacEwan School of Business will also be represented at the upcoming annual PRME conference at Rowan University in New Jersey. Students from the School of Business will be attending the conference and sharing MacEwan’s work on PRME.

Although MacEwan is in the early stages of PRME, the initiative’s start on campus has been encouraging to all involved.

MacEwan continues to implement PRME in a manner that brings together faculty, students and administration, so that all the stakeholders can contribute to the process and can work together to reach out to the community.

“MacEwan provides a great model that works well not only in MacEwan’s case, but should also serve as an example for others,” Haerlte says. He applauds the way MacEwan has approached implementing the initiative. “To see that at this stage of implementation there was already buy-in from faculty, students and administration was very impressive.”

PRME is a way to encourage schools to integrate values of sustainability and corporate responsibility across all busi-ness education courses. On a broader level, PRME tries to contribute to a differ-ent way of thinking for corporations and business and the people who lead those companies. PRME works not simply to change the way that business is taught in business schools, but to prepare busi-nesses to change. PRME creates a way for business to reach the ultimate goal of sustainability.


MacEwan School of Business participates in the United Nations’ PRME initiative and adopts the following Principles of Responsible Management Education:

We will develop the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy.

We will incorporate into our academic activities and curricula the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact.

We will create educational frameworks, materials, processes and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership.

We will engage in conceptual and empirical research that advances our understanding about the role, dynamics, and impact of corporations in the creation of sustainable social, environmental and economic value.

We will interact with managers of business corporations to extend our knowledge of their challenges in meeting social and environmental responsibilities and to explore jointly effective approaches to meeting these challenges.

We will facilitate and support dialogue and debate among educators, students, business, government, consumers, media, civil society organizations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related to global social responsibility and sustainability.

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The Principles of Responsible Management Education

A School of Business project is producing tangible benefi ts that extend far beyond the classroom walls

GLOBAL EXPERTISE: Jonas Haertle, PRME Secretariat with the United Nations, spoke to MacEwan students at the PRME launch on February 1, 2011. Haertle is pictured with Mike Henry, Associate Dean of the School of Business.

By Cailynn Klingbeil

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PRME IN PRACTICE

Bestselling author Dr. Simon Dolan presented the opening keynote address

business and society – and Gulawani’s students are learning by doing.

“These principles are in sustainability, environmental protection, values and social responsibility, community development, research and so on,” Gulawani says. “So with the City, we are preparing international marketing communications plans for the Edmonton Stories website; this is our tangible contribution.”

Mikhail Sorokin, a third-year Bachelor of Commerce student who will graduate next year with a Management major, is one of the students working on the project.

“The project uses our creativity and innovation and tries to put a twist on what

had already been established,” says Sorokin. He explains that there was already a lot of information available about the city on the website, but that it needed to be presented in a different, more user-friendly way. “It’s just the way in which it was presented that we helped with,” he says.

While MacEwan School of Business just officially signed onto PRME, Gulawani says he’s been using PRME in the classroom since he started teaching.

Since he came to MacEwan five years ago, Gulawani has been able to expand his work around PRME thanks to the atmosphere that he says exists on campus. “I have more of a chance, as well as more support and

PRME DIRECTIVE: Former MacEwan President Paul Byrne unveils a plaque listing the PRME principles

t’s one thing to be reading a theory from a textbook,” says Melissa Ta, “but it’s another to actually apply it.” Ta, a

fourth-year MacEwan B.Com student major-ing in International Business, definitely falls into the second category. She’s undertaking an extracurricular project led by Dr. Makarand Gulawani, an instructor in the Bachelor of Commerce program.

A small group of students from Gulawani’s International Marketing class have spent the semester completing market-ing research for a local website. Students have been applying the concepts they’ve learned in the classroom in a hands-on consulting role for the City of Edmonton.

The website, www.edmontonstories.ca, is a campaign led by the City of Edmonton and supported by Edmonton Economic Development Corporation. The site is de-signed to help attract people to Edmonton by raising awareness about the city and correct-ing misconceptions. On the website, citizens can share their stories of working in, living in and visiting Edmonton.

The project exemplifies how Gulawani incorporates the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) into his teaching work at MacEwan. The PRME initiative’s goal is to develop a new genera-tion of business leaders capable of managing the many challenges present in 21st century

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“Through this project we are able to interact with the city, and in that way interact with the community and actually contribute to development,” says Dr. Makarand Gulawani.

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encouragement,” he says, “to use PRME in the classroom.”

Gulawani teaches classes that cover topics such as international marketing, corporate social responsibility and consumer rights. The international focus of much of those course materials aligns closely with PRME, which includes a principle that emphasizes developing the capabilities of students to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy.

On a local level, Gulawani finds PRME to be very relevant. Two PRME principles – one research-focused, the other aimed at facilitating dialogue between students and business – apply directly to the Edmonton Stories project.

“Through this project we are able to interact with the city, and with the commun-ity and actually participate in development,” says Gulawani.

For fourth-year International Business major Alexandra Court, another student who is working on the Edmonton Stories project, the experience has been very rewarding.

“We’ve been able to apply some of the concepts that we’ve learned in school,” she says, “and try them out for ourselves.”

“It’s been good to get out into the com-munity and to help local businesses,” says Court, noting one of the group’s proposals

for the Edmonton Stories website is to have a tab featuring profiles of local businesses.

Fellow project participant Melissa Ta agrees. “It’s great to use our critical thinking skills,” she says. “We’re also able to apply the PRME principles while we’re doing the project.”

Sorokin sees the incorporation of PRME in the classroom as enhancing the qual-ity of learning that goes on at MacEwan. “MacEwan teaches you how to learn and be adaptable,” says Sorokin. “In business those are the most important things.”

In addition to supervising students on the website project, Gulawani is also leading a study tour to India that teaches students elements of doing business internationally. Concepts such as corporate responsibility, community development, interaction and dialogue are taught in a very hands-on way.

“Students will actually get an inside look into local organizations and institutions,” says Gulawani. “This is something unique. When we’re studying business practice in India, we’re not going to just be in techno-logical or highly modernized institutions, we’re looking beyond that.”

PRME aims to embed corporate respon-sibility and sustainability into the current academic environment at business schools and universities around the world. Gulawani

“Through this project we are able to interact with the city, and in that way interact with the community and actually contribute to development,” says Dr. Makarand Gulawani.

cites the fundraising work done by the stu-dents who are travelling to India as another example of PRME in action at MacEwan.

Gulawani and his students have a target of raising $2,500 to buy instruments for the science laboratories of Panhala High School in Maharashtra State, he says. On a previ-ous study tour, MacEwan students donated money to the Indian school to construct the laboratory, so the latest fundraising efforts are a natural progression. “We have an on-going relationship with the commun-ity,” says Gulawani. He says that business development and community development naturally go together.

