management magazine 2015
DESCRIPTION
In this year’s issue of Management Magazine, we are sharing stories of accountable action that span the breadth of our four Schools. Our students, faculty, staff and alumni are contributing to the building of a better world through engagement with the community.TRANSCRIPT
2015MANAGEMENT
Tending the urban forestcollaborating to enhance the halifax treescape
BUSINESS | INFORMATION MANAGEMENT | PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION | RESOURCE & ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
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IDEASINTEGRITY
…is essential to building trust and maintaining sound working relationships
DIVERSITY…brings strength and unity to all endeavours
EXPERIENCE…prepares our students for their careers as they learn through experience
ACTION…that is accountable is at the core of values-led management
SUSTAINABILITY…is the engine of prosperity that accounts for society, the environment and profits
The Dalhousie University Faculty of
Management is Canada’s leader in
advancing values-based management
to bring sustainable prosperity to
individuals and communities.
Offering management education
for every stage of your career:
Executive Education
Mid-Career Development
Graduate Programs
Undergraduate Programs
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04 – Actions that build a better worldOur dean, Peggy Cunningham, reflects on the importance of accountable action in values-based management
05 – Student success, from competitions to conferences Our students meet with success as they translate learning into action in a range of extracurricular activities
06 – Tending the urban forestPreserving pleasantness by putting the Urban Forest Master Plan into action
08 – Lessons from Israel, lessons from CanadaGlobal Marketing students head to a new venue: Israel
09 – Giving back 2014-2015Walking the talk of values-based management in our community
10 – Gifting for actionCollaborating with our donors to create legacies that make the world a better place
12 – Hiring the Ivany LeagueConnecting employers with our students builds regional prosperity
16 – Back to the future?Using big data to dive into the Chronicle Herald’s digital archives to help in planning for future floods
18 – Building resilienceShedding light on how well Canada manages terror-related risks to critical infrastructure
20 – Doing good businessSocial enterprise as a catalyst for young entrepreneurs
21 – Get involved – Build a better world
22 – Management alumni – Building a better worldOur alumni in action
23 – Alumni support creates impact Alumni giving of themselves to support our students
Cover Image: Caring for the environment we live in brings community impact that is visible.
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MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE 2015
Management Special Publication | 2015Editor: Colin Craig | Designer: Brenna MacNeil, Design Services Writers: Scott Neilson, Miriam Breslow | Feedback/Suggestions: [email protected]
Contact: Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University · Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building, Suite 3050 | 6100 University Avenue · PO Box 15000 · Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4R2Tel: 902.494.2582 · management.dal.ca
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One of the leading reasons students choose the Faculty of Management for their education is Dalhousie University’s reputation for academic excellence. We are proud of the world-class research and teaching performance of our faculty members, the innovative design of our programs, the experiential learning opportunities central to many of those programs and the excellent students they attract. But to be truly great, a degree program must also provide inspiration. It must encourage each student to become a better human being.
As Canada’s leader in advancing values-based management to bring sustainable prosperity to individuals and communities, we have created a learning culture that provides students with opportunities to live our shared pledge: Manage with Integrity and Make Things Happen. We challenge them to always consider their actions, as students and as future managers, with a view to accountability.
Our programs are built on a foundation of values-based management captured by the acronym IDEAS: Integrity, Diversity, Experience, Accountable Action and Sustainability. Our students, faculty and staff integrate these values into all we do. We support a culture of collaboration where people focus on creating shared value for all stakeholders. As a Faculty, our ability to provide our students with experiences that prepare them for their careers is our greatest strength. It’s at the heart of everything we do.
In this year’s issue of Management Magazine, we are sharing stories of accountable action that span the breadth of our four Schools. Our students, faculty, staff and alumni are contributing to the building of a better world through engagement with the community. These are stories of research, volunteerism, philanthropy, the advancement of business ethics, management consultancy, globalization and contributions to the workplace, all centred on values-led management.
I am proud of the impact we have in the community. The businesses and organizations we engage with give our students invaluable opportunities to learn through practical application of knowledge gained in the classroom. In return, our students bring diverse and fresh perspectives to management challenges and in so doing provide their employers with new opportunities for their own process of life-long learning.
Peggy Cunningham, Dean
Actions that build a better world
BRIAN PORTER (BCOMM ’81) SPEAKS TO ROWE STUDENTS ABOUT BUSINESS ETHICS.
EDITORIAL
PEGGY CUNNINGHAM
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STUDENT EXCELLENCE
ETHICS IN ACTION CASE COMPETITION AND CONFERENCEConference organization and the hard work of a case competition came together in November 2014, when Faculty of Management students hosted the Scotiabank Ethics in Action conference, dedicated to discussing accountable action in business. The students awarded the Ethical Leadership Award to Mr. Richard (Dick) Pound, former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
FAMILY BUSINESS CASE COMPETITION IN VERMONTIn January, three Bachelor of Management students travelled to the University of Vermont for the third annual Family Enterprise Case Competition. The Rowe team placed second, missing first place by a narrow margin. Coach Leslie Crowell, Director of the Centre for Family Business and Regional Prosperity, praised the performance of students Andrew Faircloth, who won Best Undergraduate Presenter for the competition, Anna Baranowski and Charcy Britten-Boudreau.
34TH ANNUAL OPERATION STIMULUS STUDENT CASE COMPETITION AND SUPPLY CHAIN CONFERENCEFourth-year logistics students Lorena Maria Garcia de la Parra, Julia MacKey, Alexander Martin and Benjamin Quinn and their coach, associate professor Dan Lynch, travelled to Denver in January for the event. The Rowe School’s teams have an impressive record at this prestigious conference, and this year they acquitted themselves well again, taking first place in the competition.
JDC CENTRALAfter months of preparation, 50 undergraduate students from the Rowe School bussed to Toronto for the biggest case competition of its kind in Canada. Competing against 13 schools, the Rowe took home five awards: first for Charity, first for International Business, second for Social Challenges, third for the Academic Cup and third for School of the Year, an unprecedented achievement for our students.
NATIONAL POLICY CASE COMPETITIONStudents from the School of Public Administration hosted the fourth annual National Policy Case Competition in February. This prestigious competition brings together graduate students in public policy and administration to practise making public policy decisions. The competition’s volunteers and organizers impressed visitors with the successful event and East Coast hospitality.
INFORMATION WITHOUT BORDERS CONFERENCEIn February, students from the School of Information Management hosted the 2015 Information Without Borders Conference. This year’s event was entitled “Information Management for Climate Change Adaptation.” Speakers including Professor Steve Easterbrook of the University of Toronto, MP Megan Leslie and Carl Duivenvoorden of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project highlighted the importance of managing and collecting information to adapt and react to climate change.
Student success FROM COMPETITIONS TO CONFERENCES
Each year, students from the Faculty of Management take on a variety of extracurricular endeavours that embody the Faculty’s tenets of Experiential Learning and Accountable Action. This past year, the students have excelled at case competitions, where they put their learning into practice, and hosted conferences that address real-world issues.
ABOVE: TEAM ROWE CELEBRATES WITH A GROUP ‘SELFIE’ AT THE JDC AWARDS CEREMONY.
(L TO R): THE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TEAM, NICK WITH-SEIDELIN, DAPHNE WALLACE, PATRICK SMITH, TOOK FIRST PLACE.
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SCHOOL FOR RESOURCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
“There’s a lot of pleasantness to Halifax because of the trees,” says Dr. Peter Duinker, professor in the School for Resource and Environmental Studies. Over the past few years, Duinker has helped to preserve this pleasantness by collaborating with students and city planners to create the HRM Urban Forest Master Plan (UFMP).
In 2006, Halifax’s Regional Planning Strategy promised 22 functional plans for Halifax’s growth, and the UFMP was one of them. A team began to create a Halifax tree inventory, and in 2009, Duinker joined the team. He had worked with the city on revitalizing Point Pleasant Park after Hurricane Juan, and has studied trees for 36 years. “My connection to trees has been forever,” he says, “but I really didn’t get involved in urban forests until the Point Pleasant Park project…. I wanted to study the organisms in the ecosystem in which I live.” With Duinker on board, another obvious decision was to involve students from the School for Resource and Environmental Studies (SRES). John Charles, a city planner and one of the main creators of the UFMP, explains that after the initial inventory, “the next step was to delve into what the Urban Forest Master Plan would look like, and that’s when it became evident that SRES had the capacity to take on that research.” Stephen Cushing, a Master of Environmental Studies student in SRES, comments, “The neat thing about using SRES students is that everyone’s coming in with such different backgrounds. So John and Peter were able to use those strengths.”
Approximately 20 undergraduate and graduate students worked on the project, including Cushing, whose thesis is on a specific part of the urban forest—campus trees. Although the UFMP focuses on public property, Cushing’s research presents a microcosm of the larger process, with inventory-taking and public consultation. Cushing worked with Duinker and Charles to obtain public input on the UFMP; they met with professionals and residents to learn their values about the urban forest. SRES students maintained the project’s online and social media presence and, as Charles describes, the team employed various technologies to gather data on Halifax’s forest: for instance, they used LiDAR (light detection and ranging) to build a canopy height model.
Duinker describes some characteristics of Halifax’s forest. “It wasn’t in bad shape until the last couple of decades,” he says. The city hasn’t suffered from some of the pests that have afflicted forests elsewhere. The biggest issue, though, is “the agedness of the stock”—trees reaching the end of their life span all at the same time. Charles outlines other issues, such as subdivisions built before there were requirements for street trees, and discrete territories within Halifax that act almost like microclimates.
What makes Halifax’s UFMP remarkable is that, as Charles puts it, “it breaks down implementation to a neighbourhood scale … I believe it’s the only plan that has done that.” (SRES researched
Tending the urban forest PUTTING A MASTER PLAN INTO ACTION
BELOW: DALHOUSIE STUDENT TEAMS MEASURING TREES DEEP IN THE WOODS AND IN THE CITY.
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SCHOOL FOR RESOURCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
other plans across Canada and in some U.S. states.) Writing 111 neighbourhood vignettes was a major task, but it made a difference. “This UFMP is the best plan in Canada,” says Cushing. “It’s precedent-setting because the prescriptions are for each neighbourhood.” Also notable is the plan’s focus on public consultation: “To develop this plan,” says Cushing, “people were engaged early and multiple times after that.” The plan’s unique qualities earned it a national merit award from the Canadian Institute of Planners, presented to SRES and HRM.
Charles points out another aspect of this plan’s strength. “It sets out a well-thought-out approach to implementation,” he says. “You can achieve the best plan in the world, but unless you’re doing something with it, it just sits on a shelf and gathers dust.” Implementation of the UFMP began in spring 2013. Charles lists the implementation priorities: planting more street trees and beginning a cyclical pruning process, making sure that there are city regulations to protect trees, and educating the public. For the SRES students, implementation also means keeping track of the new trees’ survival rate, fieldwork that Duinker says his students really enjoy. The plan sets out priority areas for a five-year period, with the first five neighbourhoods—the North End, Fairview, Eastern Passage, Quinpool-Connaught and Colby Village—
“You can achieve the best plan in the world, but unless you’re doing something with it, it just sits on a shelf and gathers dust.” – John Charles
acting both as beneficiaries of the plan and as representative test areas. “From a research perspective, it’s great to create these five laboratory areas,” says Charles. In addition to implementation, public consultation continues each summer.
Duinker, Charles, Cushing and the SRES group hope implementation will continue. SRES’s involvement has benefitted the city in obvious ways: “It struck a chord with me, what capacity the students had, and just how brilliant they were,” says Charles. Cushing adds that working on the UFMP helped the students. “We’re taking the skills learned in this project and applying them in our own projects and our own areas,” he says. “I personally learned a lot from this, especially related to public engagement.”