Gulawani says incorporating PRME into his coursework has been an experience that involves innovation, along with the cooper-ation of many people along the way. “I contacted the city and said I would like a project that I can have students working on and we don’t want to do it just for the experi-ence, we also want to help the city. We want to do something tangible, not just something that is superficial.”

That’s exactly what Gulawani and his students received by working on Edmonton Stories and, in Gulawani’s opinion, such projects will be the way of the future. “It’s not something that’s extraordinary; it’s just the way of life.”

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COMMUNITY BUILDER: Makarand Gulawani incorporates PRME into his teaching working at MacEwan

SIGN FOR PRME: Sheila Steinhauer-Mozejko signs onto adopt the PRME principles as a symbol of her commitment to the new initiative


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Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) is more than just another student club. With participation from 48,000 students in over 40 countries, the global non-profit has literally been changing the world since its

inception in 1975 in the United States. With a mission to bring together the top leaders of today and tomorrow to create a better, more sustain-able world through the positive power of business, SIFE gives students the opportunity to make a real difference by initiating projects that empower their local and global communities.

In Canada, SIFE is operated by Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE), a national organization whose mandate is to turn the students of today into the leaders of tomorrow. Committed to giving students a plat-form from which to launch real-life projects that impact their world, ACE took on SIFE as its flagship program in the 1990s when the SIFE Board of Directors decided to expand internationally.


By Victoria Boutilier and Asia Szkudlarek

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HELPING HANDSA new student club at MacEwan

is part of a global effort to change the world

commitment to incorporating global respon-sibility into our education.”

Co-President William Pasieka, who is in his last year of studies in the Bachelor of Commerce program with a major in Inter-national Business, says that SIFE is an ideal connector between the School of Business and the Greater Edmonton community. “I know that MacEwan in general wants to become more integrated with its surround-ing community, and I see SIFE being able to bridge that gap,” he says.

Leadership and team-building are just two of the many skills that students develop through their participation in SIFE. By teaching the fundamentals of free enter-prise to their communities, including the concepts of financial literacy, environmental sustainability, business ethics and entrepre-neurship, students apply what they learn in the classroom, broadening their horizons and gaining experience as project managers

“Our mission is to teach and ignite young Canadians to create a brighter future for themselves and their communities,” says Preston Aitken, Manager of Program De-velopment at ACE. An alumnus of the SIFE team at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Preston knows first-hand the value of this unique initiative. “There’s no better way to build socially-responsible business leaders than through a program like SIFE,” he says.

It’s not difficult to see how the SIFE model fits in with recent developments and initiatives of MacEwan School of Business. When Bachelor of Commerce instructor Gordon Lucyk first learned about SIFE during the Alberta Deans of Business Case Competition at Calgary’s Mount Royal University in 2009, the connection was auto-matic. “We knew that SIFE would create a real impact for our students,” he says. “The feedback we received from other SIFE teams we connected with reaffirmed our enthusi-asm and interest in getting involved.”

With overwhelming support from School of Business Dean Elsie Elford, it became evident that SIFE would become a strategic imperative at MacEwan. A SIFE faculty advisory committee was formed, includ-ing instructors Gordon Lucyk, Makarand Gulawani, Evandro Bocatto, Eloisa Perez, and Victor Bilodeau, and on February 4, 2011, approximately twenty students partici-pated in an inaugural SIFE training session, hosted by Preston Aitken from ACE. Those who were subsequently interested in tak-ing a leadership role were invited to apply for executive positions, and the MacEwan School of Business SIFE team was born.

“From a student’s point of view, the best education we can get is one that reflects the world we will work in,” says Jamie Campbell, SIFE MacEwan team Co-President and first-year Management Studies student. “Having the opportunity to join SIFE while at school only reinforces the faculty’s dedication to our education and success. It also demonstrates MacEwan’s

while creating solutions to quality-of-life problems that these communities face.

The end result is a sense of empowerment on both sides, as students feel a great sense of pride in sharing their business knowledge while the people they serve are equipped with the tools necessary to achieve their own success. Currently, SIFE teams world-wide are working on 8,700 projects totaling almost five-million volunteer hours.

Although SIFE is a flexible program, ACE provides students with a number of resources that they can use to build their team. “One of the beautiful things about SIFE is that no two teams are alike,” says Aitken. “We really allow each team to adapt to its institution and environment, because that’s what will make them sustainable as an organization.”

Instead of dictating a set of projects, SIFE teams are given the reigns to work with the basic outline of these topics while

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customizing their approach to meet the diverse needs of people in different com-munities. The end result is a program that is global in scope and purpose with the flex-ibility of a community-based organization.

Every Fall, ACE hosts provincial leader-ship forums where SIFE students are brought together for a day of leadership training, career connections and networking with local business leaders. In addition, the Student Success Initiative allows students to land interviews with SIFE donor companies, while the Talent Community provides them with an extensive database of job postings exclusively aimed at SIFE participants.

To showcase their community efforts in a larger setting, SIFE teams have the oppor-tunity to participate in a series of annual competitions, including regionals, nationals and the coveted SIFE World Cup. Business leaders serving as judges evaluate the results of each team’s projects and their involve-

ment creates a link between SIFE and the real-world business community.

The competition aspect of SIFE pushes students to achieve results while fostering a sense of accountability. It’s also a tremen-dous opportunity to share best practices, ideas, and become inspired by hundreds of students who share the same drive, ambi-tion and values that are so prominent in those who participate in the SIFE program.

For new teams in particular, competi-tions are their first exposure to the pas-sion and excitement of the SIFE program. MacEwan SIFE Co-Presidents Campbell and Pasieka got a first-hand look at what SIFE competitions are all about when they attended the Western Canada Regionals in Calgary in March. “When we arrived at the venue and saw how excited the teams were, it was infectious,” says Campbell. The stu-dents were impressed by the commitment from other SIFE teams and the level of

excellence in the projects presented, and were surprised that the event seemed more like a celebration than a competition. “It didn’t seem to matter who won, just that everyone there had contributed to the cause and they were very proud of it,” says Campbell.

As one of the newest initiatives at MacEwan School of Business, SIFE has been received by both students and faculty with enthusiasm and excitement. Having what Aitken describes as “one of the biggest buy-ins of any new team”, SIFE MacEwan is ready to pinpoint the areas of greatest need in our community and dive headfirst into new projects this fall. “There a few very important stakeholders for every SIFE team – faculty, students, and administra-tion, and the community,” says Aitken. “To have all of those stakeholders tied in from the initiative’s inception demonstrates that Grant MacEwan University really is an insti-tution that believes in the SIFE program and really is committed to making it a success.”