Charles notes that since over 50 per cent of the urban forest is on private land, “citizens can make a huge difference by planting and maintaining trees on their own property. In partnership with citizens, that’s where we come in, doing more planting in parks and city streets.” Says Cushing of the plantings, “These are definitely legacy projects, because trees, if they’re planned well, can be around for a long time. With work by HRM, ongoing research by SRES students and Duinker, and the continued interest of residents, the Urban Forest Master Plan will indeed leave behind a green and leafy legacy. – Miriam Breslow
LEFT: MATURE ELMS IN A NORTH END NEIGHBOURHOOD / MIDDLE: TRUNK DIAMETER IS AN IMPORTANT MEASURE. / RIGHT: STUDENTS SHOWCASE A DISEASED BEECH IN BIRCH COVE PARK.
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STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS
Lessons from Israel, lessons from CanadaSince the mid-1990s, students from the Rowe School of Business have been enriching their education through study-abroad programs from Europe to Asia to Australia. Rowe students head to prestigious international business schools for a term of study, and the Rowe School in turn hosts foreign students.
This spring, 10 Rowe students in the Commerce course Global Marketing will head to a new venue for the school: Israel. In contrast to a typical exchange, this program is a fast-paced, intensive tour. Seven students from Hebrew University will spend two weeks in Halifax with the Dalhousie participants, building marketing plans applicable in each country. In Toronto, they will present these plans to business leaders with ties to Israel and will meet the program’s patron. They will then spend two weeks in Israel, liaising with business leaders, studying and touring cultural sites.
Funded almost entirely by the Gerald Schwartz & Heather Reisman Foundation, this program’s seeds were sown in 2008 at the University of Manitoba, Mr. Schwartz’s alma mater. Then a faculty member in Manitoba, Dr. Sergio Carvalho, now assistant professor of marketing at Dalhousie, became the leader of a new exchange program to Israel. “When I told the donors I was moving to Dalhousie, they asked if I would be interested in starting an Israel program here.” After some communications with Management Dean Peggy Cunningham, the Gerald Schwartz & Heather Reisman Foundation Canada/Israel Exchange Program was born.
Israel is a unique place for the Rowe students to learn. “The whole country stimulates the entrepreneurship spirit,” Dr. Carvalho explains. “Israel has the highest number of start-up companies per capita in the world.” Israeli innovation spans many fields, including agriculture, technology and economics. The Rowe students will also experience a novel management style. “Canadians are more linear,” says Dr. Carvalho. “We plan for everything; we schedule everything … Israel is a much more relaxed kind of society.” The students will also learn from an Israeli journalist about the current political situation and its effects on business there.
The program’s impact on students is Dr. Carvalho’s major driver. After the exchange, students are more confident, worldly and knowledgeable. “The academics of the program are run to the highest standard,” says the professor, “and the students have the opportunity to meet top executives.” They also learn from the cultural and historical richness of Israel, as he points out. He asks the students to write a thank-you note to the donor at the end of each trip and finds that the most common comment is “this was a life-transforming experience.” –Miriam Breslow
LEFT: THE CAMPUS OF HEBREW UNIVERSITY.
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COMMUNITY ACTION
Tax Clinic During March, 25 accounting students volunteered their time and skills in the third annual Rowe School of Business Volunteer Income Tax Clinic. This year the clinic, organized under Canada Revenue Agency’s Community Volunteer Income Tax Program, helped approximately 80 people complete and file their tax returns. Our volunteers reached out to the Dalhousie student body and the greater Halifax community in an effort to assist individuals who otherwise would not have filed a tax return.
Inside RideFor the fourth year in a row, the Dalhousie Commerce Society organized the Inside Ride event to raise money to help children with cancer. Under the leadership of international student Lokiy Wang, this year’s committee raised a record $25,841 by registering a record number of donor-sponsored teams.
Movember The Rowe Mo Bros and Sistas were the #1 university fundraising team in Canada, besting their second-place finish of last year. They raised $61,860 for the Movember campaign in support of its mission to be the leading global organization committed to changing the face of men’s health.
“A Day of Caring”For the past four years, staff, faculty, students and even a few alumni from the Faculty of Management have been dedicating one spring day to do physical labour for United Way–supported agencies in our community. They leave behind their desks, computers and daily routines and don rubber boots, gloves and painting clothes to face major chores that busy community agencies rarely have the time or resources to face. The event is called “A Day of Caring”.
Giving back 2014–2015Our students, staff and faculty put values-based management into action through a wide range of initiatives
5 Days for the HomelessSeven Commerce Co-op students braved nighttime temperatures as low as -28C, with wind chill, to raise over $9,000 by living outside and surviving on donated food. This is the second year the Commerce Society has participated in 5 Days for the Homeless, a national campaign to increase awareness of the plight of the homeless and those at risk of becoming so, and to raise funds for Phoenix Youth Programs.
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DEVELOPMENT
A SHARED VISIONBased in our Rowe Management Building, the Centre for Family Business and Regional Prosperity works with family-owned and -run businesses across Atlantic Canada to help them manage succession planning, governance and the many other issues unique to family businesses.
In 2013, the Canadian member firm of global professional services giant KPMG gifted $375,000 to the Centre, in the form of the KPMG Family Business Fund.
Supported by the KPMG Education Foundation, partners in the firm’s Halifax office led the campaign behind the gift, which takes the form of $55,000 a year in cash and $20,000 a year in-kind services for five consecutive years.
Atlantic Managing Partner Doug Reid says the gift builds on his office’s long-standing ties with our Rowe School of Business.
“The centre provides fantastic value to family-owned businesses—to owners and members and to the professionals who advise them. Its mission of advising and supporting privately owned businesses fits very closely with our own strategic focus on this sector,” says Doug. “With this kind of synergy in mind, Dal worked very closely with us to ensure our gift is being used to
strengthen the support it offers to these particular enterprises.”
For example, explains Centre director Leslie Crowell, some of this year’s gift will be used to once again bring in a family business expert as a visiting scholar, following the capacity crowd response for a similar event last year. In addition, Leslie says some will be used to fund the Centre’s first ever Atlantic Canada Family Business Summit, in 2016.
Gifting for actionOur donors are as diverse as the legacies they leave behind. We work closely with each one to ensure we use the gift in a way that matches the donor’s unique vision for making the world a better place. Here, we look at two gifts—including how we’ve collaborated with the donors to understand then help achieve their distinct gifting goals and aspirations.
“As for the in-kind portion,” says Doug, “we’ve started by putting forward our partners and employees as coaches and mentors for members and students—and also as judges for the different case study competitions the School runs each year. It’s also looking likely that our professionals will have an opportunity to share their knowledge both in the School’s classes and the wider faculty’s Executive Education program.”
“We keep in touch with many of them. We like to think we’ve helped each one on their way.”
– Ian McKee
DOUG REID, KPMG, CONFERS WITH LESLIE CROWELL, CENTRE FOR FAMILY BUSINESS AND REGIONAL PROSPERITY.
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DEVELOPMENT
PROUD PARENTS IAN AND JOHANNE MCKEE
YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE MILLIONS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
When their son Christopher died of a brain tumour at age 36, Ian and Johanne McKee knew they wanted to commemorate him in a way that would leave its mark on the lives of other young people.
Soon after, in 1998, the Christopher McKee Award of Merit was established. Intended for second and third year students in our Bachelor of Commerce program, the award is granted to ‘all-rounder’ students who not only have achieved academic excellence but are also contributing to the community.
Since then, 21 students have received the award, including Nicole Drozdiak, a Calgary-based business analyst at Deloitte Canada who graduated from the program in 2014.
Says Nicole: “I always worked hard at Dalhousie. But there’s more to university than great grades. I wanted to be involved in as many activities as I could and work with and learn from different people. The award made it possible for me to learn and develop both inside and outside the classroom. The Christopher McKee Award lightened my financial burden and gave me the flexibility to make a difference in my community.”
A former volunteer with Feed Nova Scotia and Junior Achievement, Nicole also served on the Dalhousie Commerce Society and helped out at national case study competitions.
“I am extremely grateful to have been recognized as one who embodied similar characteristics to Christopher,” she says.
People like the McKees can offer significant opportunities to students who otherwise might not have the ability to come to Dal, points out Darren Dick, our dedicated fund development officer.
“You don’t have to have millions to make a difference. Rather, it’s about people making a commitment to something they are passionate about—something that means something to them, personally. You do that on your terms. You design it and Dal works with you on it—to ensure a win/win for both parties. Irrespective of the amount of your gift, there’s a great opportunity there to make a very significant difference in someone’s life,” says Darren.
The McKees offer a great example, he adds. Their gift started off small but they’ve added to it regularly, encouraged friends and family to follow suit and have let interest do the heavy lifting over time.
“They treat it almost like a charity. When someone gets married, marks a birthday,
passes away or experiences a significant event in their life, instead of making a gift or a donation to another organization or buying a gift, they instead make a donation to Christopher’s award. The principal has increased steadily over the years and now the fund spins off approximately $8,000 a year.”
Ian says he and Johanne have enjoyed meeting and presenting each recipient with an engraved memento, “so they have something permanent to mark their achievement. We keep in touch with many of them. We like to think we’ve helped each one on their way.” – Scott Neilson
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L TO R: SUPERVISOR DAN JENNINGS COACHES LESLIE YANG, MBA CANDIDATE, ON HIS CORPORATE RESIDENCY WITH BDO. (NICK PEARCE PHOTO)
ROWE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Hiring the Ivany LeagueOUR ACADEMIC PROGRAMS CONNECT EMPLOYERS LOOKING TO FILL THEIR TALENT PIPELINE WITH STUDENTS EAGER TO ENTER THE WORKPLACE.
Try before you buy …Employers across Canada are partnering with our schools to reduce hiring risk and secure top talent.
If there’s one thing Dan Jennings has learned from 30 years in corporate finance, it’s that his career choice isn’t for everyone.
Dan, a Halifax-based partner with national accounting, tax and business advisory firm BDO, says he’s seen plenty of graduates enter finance, accounting and other professional services roles only to realize within a year or two that it isn’t for them—
“the kind of hiring error that wastes a lot of time and energy for both employer and employee,” says Dan.
Employers such as BDO frequently reduce hiring risk, however, by working with our schools to employ undergrad and graduate students on co-op work placements of four to eight months, which provide both parties with “a great chance to try before they buy,” says Dan.
“The students gain valuable insights into what it’s like to work in a busy accounting firm, including during the intensive tax season. This helps them make the right
career choice upon graduation,” says Dan. And going the other way, co-ops provide BDO with a “natural talent pipeline”, he says.
“We get to identify the best people early on. Of course, the best people always have a lot of career options. But with co-op students we usually have a leg up on another firm because they have gotten to know us and decided they like our culture, style of working and the people.”
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“Each and every one of us can become a change agent to retain our educated young workforce here in our province.”
– Ayse Dai-Gammon
ROWE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Leslie Yang, a Chinese student in our Corporate Residency MBA program, is proof of the win/win our employer partnerships provide. He began an eight-month valuation-focused residency with BDO in January and says his time with the firm helped him develop fast.
“I’ve learned a lot about valuation, M&A and litigation and also gained the skill of presenting math to clients using beautifully insightful presentations, particularly in the small and medium-sized business sector, where BDO specializes. Meanwhile, BDO is helping me plug into the business community. For an international student like me, that’s crucial.”
Based on his experience with BDO, Leslie is now eager to find permanent valuation or finance-related work, hopefully in Halifax and preferably with the firm.
STAY EAST, YOUNG MAN A manager in our Management Career Services team, Ayse Dai-Gammon
helps facilitate the student-employer connections. She says hiring local graduates is crucial to our economic health.
“You don’t have to be a large employer. If half the businesses in our province hired at least one recent graduate or provided co-op opportunities to our students, we would start reversing the out-migration of youth from our province. Each and every one of us can become a change agent to retain our educated young workforce here in our province,” she says.