Campbell and Pasieka hope that through SIFE at MacEwan, they can increase aware-ness in the community of local and global issues, impact the lives of others in a posi-tive way, and engage students from across different faculties in socially responsible activities. “We not only want the SIFE team to achieve results, but to be a sustainable organization that will continue to flourish with each new influx of students,” says Campbell.


“Our mission is to teach and ignite young Canadians to create a brighter future for themselves and their communities. There’s no better way to build socially-responsible business leaders than through a program like SIFE,” says Preston Aitken.

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s a child, Lucille Mazo would escape the city to her grandmother’s farmin Saskatchewan every summer. There, Mazo was surrounded by nature and quickly became immersed in a rural way of life. Mazo attributes

those annual trips with spurring her interest in sustainability – an interest that has driven her to become involved in a variety of initiatives on MacEwan’s campus.

“We would spend hours at the creek observing the bugs floating across the water,” says Mazo, a Technical Communications instructor at MacEwan, of those summer days at the farm. “We would look at how the fields grow, we’d watch how you milk the cows… to be a part of that at a very young age, it was quite stunning and that impact has carried through-out the rest of my life.”

Mazo currently sits on the Sustainability Advisory Committee at MacEwan and has served on other planning committees around campus-wide sustainability priorities. “We’ve looked at how and why we can make things sustainable, and how that fits into the

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MacEwan’s single sustainable campus plan is one of the many ongoing environmental initiatives at the university


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grander scheme of one single sustainable campus,” says Mazo.

The single sustainable campus plan, which was approved in September 2009 by MacEwan’s Board of Governors, will see the operations of all four MacEwan campuses consolidated on the downtown campus. Completion of the plan is at least a decade away.

“I think it’s exciting, this idea of getting all the campuses together in one place” says Dave Buchanan, an instructor in the department of English and the Chair of the Sustainability Advisory Committee. “We’ve been scattered across the city in these four

“We’ve been scattered across the city in these four campuses… by getting everyone all together on one downtown campus, I think it’s going to be pretty neat to have all the programs together,” says Dave Buchanan.

campuses…. By getting everyone all together on one downtown campus, I think it’s going to be pretty neat to have all the programs together.”

Mike Henry, Associate Dean, School of Business, agrees. “It will be a big move for the School of Business, because our faculty and staff are currently housed on two cam-puses,” says Henry. “I think [with this plan]

there is the potential for creating synergy of programs and some efficiencies, and it’s also going to help to create identity for our school and create closer collaboration between programs.”

Henry says that in addition to minimizing business students commuting back and forth between two campuses, the one sustainable campus plan will also help faculty to

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collaborate on research to a greater extent than is currently possible.

“It also makes it easier for faculty to teach in different programs. If we have a special-ist in a particular area, right now they will maybe teach in three different programs but they’re on two different campuses. So with the logistics of travel time, it will be much more efficient if they’re able to maximize what they’re good at and be able to apply it to different programs.”

In addition to that one sustainable campus plan, a variety of sustainability initiatives currently exist on campus. “The students and the faculty, everybody, seems to have more of an interest in this kind of thing,” says Buchanan. “They’re looking at where they work or where they go to school and starting to ask questions and see what they can do to make things better.”

Another factor driving MacEwan’s efforts around sustainability is the hiring of a sustainability officer in November 2009. Sustainability Officer, Dana Schmidt, over-sees many campus initiatives, including the development of a campus sustainability plan. The plan will address sustainability from various perspectives, including education, basic operations and future goals, and a draft of the plan is expected to be completed this spring.

The Sustainability Advisory Committee has been supporting Schmidt in the creation of that plan, and the committee recently helped host focus groups to engage faculty, staff and students. Issues around sustain-ability were discussed and the data collected from those focus groups, held in January and February, was used to develop the sustain-ability plan. An ongoing online survey also allows members of the MacEwan community to contribute their feedback.

“Now we’re rolling out those ideas from the focus groups and making sure that they are feasible and usable. Some of them have been played out already,” says Mazo, citing the Caps Off for Kids Program, launched in October 2010. Green buckets placed throughout the City Centre Campus build-ings collect plastic bottle caps, which are then taken to the bottle depot. All the money raised is donated to the Rainbow Society of Alberta.

Another initiative recently reached com-pletion, with 250 MacEwan staff moving into the new University Service Centre located on

WHAT DOES SUSTAINABILITY MEAN TO YOU? “I see sustainability as a responsibility. Whoever you are and however you see that responsibility, it is your task to figure that out. It’s our responsibility, period. There’s no walking away from it; it’s there front and centre and exists and it will not go away. ” – Lucille Mazo

“There’s the traditional view of aligning our social, environmental and economic pillars and making sure that we can sustain them into the future. For me, though, sustain-ability is also about envisioning a better world where we’re balanced with nature and ourselves. It’s about being innovative and creative and building a resilient future.” – Dana Schmidt

“There’s that old definition of preparing and making sure we’re going to have a world that’s as good for the next generation as it was for us, and I still think that definition works in lots of ways. One of the simplest definitions out there is sustainable systems are ones that are going to work and are going to last and they’re not going to break down because of some internal or external force upon them, so I think a combination of those two definitions [is what sustainability means to me].” – Dave Buchanan

“It will be a big move for the School of Business, because currently we are housed on two campuses. I think [with this plan] there is the potential for creating synergy of programs and effi ciencies,” says Mike Henry.

the top level of the City Centre Campus’ west parkade. The new building, which is now home to the Office of Sustainability, marked the completion of one of the first phases of MacEwan’s single sustainable campus plan.

“The centre is pretty unique because it didn’t take up any additional space or footprint, and it’s built to LEED Silver standard,” says Schmidt. “It’s a really in-novative concept.”

While Schmidt oversees the prepara-tion and eventual implementation of the sustainability plan for campus, another part of Schmidt’s job is to act as a resource to the MacEwan community.

“It could be students who are working on a project and want some help to under-stand sustainability, or faculty members who want to incorporate sustainability into their course and maybe want me to come and speak to their students, or other staff who are working on projects and just want me to be a resource and help them,” says Schmidt of her work.

An important piece of the many sustain-ability initiatives on campus, says Mazo, is incorporating the concept of sustainability into the classroom, through existing pro-grams as well as new ones.

“As we educate students [around sus-tainability], they’re able to bring forth new ideas and apply those within MacEwan,” says Mazo. “They become role models and ambassadors within this setting … and it begins right in the classroom.”