TOMORROW’S LEADERSHIP? Crystal Chen, who graduated from our Bachelor of Commerce program in 2013 with top marks, completed two
“challenging but rewarding” co-ops with energy giant Emera before beginning a permanent role there a year ago. She says her Emera co-ops gave her a chance to apply knowledge and academic theories in the workplace and also to “gain a competitive edge” against graduates from other universities.
“The co-ops took the pressure off when I was interviewing with Emera for a full-time position upon graduation—mostly because I already had had the chance to prove how capable I am,” she says.
Crystal plans to remain with Emera, an employer she sees as high growth. She hopes to one day obtain an MBA and move into management.
Analytics expert Brian Wile manages Crystal. He says her co-ops meant Emera had a head start when it came to identifying her as a high performer and getting her interested in the company’s employer brand. Meanwhile, the co-ops also enabled a quick start when Emera hired her on a permanent basis.
“Crystal’s co-ops helped ensure a good fit with our corporate culture. Ultimately, she turned out to be an excellent hire, one who came online fast.” – Scott Neilson
RIGHT: MOHAMMAD SIDDIQUE, MBA 2007, CONSULTS WITH CO-WORKER CRYSTAL CHEN, BCOMM 2013. (NICK PEARCE PHOTO)
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ROWE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Piloted in 2014, our faculty’s Workplace Experience Program creates connections between Halifax employers and international students who have little or no contact with the Canadian workplace.
Intended for first or second year Bachelor of Commerce students, the program offers 35 hours of unpaid work experience during the summer.
Anna Cranston, director of our Management Career Services team, says the low-cost and easily replicated program is flexible enough for employers to shape it to their individual needs. “The employer might offer the student two afternoons a week for two months or perhaps five consecutive days during a single week,” she says.
REAL RESULTS Chinese-born Miranda Ding used the program to connect with world-beating seafood firm Clearwater Seafoods, one of seven
employers that participated in the pilot. Miranda’s experience saw her shadow the company’s sales, marketing and logistics teams and take part in meetings.
Says Miranda: “My time with Clearwater helped me decide to major in logistics. And I felt it was good for Clearwater, also. For example, during one meeting I attended, I was able to provide insight into the Chinese market.”
Marina Silva, from Brazil, worked with top tier Halifax law firm Cox & Palmer, spending time with the COO and several departmental supervisors. She says: “My time with the firm’s library service team increased my interest in research and databases, leading me to successfully apply for my first co-op work term as a research assistant with Nova Scotia Business Inc.”
A post-pilot survey of the students showed a big jump in job-hunting confidence levels. As such, Anna is aiming to double the numbers this year.
CORPORATE TOURS Our annual Corporate Tours, meanwhile, enable students to spend time visiting organizations based here in Halifax and in other large Canadian cities.
Management student Cameron Tucker took part in our annual day-long Halifax Corporate Tour, which divides students into three streams based on their majors and career goals. He says the event gave him a chance to gain insight into a diverse range of Halifax and Dartmouth employers including ADP, Cushman & Wakefield and the Canadian Red Cross.
“It was a great opportunity to really pitch yourself to an employer. In addition, the tour gave me a great inside look on how employers actually recruit students, and what they look for. This provides participants an obvious advantage when preparing applications and informational interviews going forward. Finally, the tour provided a look into what the corporate culture is like in different types of organizations such as corporates and not-for-profits,” says Cameron.
Commerce student Ashley Sambrook did her corporate tour in Toronto. She says the three-day tour helped her build confidence.
“We networked our way through different companies and practiced our interview skills as we went. It’s an experience every student should take advantage of.”
Adds Anna: “The tours tend to be our most anticipated career development event, with a lengthy waitlist of students eager to participate. Besides the benefits to the students, employers gain a chance to build their brand in the eyes of a highly desirable talent pool.” –Scott Neilson
RIGHT: STUDENTS ATTEND A CORPORATE TOUR OF BELL ALIANT IN HALIFAX.
BELOW: THE CORPORATE TOUR VISITS THE EXTREME GROUP IN HALIFAX.
Bringing the classroom to the workplace Our students are gaining first-hand knowledge of corporate cultures, valuable insights into potential careers and improved understanding of Canadian employment opportunities thanks to two experiential Dal events that transport the classroom into the workplace.
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Park your marketing problem here Rowe School of Business students are partnering with Parks Canada to help improve its marketing. Last year saw Parks Canada and Dalhousie sign a memorandum of understanding designed to encourage collaboration in areas of mutual interest, including marketing Parks Canada, educating the public about its heritage sites and national parks and using them to provide real-world data to students.
The memo, the brainchild of Rowe School of Business professor David Stuewe, opened the door for 10 groups of our business graduates to develop marketing plans for 10 Parks Canada units throughout Eastern Canada.
During the fall term, each group collaborated closely with Parks Canada staff to develop and refine their respective plans before three groups were selected to present their plans to Parks Canada CEO Alan Latourelle.
Associate professor of marketing Valerie Trifts says: “The students did a fabulous job analyzing the agency’s current challenges and using the subsequent insight to developing realistic and valuable marketing-related recommendations for the different units. On the day of the actual presentation, the executives were extremely impressed by our findings.”
Corporate Residency MBA student Sydni Kind led one of the top three teams tasked with developing a marketing plan capable of increasing numbers and profits at Parks Canada’s Pointe-au-Père National Historic Site. She says the organization and its board were open to her team’s ideas and input. “Parks Canada was a great organization to work with. They were eager to uncover new ways to make the experiences they provide more relevant to current and future generations of users.”
–Scott Neilson
Utilizing their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) budgets, the program’s corporate supporters each fund paid summer employment for a student at a carefully selected local not-for-profit.
And, distinctive to C3, each corporation selects an executive-level employee to mentor a student, working closely with him or her to strategize and advance projects at their respective not-for-profit.
Recently rebranded from the National Mentoring Program to better fit its goals, C3 (Corporate Community Connectors) enables businesses such as RBC and Wilsons to fund student employees with not-for-profits such as the United Way or the SickKids Foundation.
Emera’s marketing and sales director Anne-Marie Curtis mentored BComm
student Catherine Giffen when she spent last summer working for the Canadian Mental Health Association, helping it improve its communication and inventory management processes as well as playing a key role in launching the Association’s new North End premises.
Says Catherine, “My time with the Association solidified my passion for using my degree in the not-profit sector.” According to Association branch manager Margaret Murray, “Catherine brought a lot of skill, creativity, new ideas and enthusiasm. It was wonderful to have her around.”
Twenty-nine students have passed through the program since it was launched in 2009, with another six signed up for this summer. –Scott Neilson
Putting CSR into actionOur unique and award-winning C3 mentoring program encourages Commerce and Management students to act as matchmakers between community-minded corporations and not-for-profit organizations eager to make a positive difference.
ABOVE: CATHERINE GIFFEN AT THE CANADIAN MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION STOREFRONT SHE HELPED DESIGN AND ESTABLISH. (DANNY ABRIEL PHOTO)
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Back to the future?A ground-breaking partnership between two Dal faculties, the provincial government and Nova Scotia’s private sector is enabling planners, consumers and businesses to travel back in time—to prepare for tomorrow.
When it comes to Nova Scotia Environment’s provision of provincial flood data for our province, there’s no shortage of takers.
Developers, for example, depend on reliable flood data to site properties away from flood plains. Actuaries use it to price building insurance policies. And municipal engineers employ it to optimize drainage decisions—to name just some of the many ways people use the data.
PROBLEMATIC PICTURE Nevertheless, the picture we have of past flooding across the province has been—at least until now—incomplete at best. That’s because data are often patchy, difficult to access and scattered across multiple locations. And even if data can be pulled together in a coherent and meaningful way, there still remains the near Herculean task of manually sifting through the raw information to draw out the nuggets that actually matter.
With the province currently preparing for climate change, Nova Scotia’s government is eager to gain—and offer—access to a more complete picture of past flooding in the province.
GROUND-BREAKING PARTNERSHIPNova Scotia Environment took the problem to Dalhousie, where it drew the attention of Big Data gurus Robert Warren, from the Institute for Big Data Analytics in Dal’s Faculty of Computer Science, and Mike Smit, an assistant professor in our School of Information Management.
Mike and Robert soon realized the solution was right under their noses in the form of the Chronicle Herald, Nova Scotia’s long-running daily newspaper of record.
They approached the Herald’s management, which granted unrestricted access to the paper’s entire digital archive, dating back to January 1992. That’s 1.2 million items, including hundreds of accurate news reports about flooding in Nova Scotia. Now Mike and Robert had a chance to provide the kind of granularity required to plan effectively for future flooding.
Yet while they now had everything they needed in one place and one accurate and high quality format, the Herald’s offer hadn’t removed the need for someone to pick through its mountain of bits and bytes to isolate flood-related stories.
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SCHOOL OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Developers, for example, depend on reliable flood data to site properties away from flood plains. Actuaries use it to price building insurance policies. And municipal engineers employ it to optimize drainage decisions.
FAR LEFT: THE SACKVILLE RIVER OVERFLOWS ITS BANKS.
BELOW: A DATA MAP PLOTS THE HISTORY OF FLOODS IN NOVA SCOTIA.
BOTTOM: FLASH FLOODING OVERWHELMS STORM DRAINS IN DOWNTOWN HALIFAX.
DEEP DATA DIVINGEnter Amelia Yzaguirre, the project’s lead researcher and a Mathematics graduate specializing in Big Data. She set to work coding and testing a search algorithm capable of diving into the archive and mining its text for flood stories.
Once she was confident her algorithm was capturing the right content, Amelia logged each of the almost 14,000 flood occurrences into a database including each flood’s time, date, cause and geolocation. She removed any occurrences from outside Nova Scotia and then displayed the data on Google Maps to provide an easily accessible and more complete picture of Nova Scotia flooding
—as well as one capable of ranging right across the province, and back and forward between the present day and 1992.
At the time of this writing, Nova Scotia Environment was set to switch on public access to the site and the now ‘open’ (easily and publicly accessible) data behind it. Rob points out that the picture of past flooding in the province could be rendered even richer by broadening out the data set to include any pre-1992 Herald content as well as data from other sources. And going forward, the public could itself add information soon after a flood occurred, he says.
BIG DATA’S BIG PICTURESays Mike: “Our success shows two things. First, that it is actually possible for newspapers to unlock value from their unique archives—not only for themselves but also for businesses, consumers and government. Secondly, Amelia’s algorithm and the knowledge and experience we gained from its development will make it easier for other computer scientists to extract valuable geospatial data from unstructured news articles—no matter what question they’re trying to answer. It doesn’t have to be about flooding. Really, the potential value is as diverse as the stories reported in a newspaper.”
– Scott Neilson
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SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
How well do the people who own and operate Canada’s critical infrastructure (CI) understand terror-related risk? What factors are most likely to shape their responses to a terror attack? Does the picture change, depending on whether we’re talking about a bridge, an airport or a haz-chem depot? And what lessons can be learned, in terms of building resilience and improving cooperation within Canada’s CI community?
These are the questions asked and (at least partly) answered by three School of Public Administration–based researchers who’ve spent the past three years picking the brains of the
Building resilienceHow well is Canada managing terror-related risks to its ports, bridges, food supply chain and other infrastructure critical to our everyday lives? Recent research from our School of Public Administration sheds some light.
AIRPORTS, HAZ-CHEM DEPOTS AND PORTS ARE ALL PART OF CANADA’S CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE. IMAGES: ©ISTOCK.COM
specialists who own, run and regulate Canada’s CI. The result? A picture of how well Canada is managing terror-related risk to a large chunk of its CI.