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MacEwan alumni returns to the program he graduated from, this time as its manager

PRACTICUM PROVIDERS

or Ron Huber, being hired on last summer as the manager of Japan practicums for MacEwan’s Asia

Pacifi c Management program is a return to his roots. As a member of the program’s fi rst graduating class back in 1998, Huber was matched to a practicum at a Tokyo ad agency and came out of it with a job. He spent the next fi ve years living and working in Japan before returning to Canada in 2003.

Connections like the ones he forged and the experience he gained during that time are of great benefi t to students in MacEwan’s two-year program. Huber – who previously made an annual trip home to Edmonton to speak to Asia Pacifi c Management students – now takes a hands-on role in helping students launch suc-cessful international careers by setting up and co-ordinating their Japan practicums.

It’s as rewarding an experience for him as it is for the students, says Huber, who also teaches law at MacEwan and made his fi rst trip to Japan at 16. “Visiting the practicum providers [in December] was the highlight of my year because I hadn’t been back to Japan for a couple years.”

The trip, his fi rst as practicum man-ager, gave him the opportunity to liaise with new practicum providers as well as connect with old colleagues and en-list their participation in the program. Later this year, Huber will squeeze in a second jaunt to Japan to visit his practi-cum students while they’re on the job.

MacEwan offers Japan practicums in Sapporo or Tokyo. Placements can last anywhere from six weeks to three months, and they range from logistics positions steeped in tradition in Hokkaido, complete with morning greetings and group exercises in the yard, to fast-paced posts in busy Tokyo PR agencies. The most coveted posi-tion of all, says Huber, is with offi ce equipment leader Konica Minolta. Unlike most internships available to students, this one is both paid and inclusive of dorm accommodations.

“It’s kind of like the gold standard of practicums,” he explains, describing the in-depth and personal recruitment process for this particular position. “The president of Konica Minolta Canada

has the students write an essay on a topic, then he fl ies out from Toronto and interviews them one on one and chooses one student who’ll spend two months at Konica Minolta headquarters in Tokyo.”

Although Konica Minolta’s all-in-clusive package is atypical, students at other practicums aren’t left hanging when it comes to comes to fi nding liv-ing quarters. The school has a relation-ship with a landlady in Sapporo who keeps three apartments available for visiting students in exchange for their participation in the community. “She’s very well-to-do. She has a number of buildings and she loves to visit with these Canadian students. She has them get involved in the neighbourhood watch program and teaching kids English at night as a volunteer thing,” says Huber.

Students with practicums based in Tokyo generally connect with gradu-ates from previous years for advice on accommodations. “There are short-term accommodations specifi cally for foreign-ers throughout Japan and the students generally speak to the students from the previous year to get introduced to the contacts at the residences.”

With the effects of the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami still reverberating through Japan, the start dates for 2011 practicums have been pushed back until further notice. “It’s kind of up in the air at the moment,” Huber says. “Hopefully those issues will get sorted out and the students will be able to go later on in the year.”

He confi rms that no MacEwan practi-cum students were in Japan at the time, and that the practicum providers the school works with “are all fi ne.”


By Robin Schroffel

Ron Huber is pictured with Konica Minolta employees at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo

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MacEwan students go international, on group study tours to Brazil and on work terms in Japan

BRAZILWith economic forecasts for the United States looking a little cloudy, Canada is now turn-ing to the rest of the world for new opportunities. So too is Grant MacEwan University, says Dr. Evandro Bocatto, the school’s Management Major Co-ordinator. Bocatto, who is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, led fourth-year MacEwan business students on the inaugural study tour to his homeland this May. He used his ties to the country to craft a rich and diverse itinerary that gave the group a thorough grounding in the country’s business and cultural practices. Bocatto hopes this exposure will encourage students to reach out beyond Canada’s borders when they embark on their careers.

According to Bocatto, spending a term in a foreign country is common practice in Europe – one that’s less feasible for Canadian students due to the long distances involved. However, he’s confident the compact study tour, based on an “ABC” principle – academic visits, business visits and cultural experiences – will offer students similar value. “It’s a responsibility to invest in and create an international mental frame,” says Bocatto.

LONG DISTANCE LEARNING

Sunday, May 8

After a day of travel, students and escorts arrived in Sao Paulo. The day was left free for students to explore and go to the mall, allowing them to relax before the long week ahead.

Monday, May 9

Students visited a sugarcane planta-tion before touring Raizen, a joint Shell-Cosan project that produces ethanol from sugarcane. According to Bocatto, 95 per cent of vehicles in Brazil are hybrids that use ethanol. “Our cars are powered by sugar,” he says. “Isn’t that sweet?” In the afternoon, the group checked out Fibralit, a fibreglass company with ties to Edmon-ton, before dropping in to Veris to meet students.

Wednesday, May 11

Sao Paolo’s Bovespa is the third biggest stock exchange in the world, and stu-dents were treated to an insider tour, followed by a tour of Banco Santander,the Spanish bank that’s also the big-gest international bank in Brazil.

Thursday, May 12

At Porto de Santos, the main port of Brazil, students visited Santos Brasil Logistics, the largest logistics company in South America. Afterwards, they headed out to a Sao Paulo business school where they watched a video on cachaça, Brazil’s most popular distilled alcoholic beverage, made from sugarcane.

Friday, May 13

On this busy day, the group viewed a presentation at the Canadian consulate before heading over to the Canada/Brazil Chamber of Com-merce. Next, they saw a presentation at Semco, the most famous company in Brazil. Finally, students visited Taubate University, known for its social projects. The night was spent resting up for the weekend visit to Ubatuba.

Tuesday, May 10

Promon, a tele-communications company, welcomed the students to its facility in the mor-ning. Later in the day, they went shoe shopping, visiting a dealer who special-izes in a popular Brazilian brand of shoes. “Brazilian shoes are inter-nationally known,” says Bocatto.

By Robin Schroffel


Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15

The students trav-elled southeast of Sao Paulo to explore the Atlantic Forest, an incredibly diverse ecological region near the country’s border. The group hiked the Seven Falls Trail before returning to spend the night in a rustic hotel.

Monday May 16

Students enjoyed a rare morning of total relaxation. In the afternoon, the group flew to Florianopolis, the island capital of Santa Catarina State. “Paradise,” agreed all the students.

Wednesday, May 18

The first five hours of the day were spent learning capoeira, a Brazilian martial art rooted in dance that was originally developed by slaves hoping to rebel against or escape plantation owners. Later in the day, the group participated in another national pastime, football, or soccer as it’s known in North America.

Sunday, May 22

After two packed weeks of memorable educational and cultural experiences in Brazil, the group headed home to Edmonton.

Tuesday, May 17

A two-hour early morning surf class made a great start to the day before their afternoon visit to Certi Foundation, a business incubator that partners with companies all over the world. They completed their day with a trip to Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, where they met with students and faculty.

Thursday, May 19

Another beautiful, relaxing day – this time spent enjoying sun and sand at one of Florianopolis’s 47 beaches. In the evening, it was on to Rio de Janeiro,the country’s former capital.

By Robin Schroffel

Friday, May 20

There was another visit to a school to-day – only this time, it was the corporate university at Petrobras, a global leader in energy. Afterwards, the group trekked over to the statue of Christ the Redeem-er, perhaps the best-known landmark in Brazil.

Saturday, May 21

A visit to the Mara-cana gave students the opportunity to see the biggest stadium in the world (capacity: 82,238). The Sambadrome, a famous parade street, was the chosen destination for the afternoon.


“We went to a mall, and there was a kimono and yukata clothing store. They had a festival coming up, so many people were buying trad-itional clothing. When we were passing by, the lady there pulled me in and said, ‘Would you like to try them?’ They were kind of expensive so I told her, ‘I can’t really buy one.’ She said, ‘That’s okay, we just want to show you a good time.’ They liked dressing me up for some reason.”

JAPANAsia Pacific Management diploma program graduate Andrea Choumikhina got a firsthand education in Japanese business last year when she spent two and a half months in Sapporo, Hokkaido, on a practicum with AJIS, the largest inventory company in Japan. While sta-tioned in the company’s head office, Choumikhina learned the essentials of Japanese busi-ness etiquette, including how to hold a paper properly during meetings and at what angle to position her feet while standing. She was then sent out into the field as part of a logistics and inventory team. Her tasks included a 10 hour overnight inventory shift at a clothing retailer and a count at a 7-11, where she was in charge of the health products section.

Choumikhina’s work experience was valuable, but equally important was her immersion in Japanese culture. From shopping at the dollar store (“I was surprised; it’s much higher quality”) to dining at favourite sushi restaurant Kaiten, where orders arrived via a miniature bullet train, Japan proved to be thoroughly delightful. Much of Choumikhina’s cultural exposure came through her boss at AJIS, who not only took her to Tokyo, Otaru and many destinations surrounding Sapporo during his off-time, but also invited her to the temple ceremony of his only son’s wedding. “He was really generous,” she says. “I can’t express how grateful I am because he took a lot of time and effort to do that.”


“I was invited to my boss’s son’s wedding – a traditional wedding. It was such a big deal because, from what I’ve been told, not many Japanese people get to even see a traditional wedding anymore. Usually the traditional ceremony only includes very close relatives and friends – there were maybe 30 people at most in the shrine, as well as priests and priestesses. It was amazing.”

“This is a cultural festival at Hokkaido University, which has a lot of international students. They put up booths with different cultural things including food, and you can go around and buy food from different countries. There were a lot of kids wearing those crazy costumes, attracting people to come and visit their booths.”

My boss volunteers at the cultural immersion parade every year, and I got to wear trad-itional clothes and participate in the parade. Everybody on the street was so surprised seeing a foreigner wearing the clothes. They were saying, ‘Oh, you look so good!’ and, ‘Congratulations!’”

“This is the Love Earth Hokkaido cleanup event; our company participated in it every year. Everybody brought their spouses and their kids. For one day, we all went out and picked up garbage from the street in the Susukino region. There wasn’t much garbage – a couple of cigarette butts, maybe, and an occasional empty pop can. Everybody in the company was joking that it was just an excuse to get a barbecue afterwards.”


A group of MacEwan’s international students


By Robin Schroffel

FRESH FACES FRESH FRESH FRESH FRESH FACESFACESFACESFACESFACESFACESFACESFACESFACESFACESFACESFACESFACES

An atmosphere of support helps international students who are new to campus, and the city, adjust to MacEwan life

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MacEwan have been a highlight for Barot, who enjoys the style of teaching offered and describes it as “really awesome.”

“In India, the teachers teach every-thing from the fi rst page to last page. They never miss any pages. They are not giving us any kinds of assignments or anything. This is not practical knowledge that’s provided, but here [at MacEwan], they provide everything,” she says.

Barot was particularly impressed by the teaching methods used in her busi-ness law class, a subject she previously tackled while getting her degree in human resources and event planning in India. “Our instructor gave us an assignment – a mock trial. It’s different. In my coun-try, that is not possible,” she explains.

The online elements of her MacEwan education are another point Barot says she particularly appreciates. “In my country, there is no online educa-tion. There is always a written exam and quizzes; everything is written in front of the instructor. Here it is not – it is online exams, online assignments, online quizzes and everything.”

With students like Barot being so far from home, Itler says that it was impor-tant for the students from India to make new social ties, to continue practicing elements of their culture and to share their traditions with the other students at MacEwan. To that end, Ilter helped Indian students organize a pair of so-cial mixers that included cultural danc-ing and food. The resounding success of these events led to the formation of the MacEwan Indian Students Club.

Barot says that the club performs a similar function to what Ilter did for the students. It’s a peer group that they can go

to for guidance and help with adjusting to life abroad. The club is also known to throw a great party: “India is a country of festivals, and we celebrate all the festivals [with the club] so that everyone feels at home here at university,” Barot says.

MacEwan International’s success is not limited to its students from India. The school has maintained a long relation-ship with the International Institute of Business in Kyiv, Ukraine. According to Monika Weber, the MacEwan staffer in charge of logistics and administra-tion for the program, the partnership has seen more than 250 Management Studies students complete their practi-cums in Edmonton since 1999.

The students from the Ukraine spend a total of seven weeks in Edmonton, including one week of orientation and six weeks of full-time work. Aside from the obvious perks of travel time and English-language immersion, the practicum stu-dents also benefi t from the international management experience, says Weber. “They want to know about business practices here in Canada… and also to see how what they study is applied.”

acEwan offers plenty of op-portunities for its students to study abroad and thanks

to MacEwan International, the favour is being returned to international stu-dents in kind. MacEwan welcomes more than 900 individuals from 60 coun-tries, including India and the Ukraine, to its various programs each year.

A long relationship with a Ukraine partner school means Ukrainian practi-cum students have been spending time in Edmonton at the end of their Management Studies programs for the last 12 years. An increasing number of students from India are also studying on campus, with 77 students enrolled for the fall 2010 term.

Candan Ilter was brought on board last year to help international students adjust to life in Canada. She was on hand at South Campus to help them through their initial transitions, guiding them through everything from how to apply for health care to where to shop for familiar foods and ways of fi nding work on campus.

“I started to build up chat groups to improve their English here and I orga-nized some other offerings to them,” says Ilter. “We try to build up social confi dence and create enhanced self-es-teem and confi dence, which can result in greater academic involvement.”

Building confi dence is also a major goal for many international students, including Bhumika Barot. Barot, an MBA graduate, came to MacEwan from Ahmedabad, Gurjat, India, in August 2010 after spending four years working in the U.K. She came to MacEwan for a Management Studies diploma, which she says will help to improve her re-sumé. The educational opportunities at


FRESH FACES

cial mixers that included cultural danc-ing and food. The resounding success of these events led to the formation of the MacEwan Indian Students Club.


obvious perks of travel time and English-language immersion, the practicum stu-dents also benefi t from the international management experience, says Weber. “They want to know about business practices here in Canada… and also to see how what they study is applied.”

of these events led to the formation of the MacEwan Indian Students Club.


language immersion, the practicum stu-dents also benefi t from the international management experience, says Weber. “They want to know about business practices here in Canada… and also to see how what they study is applied.”

similar function to what Ilter did for the students. It’s a peer group that they can go

dents also benefi t from the international management experience, says Weber. “They want to know about business practices here in Canada… and also to see how what they study is applied.” see how what they study is applied.” see how what they study is applied.”

M

HOMEWELCOMEBy Erin McCarty


TOP JOB: David Atkinson, Grant MacEwan University’s new president

HOME

acEwan’s transition from college to university continues as it prepares to welcome its fourth president, Dr. David Atkinson, on July 1, 2011.

Atkinson may be the new guy on campus but he is no stranger to the world of academia. With a PhD in English Literature and experience as president of Brock University, Carleton University, and most recently Kwantlen Polytechnic University in B.C., Atkinson is a proven leader with a range of expertise.

Atkinson’s move to MacEwan is also a homecoming: Atkinson grew up in Alberta and began his academic career in the province. He received much of his post-secondary education at the University of Calgary and then taught at the University of Lethbridge for 15 years.

Following his appointment as president of Kwantlen Polytechnic in 2008, Atkinson saw the institution through the transition from a college to a university. He expects that many of the challenges Kwantlen faced are not dissimilar to ones MacEwan has already faced, or may experience in the future.

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David Atkinson returns to Alberta, this time as Grant MacEwan University’s new president


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“[ATKINSON] REALLY HAS EXCELLENT EXPERIENCE AND HE UNDERSTANDS THE CITY VERY WELL,” SAYS JOHN DAY.

“There is a change in culture, inclusivity issues, and sometimes a fear,” says Atkinson of the transition from a college to a university. “Being called a university means something very specific, especially in terms of governance and academic program priorities. But with a lot of patience, under-standing, and proper communication, it can be weathered.”

Under Atkinson’s tenure, Kwantlen increased its scope and number of programs offered. Atkinson also presided over a sig-nificant increase in student enrolment, with Kwantlen expanding its student population every year since Atkinson joined the school.

As Atkinson prepares for his own personal transition into his new role at MacEwan, he expresses an awareness of what has come before him. “People underestimate what it means to make this change,” says Atkinson. “There is lots of success, but every now and again things go sideways. Even so, it’s about finding a way to go forward. MacEwan has a strategic plan that was well thought out, and any new president has to be respectful of the processes in place.”

Though Atkinson’s background is not in business, he understands how important business schools are to their institutions.

“There’s no question that business is the area where students are gravitating towards. Business schools are natural windows to the outside world. And the affinity of a busi-ness school has a profound impact on an institution’s reputation.”

Atkinson sees great potential with the new Commerce degree being offered at MacEwan and how it can work in tandem with the career-niched diplomas. He hopes to continue forging and developing other areas of discipline within the business school.

“Business faculties are very sensitive about standing with the competition. There’s no question that they are the flag-ship programs for any university,” says Atkinson. “MacEwan has an enormous strategic advantage with its location, right

in the centre of things. The chal-lenge will be for them to continue to take advantage of this.”

For MacEwan grads like Tim Dawson, the fact

that current students can now complete their degrees at the institution is a welcome change.

Dawson transferred from MacEwan to the University of Alberta in 2001 by way of the Bachelor of Commerce university trans-fer program. Dawson, who is now a CA and partner at Meyers Norris Penny LLP, says he would have remained at MacEwan had a full degree been offered.

“Many of the instructors had practical experience, and I felt the classes were more hands on and less theoretical,” says Daw-son. “I also really liked MacEwan’s atmos-phere because of the small class sizes.”

“MacEwan seems very interested in ser-vice to their community, which extends to service to the city and service to the prov-ince. That’s the great thing about MacEwan, because it seems to have a tremendous pride about what it stands for,” he says.

It is that same sense of pride that will greet Atkinson upon his arrival in July. Atkinson says he is passionate about help-ing MacEwan, and the School of Business, achieve multiple goals in the upcoming year. “I look forward to fulfilling whatever ambitions they have,” Atkinson says.

MacEwan Board of Governors Chair, John Day, is looking forward to supporting the new president as he helps guide MacEwan as a university.

“I think [Atkinson’s] leadership will be a strong, steady hand,” says Day. “He really has excellent experience and he under-stands the city very well. He is coming to an institution that he understands well ... and he believes strongly in the mission of MacEwan. We feel he will be a very quali-fied, good leader for our institution.”

Day says that Atkinson’s prior experience at an institution that was going through a major transition will serve him well at MacEwan.

“Kwantlen transitioned from a college to a university very successfully ... I think he’s just the right guy for us and he can enjoy the full confidence of the Board.”

SHIFTING GEARS

MacEwan’s retired president and CEO has helped position the school as a top-quality institution poised for continued growth

While Grant MacEwan University’s third president and CEO, Dr. Paul Byrne, retired in the spring of 2011, his pas-sion for top-quality instruction at the undergraduate level continues to set the tone for education at the school. Under Byrne’s leadership, MacEwan became a leading university focused on serving the needs of its students. Byrne helped position the school for new programs, new students and more expansion.

Byrne previously served as MacEwan’s Dean of Business and by his retirement in March 2011, he had seen the college-turned-university through 14 years.

In that time, the campus grew at a breakneck pace, doubling in size within six years. Through the growth, the school has become a leading institu-tion that is focused on undergraduate instruction.

During the transition from college to university, Byrne worked to ensure MacEwan maintained its reputation for quality instruction. “The challenge is to be a bit of a hybrid,” Byrne says. “That is, to still maintain certificates and diplomas as vehicles where individuals can com-mence academic activity and then move through to degree completion.”

Providing a variety of options for students was an important part of the school’s philosophy under Byrne’s leadership, and will continue to be in the future. “[Some educators] assumed everybody learns the same way, and that’s not true,” Byrne says. “We’ve shown that time after time.”

Byrne left office with forward-looking plans that will see MacEwan – which already serves 42,000 learners – grow well after he’s gone. In his retirement, Byrne will continue to promote and help co-ordinate post-secondary education. Nevertheless, he says, “It’s time for me to move on and for someone else to move us forward.”– Geoff Morgan

WELCOME HOME


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FACULTY PROFILES

Rickard EnströmInstructor, B. Com program

By Robin Schroffel


By Robin SchroffelBy Robin SchroffelBy Robin Schroffel

p.42 aspire

INTERDISCIPLINARY EXPERTISE How an instructor from Sweden has quickly earned the reputation of awesome

Rickard Enström is a busy man. He balances teaching gigs at both Grant MacEwan and the University of Alberta with his partnership in management consulting business dePath, his pos-itions as treasurer of the Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada and as an advisor to the Swedish-Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Not to mention, play-ing the synthesizer in his long-distance band, the Delicious Fish. Somehow the Stockholm, Sweden native still finds the time to hang out at local cafés and check out live music at venues around town.

It’s an approach to life that mirrors Enström’s varied educational background, which includes a master’s degree in civil engineering, bachelor’s degree in surveying and a PhD in marketing “I usually say that I am a multidisciplinary person with an interdisciplinary mindset,” says Enström.

Enström’s first visit to Canada was in 1998 when he spent five months working on a research project at the University of Victoria (UVic). The experi-ence broadened his horizons in a last-ing way. “That changed my life quite a bit. I fell in love with Canada,” he says. “I decided that I would find a way of coming back to Canada one day.”

It was Enström’s first time doing aca-demic research; his work at UVic eventually led him to accept a research assistant job at the Stockholm School of Economics, where he worked on a project related to Sweden’s 1990s financial crisis. He was tasked with analyzing all commercial property transactions in the country between 1980

and 2000 in order to determine whether specific properties had been wrongly ap-praised with the support of the Swedish government. “Gradually, I got to realize that maybe academic studies as a career was something that I wanted to pursue.”

In the year 2000, Enström was in-vited to attend a business conference in Edmonton. During his four-day stay in the city, faculty members encouraged him to apply to the school’s PhD pro-gram. He was accepted and in August 2001, made the move to Canada.

For his PhD thesis, Enström focused on consumer behavior. He looked at the differ-ence between when people make decisions independently versus making them in a group context. In a series of experiments, reminiscent of game shows like Let’s Make A Deal or Million Dollar Money Drop, Enström assessed attitudes towards risk. “It was a melting pot, basically, of psychology, eco-nomics, marketing, consumer behavior and sociology to some extent,” says Enström.

Enström joined MacEwan last May as a contract instructor and has quickly earned a reputation among students as an “awesome” teacher. He speculates that his teaching style, which emphasizes practical knowledge, putting the lessons in context and picking and choosing the most import-ant information, might have something to do with it. “I go back and forth between macro perspective and micro perspective. I think it’s stimulating for the brain to do that and it has a more favorable learn-ing outcome,” he says. “We have to ask, what are the most important things in the course? I take that and emphasize it.”

FACULTY PROFILESFACULTY PROFILES


How one faculty member’s keen interest in effi ciency is driving change

STEERING TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY

Driving in circles around a packedparking lot in search of the elusive, empty spot could become a problem of the past, if Victor Bilodeau has his way.

Bilodeau, an instructor in Bachelor of Commerce program, has primary research interests in the adoption and imple-mentation of technology with a goal of improving efficiency and sustainability.

Bilodeau investigated efficient parking systems in his doctorate dissertation. He found solutions that could help solve park-ing lot frustrations, from park-by-phone meters that allow users to pay for parking through their cell phones, to technologies that direct drivers to empty parking spaces.

“I looked at all of the benefits of those systems, like saving time and reducing CO2 emissions,” says Bilodeau.

With such obvious benefits available, one would expect parking providers to be early adopters of intelligent park-ing technologies. But that’s not the case and Bilodeau’s research explored the hesitation of parking providers to imple-ment such systems. “A lot of providers are simply waiting for others to do it first,” Bilodeau says of his findings.

Improving the efficiency of systems in order to increase sustainability isn’t just limited to parking, though. In the classroom, Bilodeau teaches courses on strategic management and management information systems. He shows students how information systems can help busi-nesses become more efficient, sustain-able and, ultimately, more profitable.

Bilodeau says many of his first year students have a working knowledge of

information systems when they enter the course. But Bilodeau’s passion is to delve deeper into the subject with students throughout the semester. When students begin to learn how businesses can use systems to become more efficient, he says, the material “really starts to get interesting.”

“A lot of times I’ll point out that total profit is equal to total revenue minus total costs. Most people focus on increasing their revenue, but in fact you can have the same effect and even more of an effect if you reduce your costs,” Bilodeau says.

That’s a lesson he’s trying to teach busi-nesses, through a company in which he is a partner. Enviroglyphs is developing systems that help companies be more ac-countable and transparent when it comes to the environmental impact of their oper-ations, while also improving efficiency.

An oil company that is installing a well, for example, can enter data about the pro-ject into an iPad or iPhone. Information such as hydrocarbon levels in the water, air quality and wildlife present in the area can all be recorded. That information is then uploaded so that community, industry and government can view just-in-time reports, comparing that data with past information to see the project’s impact.

While his research and work has broad implications for various sectors, Bilodeau attributes his interest in efficiency to one simple reason. “Wasted time and wasted energy has always frustrated me,” says Bilodeau. “And to see people do more with less is good for everyone.”

INTERDISCIPLINARY EXPERTISE

aspire p.43

STEERING TOWARDS

information systems when they enter

businesses can use systems to become

That’s a lesson he’s trying to teach busi-nesses, through a company in which he is a partner. Enviroglyphs is developing systems that help companies be more ac-countable and transparent when it comes to the environmental impact of their oper-ations, while also improving efficiency.

An oil company that is installing a well, for example, can enter data about the pro-ject into an iPad or iPhone. Information such as hydrocarbon levels in the water, air quality and wildlife present in the area can quality and wildlife present in the area can all be recorded. That information is then uploaded so that community, industry and government can view just-in-time reports, comparing that data with past information to see the project’s impact.

While his research and work has broad implications for various sectors, Bilodeau

one simple reason. “Wasted time and wasted energy has always frustrated me,”

Victor BilodeauInstructor, B. Com program

FACULTY PROFILESGRAD

PROFILES


Real World Experience

aspire

Real World Experience

A four-month internship

in London helps this

MacEwan grad envision

his future

Ryne Cender

Cert. Arts & Cultural

Mgmt. ( 2009),

Dip. Mgmt. Studies (2010),

B.Com (in progress)

Two-time MacEwan graduate and current MacEwanBachelor of Commerce student Ryne Cender knows that learning doesn’t have to be confi ned to a classroom.

Through MacEwan International, Cender, 25, took advantage of The Washington Center’s Intern Abroad program. As one of 11 students in his group and the only Canadian, he spent four months in London, England, where he attended classes and was placed in an internship position tailored to his interest in arts management.

Cender worked two days a week at art gallery and studio complex Kingsgate Workshops Trust, where he honed the skills he’s developed in the Bachelor of Commerce program, majoring in International Business, and as a graduate of both MacEwan’s Arts and Cultural Management certificate and the Management Studies diploma.

Interning at the gallery was a fulfilling experience, says Cender. He began his stint at Kingsgate doing database work but was soon organizing events such as The Big Draw, an education-al event for 7- and 8-year-olds, and researching possible sources for grants when government funding fell through. “I spent about two days a week there. Initially I started doing what I expected as internship work, but eventually it got to where I was helping setting up the exhibitions they did in the galleries,” he says.

The rest of Cender’s days were split between classes and par-ticipating in student council, to which he was elected a member for the fall term. The councillor position in particular allowed him to develop valuable leadership skills, he says. “Being the only Canadian there, I kind of had to make myself stand out. I tried to do that as much as possible.”

Cender has fond memories of the student living situation, which he describes as akin to MTV’s The Real World series. “We’d always borrow stuff from each other. By that time we were close-knit and it was kind of nice,” he recalls.

He enjoyed generous amounts of free time during the pro-gram, which was based on a four-day week that left students ample time for independent travel. “It was very easy to get anywhere in Europe. I went to Spain, to France and to Scotland, where I have family,” Cender says.

Cender’s experiences in London have helped him envision his career path, which may eventually include a Master’s Degree in Arts Management. Either way, he plans to return to England to pursue a career in the arts sector. “I’m hoping to get back to London,” he says. “I really loved it; it was great for the arts. It seemed like there was always something to do and I want to be part of that environment, working.”

FACULTY PROFILES

MacEwan grad

gives back to the

school that gave

him his start


MacEwan graduate Joshua Davison, 34, knew the Professional Golf Management major and Certifi cate of Achievement would send him sailing down the fairway towards his dream job in golf.

Eight years after achieving that coveted CPGA designation, Davison is at the top of his game as the head golf pro at RedTail Landing, a highly regarded public golf course located just south of Edmonton near the Edmonton International Airport.

Davison is a former hockey player who spent his late teens and early 20s playing junior hockey with stints on teams in the WPHL and the SEHL in the southern United States. But at 23, he realized that golf might be a more viable career option than professional hockey. The Vernon, B.C. native did a little research and chose to relocate to Edmonton and enroll at MacEwan, where he could play men’s hockey with the Griffins while he completed the Golf Management program.

“The golf classes helped me grow as a professional and as a business-man to get into this position I am right now. I found the specific golf-oriented programs very valuable,” Davison says.

He credits his education with giving him a leg up in the golf industry. The Golf Management program, which covers virtually all areas of golf-ing and course operations including the rules of golf, topography and course design, merchandising, and management of staff, ensured he had a solid foundation to work from when beginning his career. “It pretty much covered everything, which I found really valuable, especially not coming from a golf background,” he says. “Every golf course is a little bit different so you can kind of put your own little spin on it, but I would have to say I definitely hit the ground running by getting these classes from MacEwan.”

It’s important for Davison to give back to the school that gave him his start, he says. Because of this, RedTail Landing has become the official host facility to the MacEwan golf team, and this year, the course will wel-come the Alberta College Athletic Conference Championships. Davison also enjoys sharing his knowledge and experience with students, often appearing as a guest speaker at the school. “I don’t forget my roots and where I came from,” he says.

Davison was hired as a practicum student at RedTail Landing during his third summer at MacEwan. He’s been there ever since, moving up from assistant golf professional to associate golf professional and, in early 2009, to his current position as head pro. He says he makes a point to hire MacEwan students at his facility whenever possible. “That’s where I go first to find my key staff people and my golf professionals, because their focus and their interest is golf. I know they need to get a job in the summer, so I know there’s a commitment level there. I like hiring these students from the program because I’ve been there and I know the information. I know everything that they learn because I’ve been there and done it.”

Joshua Davison

Professional Golf

Mgmt. (2003)

By Robin Schroffel

Swinging for Career Success

Exit InterviewSTEPHANIE KUZIW

WHAT I LEARNEDAT MacEwan


Recent grad and SCL Bursary recipient Stephanie Kuziw talks about class size, confi dence and purchasing large quantities of clothing

What program did you complete at MacEwan?The Bachelor of Applied International Business and Supply Chain Management.

What are you doing now?I’m a buyer for a major events company. My main focus is clothing – uniforms, everything. I’m planning to go back to school this year for my SCMP designation in the Strategic Supply Chain Management Leadership program at MacEwan.

What was the most important thing you learned at MacEwan?Public speaking and how to work in an offi ce environment. I wasn’t so great at it before attending Grant MacEwan and the small class sizes re-ally helped. I think that was my favourite part – the small class sizes and the direct attention that you would get.

What was the most important thing you learned about business during your studies?How to react to other people, as well as negotiation skills. The program just helped prepare me so much for every situation. It’s never the same until you are working in the situation – you can’t learn everything in school – but I found the program really prepared me for the workplace.

If you could invent a new course that you would have loved to have taken, what would it be?Going into depth more with purchasing would be great, as well as further business law classes. Or even a whole class about relating to people and getting used to the workforce.

What would be your most treasured memory of your time at MacEwan?Working with the faculty. It was a good feeling and I felt really valued in the program, and I always look back and think that that was my best memory.

If you could only use one word to describe your experience at MacEwan, what would it be?Fantastic. You can’t really compare it – I am so, so happy with my choice. I could not imagine going to a better school.

What was the greatest challenge you experienced while taking your degree?My biggest challenge was just getting used to university life. I found during the fi rst year, it was very diffi cult getting to know the university system, to learn test-writing in a different way. I found I got better with each year as I got used to the system and how to do things.

What was your most signifi cant learning experience during your studies?I learned a lot about myself. I became very competitive with myself, and I found that in taking classes at MacEwan, I became a more motivated person. I learned how far you can get when you really push yourself.

What are the most important skills you learned that you are now taking into the business world?The writing, the communicating, and the attitude in general. It’s a confi -dence that I’ve gained from MacEwan – I feel like I know exactly what’s going on and it takes a lot of stress away from everything.

Where do you think your business degree will take you?I hope to eventually be managing in purchasing and I’d like to see how far I can get in purchasing, specifi cally.

> In the spring of 2011, Kuziw was awarded with the Supply Chain and Logistics National Student Paper Award.

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