The federal government’s Kanishka Project, a 2011 initiative that funds research into preventing and countering violent extremism, provided $104,000 for the research. The Kanishka Project commemorates the victims of the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, which killed hundreds of Canadians.
FINDINGSA recent alumnus of our Master of Public Administration (MPA) program and a co-author of the report on critical transport infrastructure, Bryan Mills,
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says the research revealed numerous shortfalls when it comes to how Canada is managing risk relating to transport CI.
“For example, we discovered that our seaports aren’t particularly well integrated into the security community. As such, there appears to be a need for more and better two-way communication of security-related information between seaports and security agencies.” He adds, “the research showed a need for more cohesive leadership at a national level when it comes to port security.”
Meanwhile, research assistant Ben Bisset focused on Canada’s regulation of and risk from dangerous chemicals, as well as food-related critical infrastructures. Ben, another recent MPA alumnus, says one of the many risks revealed by the research is a lack of useful information for emergency responders having to deal with hazardous chemicals.
“For example,” says Ben, “firefighters rushing into a burning haz-chem depot don’t really have any idea about the materials that may or may not be inside
—and aren’t, as such, in an ideal position to make informed decisions about their own safety – or that of anyone living near the depot. It’s a big knowledge gap.”
AN OVERVIEW FOR “VAST AND COMPLEX” SECTORSProfessor Kevin Quigley, the School’s academic director, led the project. A specialist in public sector risk and crisis management, strategic management and critical infrastructure protection, Kevin says the findings provide an overview of security and—to a lesser extent—safety practices across these three “vast and complex” Canadian CI sectors.
According to Quigley, much of the project was made possible by plugging it into the Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative (CIP), a 15-strong,
trans-Atlantic and interdisciplinary team from the School at Dalhousie and the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. Set up seven years ago, the CIP Initiative brings citizens, industry, NGOs and governments together to better manage risk and governance in relation to critical infrastructure. The project has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canada School of Public Service and Public Safety Canada. Alongside the expertise of Bryan, Ben and Kevin, team members specialize in diverse disciplines including industrial engineering, psychology, accounting and actuarial science.
Says Ben: “We use multidisciplinary analyses to help people arrive at informed decisions about how best to ensure healthy and efficient communities, served by secure and resilient critical infrastructure.”
–Scott Neilson
HALIFAX’S PORT FACILITIES AND HARBOUR BRIDGES, CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE KEY TO DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY’S HOME COMMUNITY. IMAGE: ©ISTOCK.COM
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NORMAN NEWMAN CENTRE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
CARLISLE NORWOOD’S COMPANY FRESHMAN SERVICES HELPS STUDENTS BY SERVING THEM AND EMPLOYING THEM.
Enactus is a global organization that brings together students with an interest in social enterprise. Dr. Mary Kilfoil, assistant professor of entrepreneurship, explains that while this term has many definitions, “basically, there is an explicit social mission to the business.” In 2012, Akram Al-Otumi, then a Commerce student at Dalhousie, opened a chapter of Enactus here with the help of Paulette Dunn, a Rowe instructor, and Ed Leach, director of the NNCE. Al-Otumi is also the chair of the Enactus Alumni Network in NS, and he and Leach advise Enactus participants at Dal. The Newman Centre supports a wide variety of entrepreneurial endeavours, and Enactus, Kilfoil notes, fits right in: “It’s a platform for university students to think about entrepreneurship, to collaborate, to take on projects.” Two such students are Matthew Lee and Carlisle Norwood.
Enactus Canada recently recognized Lee, a fourth-year Management student, and Norwood, a fourth-year Commerce student, when they became Nova Scotia’s 2015 Student Entrepreneur Provincial Champions. Lee was later named Atlantic Canada’s Regional Champion and will head to the national competition in May.
Norwood founded Freshman Services four years ago to provide inexpensive storage for students. The business has since grown to provide a variety of services. Though not explicitly a social enterprise, Freshman is dedicated to helping students not just through its services, but by employing them. “We’ve hired 12 co-op students to date,” says Norwood. He started his business through an entrepreneurship co-op, and benefitted from the expertise provided by Leach and Al-Otumi at the Newman Centre. When asked about social enterprise, Norwood notes that Freshman Services has sponsored Dalhousie athletes and
helped the Student Union. “With any business, I think it’s important to help the community,” he says. He was pleased to bring Freshman to the Enactus competition this year: “It’s great to push your boundaries.”
Lee’s business, H2Oasis, is a water purification and distribution company located in rural British Columbia. “We take municipal tap water and put it through reverse osmosis,” explains Lee. Like Freshman, H2Oasis isn’t explicitly social, but is run with care for its clients and the environment. The company uses BPA-free plastic and environmentally-
friendly cleaning methods. Lee’s interest in entrepreneurship drew him to the Newman Centre when he began his studies here.
“Ed and Akram have … helped push me out of my comfort zone, but at the same time they’ve provided a lot of guidance in those situations.” Pushing out of his comfort zone may be what led Lee to his regional Enactus title. He is also project manager for Enactus Dalhousie, and uses his entrepreneurial skills in this role.
“Over the years, these students have really shone,” says Kilfoil. “They are examples of the idea that business can do good things.”
– Miriam Breslow
Doing good businessSocial enterprise has become an important catalyst for the creation of new entrepreneurs at the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship (NNCE).
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A MESSAGE FROM MARIANNE HAGEN, ALUMNI & ENGAGEMENT OFFICER
Get involved – Build a better worldNow in my fifth year as Alumni & Engagement Officer for the Faculty of Management, I have had the pleasure of meeting so many students and alumni and am hoping to meet more and more of you on my trips across Canada. So many exciting things are going on and I invite you to be part of it all.
Over the past ten years, Faculty of Management students have raised over one-quarter of a million dollars for charities and recently Dalhousie University was ranked fourth in North America in a survey of LinkedIn profiles where students stated that volunteering was a part of their daily lives and extremely important to them. What an amazing thing for us
to celebrate—“values- based leadership” demonstrated by giving back to the community.
The Faculty of Management is made up of over 2,300 students with 14,000 alumni from four different Schools who live, work and play all over the world. Please consider joining us at the many alumni and student-managed events; follow me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and our blog—RoweDown.
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Dalhousie Faculty of Management
DalManagement
@DalFoMAlumni
HOMECOMING 2015 October 15 - 17Please join us!
Presented at the annual Ethics in Action Case Competition
and Conference, a student led initiative of the Faculty of
Management, the award recognizes a Canadian leader who has
demonstrated outstanding ethical leadership in the face of a
challenging situation that held serious implications.RICHARD W. POUNDQC, OC, OQ (2014)
Presents
THE 2013 & 2014 WINNERS OF THE SCOTIABANK ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AWARD
Hosted by Supported by
dal.ca/management | ethicsinaction.ca To nominate for 2015: ethicsinaction.ca/awards
SIR GRAHAM DAY ONS, CD, QC (2013)
CHIEF PHIL FONTAINE OC, OM (2013)
MARIANNE HAGEN
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Faculty of Management alumni BUILDING A BETTER WORLD
LYCIA NEUMANN
Master of Public Administration 2003
Consultant on planning, management and evaluation of social investment
Curitiba Area, Brazil
Upon graduation, Lycia Neumann returned to Brazil and began a career in the public and NGO sectors. Her focus has been on evaluation, health outcomes, community development and strategic planning. Most recently she has served as Coordinator for Advanced Planning and Outcomes Evaluation for the Oncoguia Institute and Research Coordinator for a study focusing on breast cancer care in the Salvador Metropolitan area.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Latin American Social and Public Policy Fellowship Selection Committee has awarded her a renewable fellowship that will support her doctoral studies in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the Graduate School of Health.
JOANNE GASSMAN
MBA Financial Services 2002
Senior Vice President
BMO Financial Group
Vancouver, British Columbia
The Association of Women in Finance has honoured Joanne Gassman with its 2015 PEAK Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Joanne’s career with BMO Bank of Montreal has spanned more than 39 years. She currently consults nationally with BMO Financial Group as Senior Vice President, Women’s Market. Joanne’s passionate advocacy on behalf of women in business is evident in BMO’s recent announcement of an additional $2 billion in credit for women-owned businesses across Canada.
Joanne’s community involvement includes roles as Chair of the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Co-Chair of CARE Canada’s I Am Powerful Council (Vancouver), and Director with the Streetohome Foundation. She is also a past Governor of the B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation.
TRACEY BARBRICK
Master of Public Administration 2014
Associate Deputy Minister
Health and Wellness, Government of Nova Scotia
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Tracey Barbrick has been a civil servant for 15 years, including seven years with the Department of Environment and Labour, four with the Department of Environment, followed by Health Promotion and Protection and Health and Wellness. Tracey has been the Chief of Policy and Intergovernmental Affairs for the past two years. Prior to joining the provincial government, she worked in both the private sector and municipal government. Her recent work on creating the new Health Authorities legislation is a testament to her ability to turn vision into good policy. In 2015, Tracey became the Associate Deputy Minister, Health and Wellness. In her new role, she will provide leadership for the next era of the provincial health system.
ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT
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COURTNEY LARKIN
Bachelor of Management 2010
Career & Recruitment Specialist
Dalhousie University, Management Career Services
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Courtney Larkin is a passionate supporter of Dalhousie University. Since 2010 she has been an active Dalhousie Alumni Association Board Member and in June 2015 she will become President of this international organization. In recent years the DAA has spearheaded the growth of worldwide chapters, the return of homecoming, and launched an excellent alumni-student mentoring program. Through the mentoring program, current students are connected with alumni from their faculty who have similar career interests and goals. Courtney has benefitted so much from her Dalhousie University experience and is pleased to have the opportunity to give back to our students.
DAVID LUND
Bachelor of Commerce 1978, CPA, CA
Principal
AC Stevenson & Partners PC Inc.
Riverview, New Brunswick
David has established an endowed fund with a gift of $30,000. The Bazil and Madge Lund Scholarship in Business supports students from high schools in the greater Moncton area who are entering the Dalhousie Commerce program and have demonstrated both academic achievement and financial need. For Mr. Lund, investing in a student’s future is what it is all about. “Someone here hopefully can use the money and maybe they’ll do great things down the road. You never know,” he says. Four of Mr. Lund’s siblings are also Dalhousie commerce graduates: Donna (BComm ’79), Grant (BComm ’82), Paul (BComm ’84) and Stuart (BComm ’91).
ERIC SHOESMITH
Master of Resource and Environmental Management 2015
Policy Analyst, Environment Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
Eric’s time at Dalhousie introduced him to the joys of the East Coast and a community of friends that he cherishes to this day. He served as President of the Dalhousie Toastmasters Club and as Co-chair of the School for Resource and Environmental Studies (SRES) Student Society. In these roles, he helped foster a community of public speaking enthusiasts on campus, while simultaneously launching the SRES mentorship program, which connected 25 students and alumni in its first year. Eric is a policy analyst in Environment Canada’s Aboriginal, Northern and Stakeholder Affairs division.
Alumni support creates impact ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT
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Help to build a better future
Our alumni are getting involved in the life of the Faculty of Management to help build a better world. You can too.
ATTEND: Campus events, Charitable events, Chapter events
MENTOR: Guide a student to success
HIRE: Co-ops & Interns, Corporate Residents, Graduates
VOLUNTEER: Speak to a class, Participate in events
Do you know you can stay connected forever through your Dal email account? Check your inbox! Or, provide your preferred contact information at dal.ca/mgmtalum
Interested in discussing setting up an estate gift to Dalhousie Faculty of Management? Please call Ian Lewer, Director, Planned Giving at 1.800.565.9969 or [email protected]
STAY INFORMED. STAY CONNECTED.
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Marianne Hagen
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@DalFoMAlumni
@DalManagement
CONTACT [email protected] 902.494.7142
BUSINESS | INFORMATION MANAGEMENT | PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION | RESOURCE & ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES