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Transcript of Viewpoints - Fall 2011
A magazine for alumni and friends of the Sauder School of Business at UBCFALL 2011 • VOLUME 31 • NO 2
In this issue: In the words of the world-changing, iconic and now-departed Steve Jobs,
“You can only connect the dots in your life by looking back—not forward…” And yet,
the entrepreneurs and innovators among us are the ones who see a path forward where
others don’t, and who are willing to try connecting dots that may not seem connected.
This issue is about those risk-takers, including the four we’ve profi led in our cover story.
The entrepreneur issueLivia Mahler,MBA 1991
Ryan Beedie,MBA 1993
Chris Coldewey,MBA 2010
Gregg Saretsky,MBA 1984
Monica (Deane)Mochoruk, BCom 1996
ALUMNI STORIES
16
20
24
28
32
Sauder Index
Newsworthy
Actuals
Insider Information
Class Notes
Behind the Scenes
Points of View
IN EVERY ISSUE
3
4
6
33
37
43
44
UBC Commerce/Sauder School of Business Alumni
twitter.com/ubcsauderschool
linkedin.com/company/sauder-school-of-business-at-ubc
The next big idea14
The legacy of familyDinner series offers insight.
Plugging and playing in Silicon ValleyAccelerating Entrepreneurship event features UBC president Stephen Toope, along with Sauder Dean Dan Muzyka.
10
12
Copenhagen School of Business says “velkommen” to SauderStudents from Sauder’s Executive MBA in Health Care program fi rst to benefi t through onsite learning about health care in Europe.
Alumni in focus Jeff Waldman, BCom 2000, is profi led.
36
42
Sauder alumni make much more than lemonade.
Cover photography by Perry Zavitz. This alternate version updated for the 21st century.
1VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
British Columbia is world famous for growing some of the most beautiful and massive cedar trees on earth. But BC has another talent: it leads Canadian provinces in the number of entrepreneurs per capita. Ideas sprout from fertile minds on our most left coast, and risk-takers galore answer the call to innovate, lead and succeed.
CONSIDER THIS: 98 PER CENT OF COMPANIES
operating in BC last year were small businesses
—that’s more than one million people employed
by small business!
Even those of us in corporate positions here
in BC are considered, or like to be considered,
entrepreneurially minded.
Here are a few
reasons to love BC
if you’re in small
business:
• BC is ranked
number 1 in
Business Tax
Competitiveness
by KPMG’s
widely respected
Competitive Alternatives report 2010. The
report examined over 100 cities across 10
European and North American countries.
• Vancouver was named “Global Fast City,” as
a leading competitor for global talent and
a leader in environmental sustainability by
FastCompany magazine.
But why be an entrepreneur and opt
for all that risk and responsibility? In short,
entrepreneurs can’t help themselves. It’s a
calling and an obsession—and here in BC, the
call is amplifi ed by some of the most robust
networks for small and medium-sized enterprise
in Canada (32 for women alone!). The Forum
for Women Entrepreneurs, Small Business BC,
and The Board of Trade—to say nothing of the
online resources—educate entrepreneurs and
promote thousands of brilliant concepts each
year.
In theory, your business plan must be well
articulated, your fi nancing in place and your
research double-checked. But in reality it rarely
is. Nearly all the entrepreneur panels I sit on
reveal the same dirty little
secret: that at least one
successful business started
without a plan.
Planning is not
what makes you an
entrepreneur—though
I do endorse it. Nor
does a brilliant fl ash
of inspiration. It is
the “jumping in feet fi rst” that puts you in
the entrepreneur game, where you stand up
and take responsibility for seeing your idea
realized—”in sickness and in health” and “for
richer or poorer.” And by the way, it will be all
of those things.
An entrepreneur is equal parts detail-
obsessed and visionary, mixed with a hefty dose
of doer tossed in for good measure. Whether
you’re a single shingle or have a larger payroll,
you are all contributing to the economic
biomass of our province. And you couldn’t
ask for a better place to plant those roots,
make that leap and reach for the high canopy
of success. ■
GUEST EDITORIAL: JUDY BROOKS, ENTREPRENEUR
“Entrepreneurship is a calling and an
obsession.”
Over the last 20 years, Judy Brooks has
founded, built, and successfully sold three
companies, including most recently the fi rst-
to-market Blo Blow Dry Bar. In the role of CEO,
she has led these companies through startup,
survival, turnaround, and growth modes.
A strong contributor in the community,
Brooks mentors small business owners and sits
on several non-profi t committees. She is a much
sought-after keynote speaker and panellist.
In addition to serving on the boards of the
Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Small
Business BC, Brooks sits on the Business
Advisory Boards for the Smart Cookies and
Young Women in Business, and is a member of
the Women’s President Organization.
twitter.com/judybrooks
linkedin.com/in/judebbrooks/
2 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
OUR MISSION FOR VIEWPOINTSViewpoints Magazine is designed to nurture dialogue
and relationships with our alumni and friends by
ensuring that you continue to enjoy the practical
benefi ts of the school’s leading-edge business thinking.
Viewpoints presents news, research and commentary
that demonstrate the ability of our faculty and our
graduates to defi ne the future of business and to open
doors for those who are connected to the Sauder
School of Business. Your thoughts about this mission
are always welcome.
EDITORIALFrieda Granot EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Cristina Calboreanu EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Jennifer Wah MANAGING EDITOR
DESIGNBrandon Brind CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Deana De Ciccio, Karen Cowl GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
PRODUCTIONSpencer MacGillivray PRODUCTION MANAGER
Viewpoints Magazine is produced by Forwords
Communication Inc. and published by the Sauder
School of Business, University of British Columbia
2053 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Tel: 604-822-8555, Fax: 604-822-0592. Viewpoints
is published regularly for alumni and friends of the
Sauder School of Business.
We welcome the submission of ideas and articles
for possible publication in Viewpoints Magazine.
Email: [email protected]
For an online version of Viewpoints, visit
www.sauder.ubc.ca
CHANGE OF ADDRESSSend change of address to Alumni Relations Offi ce,
fax: 604-822-0592 or email to [email protected]
©Copyright 2011, Sauder School of Business.
Editorial material contained in Viewpoints Magazine
may be freely reproduced provided credit is given.
ISSN 089-2388. Canada Post. Printed in Canada.
EDITORIAL BOARDFrieda Granot (chair), Dale Griffi n, Daniel Muzyka
CONTRIBUTORSCristina Calboreanu, Lorraine Chan, Carol Dougans,
Kim Duffell, Allan Jenkins, Spencer MacGillivray,
Rob McMahon, Erica Smishek, Jennifer Wah,
Leanna Yip, Kate Zimmerman
PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40063721
RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES
TO ALUMNI RELATIONS, SAUDER SCHOOL OF
BUSINESS, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA,
800 ROBSON STREET, VANCOUVER, BC V6Z 3B7
This issue of Viewpoints was printed in Canada using
vegetable-based inks. The paper is also certifi ed by the
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The use of their logo
assures the end user that the forest-to-consumer
process is sustainable, and that the product comes
from a forest-friendly source.
Celebrating success and rewarding failure
A SIGNIFICANT PART OF MY LIFE’S WORK HAS
been spent studying the concepts of innovation
and entrepreneurship, the theme of this issue
of Viewpoints.
That’s why I’m confi dent most of you
would agree: Now is a time when we need to
speed up the entrepreneurial process in order
to help us rethink traditional business models
and create new value—particularly jobs—for
our ailing economies. We are especially in need
of the entrepreneurial activity that will help us
achieve a new and more productive balance
between the needs of government, civil society,
the environment and business. The world’s
focus on value creation through cost-cutting,
improvements in effi ciency and fi nancial
engineering has led us down an ever-narrowing
road. We are now at an intersection in our path
where opportunity and exploration will play a
bigger role in our success.
Many organizations and some economies fear
change rooted in entrepreneurial thinking and
activity, and we all have at least some tendency to
gravitate to the status quo—to focus on what is
within our control. Unfortunately, environments
that embrace stability too enthusiastically face
stagnation.
The truth is, you have to let go of what you
do now in order to build something new. As the
Nobel laureate André Gide noted, “One doesn’t
discover new lands without losing sight of the
shore.” Only a sustained focus on opportunity
and innovation will produce long-run
organizational or economic success.
That’s what each of the entrepreneurs featured
in this issue have done: from Livia Mahler’s (page
16) gender-defying work in mining and venture
capital, to Westjet CEO Gregg Saretsky’s (page 28)
vision for a different airline experience, these
visionaries have (and continue) to grow not just
new business, but new thinking.
True innovation is, of course, not just about
the individual, but about fostering a process that
distributes and rewards the kind of thinking
that in turn fosters change. The age-old question
about whether entrepreneurs are born or made is
not as relevant anymore as how the environment
around us gives us room to give birth to new
ideas, and then encourages us to make them
happen. Ask yourself: How do you handle
failure in your organization? Do you applaud
the attempt, the exploration, or punish it? Do
you celebrate success and those who delivered it,
particularly if their efforts were unplanned and
unsanctioned?
Sauder’s approach to entrepreneurship
continues to focus on providing students at all
stages of their careers with the space, mentoring
and inspiration to explore, to fail, to re-explore,
and fi nally to succeed. I would wish all these
experiences for each of you. ■
We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. - Albert Einstein
Daniel F. Muzyka, DeanRBC FINANCIAL GROUP PROFESSOR OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
MA
RK
MU
SH
ET
VIEWPOINTS FROM THE DEAN
“Only a sustained focus on opportunity and innovation will produce long-run organizational
or economic success.”
3VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
The Sauder IndexBY JENNIFER WAH
Defi ning quote for Apple and Steve Jobs, acknowledged by many as the
most important entrepreneur of our time, from the 1997 “Think Different” ad campaign:
“Here’s to the crazy ones—the misfi ts, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the
square holes—the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules and they
have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify
them—about the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things, they
push the human race forward... because the people who are crazy enough to think
that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
Percentage of work-time Google fi nances for employees to innovate: 20%
Number of entrepreneurs named as TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year, since
the recognition started, 81 years ago, in 1929: 7
Percentage of those named to a list of the top 20 entrepreneurs of
the past 300 years, who are American: 50%
Percentage of those named to a list of the top 20 entrepreneurs of
the past 300 years, who are male: 100%
Types of entrepreneurs: 3
Defi ning character trait of a social entrepreneur, or someone who works toward supporting or transforming
social, educational, or economic conditions: ambition, combined with desire to challenge the status quo.
Example of a well-known serial entrepreneur, or one who repeatedly pursues risk and opportunity, and
who is most likely to achieve repeated success: Warren Buffett, the second-richest man in America
Colloquial term sometimes used to describe younger lifestyle entrepreneurs, who typically put
passion ahead of profi t, and whose business choices are often made in the interest of
marrying personal talent with the need to make a living: “Treps”
Duration of the ISIS Social Entrepreneurship Program at Sauder: 1 year
4 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
When the pressure is on, product experts can get facts wrongA new study on the effectiveness of expert
advice, co-authored by Assistant Professor
JoAndrea Hoegg, made headlines in the Globe
and Mail, Atlantic Monthly, Financial Post and the
Province. The research suggests that experts
with specifi c product knowledge can make
mistakes when relying on their memories to
compare complex goods—especially when
they feel compelled to explain how they
arrive at their decisions.
Co-written with Sauder PhD student
Ravi Mehta, the paper published in the
Journal of Consumer Research shows that study
participants who rate their level of product
expertise as high are more likely to make
false recalls of product features. They also
demonstrate that these false recalls are
driven by a greater sense of responsibility
felt by experts. ■
Sauder profs make their casesIn an ongoing monthly series of case studies written for the Globe and Mail’s Your Business section,
Sauder professors highlighted challenges and successes in today’s business environment.
d.studio profiled for bringing design thinking to business educationSauder’s new d.studio course made
headlines in the Vancouver Sun. Education
reporter Janet Steffenhagen described how
the class teaches design thinking to equip
students with a new way of approaching
business problems. Created by Professor
Moura Quayle, d.studio encourages
undergrads to use the holistic problem-
solving processes employed by designers,
instead of more traditional methods when
working on applied projects with partner
organizations in the community.
“The business climate is changing and
students need a different skill set,” Quayle
is quoted saying in the article. “They need
to be able to address problems in a more
human-centred way, thinking broadly about
options rather than zeroing in on
an answer.” ■
NEWSWORTHY SAUDER IN THE NEWS
Good news = better people? New study says in some cases, yesNew research by Professor Karl Aquino shows that being exposed to news stories recounting acts of
uncommon moral goodness can inspire some to take positive action.
The research paper, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, demonstrates that simply
reading or seeing second-hand accounts of extraordinary moral virtue in the media is enough to
make some want to commit morally good acts, such as giving to charity. The paper garnered coverage
with the Globe and Mail, CBC, Vancouver Sun, and Canadian Press news agency. ■
Professor Daniel Skarlicki wrote that organizations often need to look outside
for help to get where they need to go. He recounts how Cathay Pacifi c in North
America joined forces with Sauder Executive Education to co-design a leadership
program that would help promote a customer-service culture while trimming
costs and expanding operations in new markets.
Professor Moura Quayle profi led fl oat plane operator Harbour Air to spotlight
how the company became an environmental leader while keeping its operations
profi table. She details how the company dedicated itself to becoming North
America’s fi rst carbon neutral airline by buying carbon offsets to counterbalance
emissions.
Associate Professor Marc-David Seidel wrote about Sauder grad Dennis Ma’s
success in social media marketing. He explains that Ma recognized people were
being overwhelmed by offers landing in their in-boxes from online daily-deal
providers like Groupon, and seized the opportunity to create the aggregator
website MiserMcGee.com, as an alternative for one-stop online shopping.
Assistant Professor JoAndrea Hoegg wrote about the success of SMART
Pics, a company led by Sauder grad Ray Kanani whose innovative photo
kiosks post pictures to the Internet in real-time. She writes that initially
taking local entertainment contracts that made very little profi t allowed the
company to eventually build the credibility needed to sign bigger and more
lucrative deals.
Assistant Professor Danielle van Jaarsveld wrote that investing in frontline staff can be the key to
a business’s success. She shows how Quebec-based contact centre Gexel Telecom expanded its
operations and client base by improving working conditions and reducing employees’ stress levels in
order to increase productivity and responsiveness to clients.
Instructor Tracey Gurton described how laying out a company’s objectives and clearly communicating
expectations and goals can result in better employee performances. She shows how business-to-
business wealth management company Credential Financial Inc. revamped its methods of evaluating
staff performance to achieve better outcomes. ■
5VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
To learn more about Sauder in the news, visit www.sauder.ubc.ca
Professors argue for increased exemption for cross-border shoppers in Globe and Mail op-edIn an op-ed in the Globe and Mail, Assistant Professor Ambarish Chandra
and Professor Keith Head argued that Ottawa’s resistance to increase
cross-border tariff exemptions is misguided.
Head and Chandra have been researching cross-border spending
habits for the last year and argue that increasing tariff exemptions for Canadians making same-
day shopping trips to the U.S. would not only benefi t shoppers, but also free up the Canadian
Border Services Agency to focus on security.
Legislation before U.S. Congress proposes a tariff exemption increase for American travelers
to $1000 from $200. The professors argue that matching the exemption for Canadians would
allow Canada to see greater gains from trade. ■
Sauder’s alternatives to the MBA profiledInterviews with Professor Ron Giammarino,
Associate Dean Bruce Wiesner, and Sauder
fi nance PhD alumna Maureen Howe were
featured in a Financial Post Magazine article on
alternatives to the MBA for career acceleration.
The article focuses in part on Howe’s success
passing up a life in academia for a career in
investment banking with Merrill Lynch and RBC
Capital Markets, where she retired as managing
director in equity research in 2008.
“A PhD is intended to groom academics.
But in the business community, particularly in the
fi nance community where investment houses
do look for quantitative skills, I was a somewhat
different commodity than an MBA. That distin-
guishing factor probably helped me,” says Howe. ■
Province urged to continue role as leader in green economyAssociate Professor James Tansey, executive
director of the sustainability-focused research
centre ISIS, and Professor Moura Quayle argued
for British Columbia to sustain its role as an
environmental leader in two separate op-eds
written for the Vancouver Sun.
In light of recent discussions of the province’s
continued role in the Western Climate Initiative,
both wrote that the province should continue
to support forestry companies, First Nations
and green tech companies that are leading the
way in the green economy. By continuing to sell
carbon offsets and green technologies abroad,
and investing in environmental research, the
professors argue that the province can grow its
export market and create jobs while also making
the environment a priority. ■
Sauder research profi led on front page of the New York TimesA study co-written by Professor Nathan Schiff on voting patterns in
the United States was the focus of a front page article in the New York Times.
In their research, Schiff and his co-author set out to determine how
much Iowa, New Hampshire and other early-voting states affect
U.S. presidential nominations.
In their results, the Times explained, the economists found that individual voters in these states
had the same impact as fi ve voters put together in other states. Signifi cantly, the researchers note,
this system “represents a deviation from the democratic ideal of ‘one person, one vote.’” ■
ACTUALS SEEN AND HEARD IN THE SAUDER WORLD: ENTREPRENEURSHIP
This spring, a team of undergrads took
home $15,000 in prizes at entrepreneurship
competitions for a set of energy-saving window
blinds that maximize the amount of natural light
in a room.
The team’s winning product, the Luminex
EcoLight System, was developed entirely in
the course New Venture Design offered jointly
by the Sauder School of Business and Faculty
of Applied Science at UBC. The class brings
together commerce and engineering students to
invent products, fi le patents, develop working
prototypes and seek funding for new startups.
“I still remember the excitement when
we formed our team in class,” said Mustafa
Abousaleh, who credits the course for his
group’s success. “NVD gave us strategies for
idea generation and research that got us up and
running on creating our product. We were also
exposed to guest speakers whose real world
insights were integral to every step along the
way in our development.”
BComs James Clift, Paul McLaughlin and
Melissa Jang, and engineering students Levi
Stoddard, Thomas Zhou and Mustafa Abousaleh,
won the $10,000 fi rst prize at the Evansville
New Venture Creation Competition held at the
University of Evansville in Indiana on March 25.
They also snagged $5,000 worth of prizes at the
Tony Brower Innovation Exposition at Thompson
Rivers University in Kamloops on March 26.
Their Luminex EcoLight System is a daytime
lighting system that consists of sets of refl ective
blinds that maximize the amount of sunlight
in a room by moving automatically throughout
the day, tracking the sun and redirecting its light
onto the ceiling. The room is then equipped
with an ambient light sensor, which limits the
use of artifi cial lighting accordingly in order to
save energy.
Aimed at architects and decorators who
would potentially incorporate the window
coverings into large-scale building projects, the
blinds offer the potential for enormous savings
of energy.
“The New Venture Design course acts as
the catalyst that brings together outstanding
business and engineering students,” said Sauder
professor Darren Dahl, one of the instructors
who teach the class.
“By merging their innovative thinking and
different talents, the course provides a distinctive
learning experience where students can truly create
something new and valuable,” concludes Dahl.
Since its launch in 2003, Sauder’s New
Venture Design has spawned numerous teams
that have gone on to win business innovation
competitions at home and around the world,
including a successful pitch on CBC Television’s
Dragon’s Den.
Alumni from the class in recent years have
founded a series of successful business startups,
including this year’s recipients of Sauder’s
Dobson Foundation Grants, an award given
annually to New Venture Design graduates who
have launched new companies.
Grant winners this year have created an
exciting range of products, including an
innovative new water desalination system,
wireless medical sensors that can provide real-
time information to doctors, a surgical tape that
can be applied to patients to improve accuracy
in incisions, a social media integrated photo
booth, and an online booking system for
dental clinics. ■
Dragons’ Den judge talks high-stakes entrepreneurism and appraises new student ventures
On March 23, Robert Herjavec, a judge of the
popular CBC Television series Dragons’ Den,
engaged an audience of more than 400 students
with his rags-to-riches story of entrepreneurism.
Undergrads win big for innovative EcoLight product in entrepreneurship competitions
6 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
Along the way he described the moment when
he discovered business is about more than
money—when his neighbour beat him in a
contest for the most Ferraris—and ran down his
top 10 tips for budding entrepreneurs.
Now owner of a leading Canadian cyber
security company, Herjavec painted a vivid
picture of the tough but rewarding road ahead
for those launching their own enterprises.
“When you start out, there is no work-life
balance,” says Herjavec. “I’m not successful
because I’m smarter or have better ideas. I just
have the ability to be beaten down and keep
going. Success is about being able to take a
beating and getting right back at it the very
next day.”
After his lecture, Herjavec put his skills as
a Dragons’ Den judge to work presiding over
fi ve student presentations in the New Venture
Design class. This two-term BCom course pairs
commerce and engineering students together to
invent products, fi le patents, develop working
prototypes and seek out funding for new
startups.
Not one to mince his words, Herjavec gave
fair criticism and compliments to all of the
groups presenting new products, including a
yoga mat cleaning machine, a location-based
social media platform for universities, a sport
shoe with interchangeable soles, a sun-tracking
offi ce blind that harnesses natural light, and an
eco-friendly mop bucket.
He also provided advice to fi ve groups of
alumni from the New Venture Design class
who have gone on to start businesses together.
The grads were on hand as the fi rst recipients
of Dobson Foundation Grants, which provide
funding to Sauder alumni in the initial stages of
launching new ventures.
The worthy alums’ startups included an
innovative new water desalination system,
wireless medical sensors that can provide
real-time information to doctors, a tape that can
be applied to patients to improve accuracy in
surgery, a social media integrated photo
booth, and an online booking system for
dental clinics. ■
A team of fourth-year undergrads from the
class New Venture Design won the Alerus
Entrepreneurship Challenge held at the University
of North Dakota in Grand Forks on April 16.
The team made up of BComs Adrien
Herberts, Joey Tai and Peter Yang, and
engineering students Frankie Angai, William
Yan and Eric Villeneuve, nabbed the $5,000
grand prize for their location-based social media
application, Weev. Team member Adrien Herberts
also took home $250 for winning the “Best
Elevator Pitch” segment of the competition.
Unlike other location-based apps such
as Foursquare, the team’s Weev platform is
designed specifi cally for university students
Undergrads snag over $10,000 in prizes for new social media app
navigating and socializing in a university setting.
The application allows students to easily fi nd
friends, classmates, academic tutors and more
with their mobile devices, while moving around
campus.
The winning product innovation was created
as a project for the course New Venture Design,
offered jointly by the Sauder School of Business
and the Faculty of Applied Science at UBC. The
course acts as the catalyst that brings together
outstanding business and engineering students
to invent products, fi le patents, develop working
prototypes and seek funding for new startups.
Since its launch in 2003, the class has spawned
numerous teams that have gone on to win business
innovation competitions at home and around the
world, as well as alumni who have founded a series
of successful businesses startups.
In addition to the Alerus Entrepreneurship
Challenge, the Weev team also won fi rst place
in the Student Category and the “Student
Innovator of the Year” award at the Monterey
Bay Business Plan Competition in Monterey
Bay, California, on May 13, with prizes totaling
$4,000 in cash and consulting services, as well
as a $2,000 prize at the University of British
Columbia Venture Capital and Private Equity
Entrepreneurship Competition on March 19. ■
CO
LL
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7VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
8 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
ACTUALS SEEN AND HEARD IN THE SAUDER WORLD
Business Career ExpoIn partnership with the SFU Beedie School of Business, the Hari B.
Varshney Business Career Centre hosted the 7th Annual Business
Career Expo on March 25 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
The fair was a huge success, with over 1,000 business students and
100 companies in attendance. ■
Trek ChinaSeventeen MBA and two MM-ECM students travelled with staff from the
Hari B. Varshney Business Career Centre to China in early April to meet with
key employers and alumni. Students gained perspective on the local com-
munity and career options while expanding their connections in the area.
During the Trek, students were hosted by RBS, Li & Fung, Colliers, Bloom-
berg, Deloitte, Penske, AON Hewitt, Manulife, Louis Vuitton and Wang & Li.
Student and alumni mixers were held in Hong Kong and Shanghai. ■
Co-op Employer and Student of the Year AwardsThe Sauder Co-op Program celebrated National Co-operative Education
Week by hosting the Co-op Employer and Student of the Year Awards night
on March 23. Marketing Co-op student, Farrah Smith, was named as Out-
standing Co-op Student for 2010, nominated by her employer IPS. Work-
SafeBC was named Outstanding Co-op Employer for 2010, nominated by
MIS Co-op student, Alan Kwan.
WorkSafeBC provided six work terms to Sauder Co-op students in 2010
in the areas of Accounting and Business Analysis. ■
2011 Business Now! eventOn March 14, 30 local alumni and 27 MBA students attended the
2011 Business Now! MBA Student and Alumni Speaker Series featuring
Paul Barber, CEO of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Mr. Barber shared the
compelling story of the growth of the Whitecaps and how they have
created a football franchise in a hockey-mad market. ■
GR
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RS
, SIM
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9VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
Undergrads attend international forum on global issues hosted by former US President Bill Clinton
BCom students Rosie Pidcock and Jennifer Matchett recently attended
the Clinton Global Initiative University, a forum launched by former
US President Bill Clinton for student organizations to discuss pressing
global issues.
Hosted at the University of California in San Diego from April 1
to April 3, the Sauder students joined nearly 1,200 attendees from 90
countries who pledged to make a concrete difference in fi ve key areas:
education, environment and climate change, peace and human rights,
poverty alleviation and public health.
Pidcock and Matchett attended as representatives of the International
Student Energy Summit, a forum for students to discuss the future of
global energy hosted at UBC in June. Not only did they get a chance
to promote this project, they also attended an exclusive luncheon with
Clinton, where they were able to pose questions directly to the
former president.
Building on the successful model of the Clinton Global Initiative,
which brings together world leaders to take action on global challenges,
President Clinton launched the Clinton Global Initiative University
(CGI U) in 2007 to engage the next generation of leaders on college
campuses around the world. Each year, CGI U brings together students,
national youth organizations, topic experts and celebrities to discuss
solutions to pressing global issues. ■
Centre for CEO Leadership hosts prominent business leaders at Leadership Legacy SeriesOn April 28, the Centre for CEO Leadership hosted business leaders Larry
Bell and Bjorn Moller at the Shangri-La Hotel in downtown Vancouver as
part of the new Leadership Legacy CEO Dinner Roundtable. Bell has held
CEO positions at BC Hydro and Vancity, while Moller was CEO of Teekay
Shipping until recently. The respected leaders refl ected on and discussed
their key leadership experiences.
The Centre for CEO Leadership facilitates peer-to-peer learning and
support amongst top-level CEOs and provides them with access to thought
leaders and cutting edge research. Through quarterly roundtable sessions
and Annual Summits, Canada’s top business leaders come together to
transfer knowledge and share their experiences. ■
Sauder Alumni reunite in Australia As part of the ever-growing global network of UBC, the fi rst Sauder/
UBC Alumni event was recently held in Sydney, Australia. A group
of Sauder alumni, exchange students, and UBC alumni gathered
together for some casual drinks and networking.
This was the fi rst event held in Sydney and was attended by a
mixture of students and alumni from various faculties. Drinks and
appetizers were shared by an intimate group at the Arts Hotel in the
city. For many, it was a chance to reconnect with fellow Canadians
and remember fondly memories from their undergraduate days.
For those who wanted to but couldn’t attend, keep an eye out for
more events for alumni Down Under in the near future. If you have
specifi c ideas about events you would be interested in, or would like
to reach out to a liaison, contact our regional representative, Ying
Xin, BCom 2007 at [email protected]. ■
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The 8th Annual Family Legacy Series Dinner was hosted by the Business Families Centre at the Sauder
School of Business, together with the Vancouver chapter of the Canadian Association of Family Enterprises
(CAFE). A must-attend Vancouver business dinner, this annual event is an extraordinary opportunity to
gain insight into the inner workings of some of Canada’s most successful businesses—and the families who
own them. Featuring an intimate discussion with Keith and Ryan Beedie, and three non-family executives
of the Beedie Development Group, the event did not disappoint the 700 guests.
8th Annual Family Legacy Series Dinner
(From left to right): Darren Dahl, George Hayhoe, Keith Beedie
10 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
11VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
(From left to right): Darren Dahl, Judi Cunningham, George Hayhoe, Keith Beedie, Todd Yuen, Ryan Beedie, Jim Bogusz
KEITH BEEDIE’S FIRST BUILDING, BUILT IN 1945 AT
the age of 19, was a modest structure of 1,200
hand-built square feet. Today, the Beedie
Development Group is the largest landlord of
industrial space in BC with over 7 million square
feet in its portfolio. The company leads the BC
market in industrial development, construction
and management, having built over 20 million
square feet of space since Keith’s fi rst cement-
block shop.
Over the course of the dinner, members
of the Beedie Development Group, with panel
moderators Judi Cunningham, Executive
Director of the Business Families Centre,
and Darren Dahl, Chair of Sauder Marketing
Division, in turn revealed a business—and a
family—notable for its dynamic leadership,
deep support for its people, and unwavering
commitment to its values.
In the question-and-answer period, the
family’s responses to questions from the
audience left no doubt about the family’s vision
and willingness to tackle the toughest business
and family issues as the source of their success.
Since its inception in 2001, the Family
Legacy Series has grown to become a must-
attend gala event on Vancouver’s business and
social calendar. The notable Foord, SC Johnson,
Shaw, Rogers, and Molson families have all
graced the FLS stage, sharing a wealth of
knowledge and experience with Vancouver’s
family business community.
For more information, visit
www.FamilyLegacySeries.com or
call 604.822.0102. ■
>> See page 20 for profi le of Ryan Beedie.
12 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
Sauder alumni plug in to
Silicon Valley
BY ERICA SMISHEK
The tires meet the pavement. Students and young graduates pitch their ideas and connect with business leaders and investors in San Francisco.
13VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
IN AUGUST 2010, A NUMBER OF UBC ENTREPRENEURS
took their business concepts and products to
Silicon Valley to pitch venture capitalists at a
distinctive alumni event at the Plug and Play Tech
Center in Sunnyvale, California.
Hosted by UBC President Prof. Stephen
Toope, Accelerating Entrepreneurship: UBC’s New Venture
brought together UBC alumni and business
leaders to discuss the role of universities in
encouraging entrepreneurship and showcase
some of the compelling innovation coming out
of UBC. Sauder School of Business Dean Daniel
Muzyka and Tyseer Aboulnasr, Dean of Applied
Science, were also in attendance.
“Our role is not only to inspire learning
and invention, but also to connect these creative
students and young graduates with established
alumni and other business leaders,” said
Muzyka. “This event gave them an important
opportunity to immerse themselves in the
entrepreneurial community, and network with
people with extraordinary knowledge, energy
and passion.”
Following a panel discussion, six companies
founded by current UBC students and recent
alumni presented their innovations to a group
of business leaders and investors, including Plug
and Play Tech Center President and CEO Saeed
Amidi.
Nicolas Seto, BCom 2010, was there to pitch
“Target Tape,” a product that increases accuracy
in applications ranging from thoracic to plastic
surgeries. Seto, Wylie Spencer, BCom 2010, and
Colin O’Neill (Applied Science) founded Aeos
Biomedical to develop the product based on a
business idea generated as students.
“It was a great opportunity for me to see
that there is more out there than just Vancouver.
I haven’t travelled that much in my lifetime, so
this trip really exposed me to the opportunities
I would usually only hear about,” Seto said.
“People handed out business cards, and offered
to help to connect us with other people
they know.
“It’s always good to hear different perspec-
tives, especially from someone with an excep-
tional reputation.”
Brian Wong, BCom 2009 and a C100
member, relocated to San Francisco and sees the
value in UBC continuing to build a connection
with Silicon Valley to foster entrepreneurship.
“When you’re young and nerdy, you often
feel misunderstood,” Wong said. “This is the fi rst
city where I can ramble on about my theories
and ideas, and people will respond thoughtfully
and will know who to connect me with. It is
interesting to see how one simple step can lead
to so much. You need to throw yourself into
the space with the venture capitalists and tech
companies, and build relationships.”
Participants at Accelerating Entrepreneurship were
chosen from 54 applications in a competition
sponsored by the new entrepreneurship@
UBC program. Led by the Sauder School of
Business, the Faculties of Applied Science and
Science, and the University-Industry Liaison
Offi ce, entrepreneurship@UBC is a University-
wide program designed to foster and support
a culture of entrepreneurship among students
and the campus community. At the heart of this
program is the entrepreneurship@UBC Fund,
which provides students with pre-seed capital
fi nancing to take their ideas from concept to
investor readiness with the aid of experienced
mentors from the business community. The
fund is provided in partnership with the BC
Innovation Council. For more information, visit
www.entrepreneurship.ubc.ca ■
People once left their hearts in San Francisco—now they’re leaving their startups.
The lemonade
Name: Gregg Saretsky
Lives in: Calgary
Degrees: BSc, Microbiology & Biochemistry (UBC), MBA, Finance (Sauder)
For pay: President & CEO, Westjet Airlines
For fun: Traveling the world
Biggest career risk: Taking a job that seemed out of my fi eld, but that interested me, very early on
Name: Ryan Beedie
Age: 42
Lives in: Vancouver
Degrees: BBA (SFU), MBA, Real Estate (Sauder)
For pay: President, the Beedie Development Group, a real estate development company
For fun: Wine, music, fast sports
Biggest career risk: Deciding to pursue an MBA instead of proceeding toward my CA designation, which meant I joined the company earlier than I would have
14 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
Call them entrepreneurs, innovators, risk-takers; call them crazy... They are the people we all know who opened lemonade stands at an early age, and who imagine opportunity where others don’t, and whose daring dreams help us all imagine—and often realize—more.
stand, reinvented
Name: Chris Coldewey
Age: 34
Lives in: Vancouver
Degrees: BSc Conservation & Resource Studies, UC Berkeley, MBA (Sauder)
For pay: Strategy Consultant at Chris Coldewey Consulting; Founder, RedRovr.com
For fun: Hiking, biking, chasing a 1 year old around the house
Biggest career risk: Moving to Mumbai, India without a job lined up (found great job, stayed two years)
Name: Livia Mahler
Age: 52
Lives in: Vancouver
Degrees: BSc (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), MBA (Sauder)
For pay: CEO, Computational Geosciences Inc., Vancouver-based company providing geophysical data processing services for the mining industry
For fun: Running
Biggest career risk: Quitting my stable job at the Business Development Bank of Canada
15VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
Livia Mahler goes deep or
Trying to label MBA 1991 Livia Mahler is a
formidable task.
Her biography describes her as a co-founder
of Greenstone Venture Partners, a Vancouver
venture capital fund that targets private early-
stage information technology companies—but
that summary is so two years ago.
These days, Mahler is CEO of Computational
Geosciences, Inc., which she co-founded with
Dr. Eldad Haber in December of 2010 to bring
together UBC’s innovative data processing
technologies and the province’s massive mining
industry.
“My radar is always on for technologies,”
says Mahler, a lean 52-year-old blonde with a
ready smile, wearing a trim black wool dress,
light grey scarf, and knee-high chocolate boots.
She’s sitting at the end of a boardroom table in
an austere offi ce on the UBC campus that looks,
quite rightly, as though she’s just moved in.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
16 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS16 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
linkedin.com/pub/livia-mahler/0/100/879
goes homeBY KATE ZIMMERMAN PHOTOS BY PERRY ZAVITZ
Livia Mahler has used her affi nity for science, business and research to blaze a trail for female venture capitalists in technology and mining.
Livia Mahler MBA 1991
17VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
18 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AT 19, MAHLER RECALLS, LAUGHING, “I REBELLED,
and I got married, and I said, ‘I’m not going to
be a doctor, either.’”
Science was a perfect fi t, however, so she did
her undergraduate degree in Life Sciences at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “I did have a
natural curiosity. I wanted to know how things
worked.”
That urge to understand proved invaluable
when she and her husband followed her
parents to Vancouver in 1981. Mahler went into
medical research, working for six years in UBC’s
Faculty of Medicine. By then the mother of two
daughters, Mahler started doing her MBA part-
time. Surprise! In her economics classes, “I fell
in love with supply and demand curves. They
intersect, and there is a price, and it’s simple.
Business started appealing to me.”
Mahler likens business to science, where,
as she puts it, you fi gure out how something
should work and then you put the pieces
together to achieve that result. She relished
investigating what a company needed to do to
succeed, and why some companies fl ourish and
others fail.
After getting her MBA, Mahler spent
a few years in the City of Vancouver’s
Department of Finance. Then a UBC professor
asked her if she’d be interested in looking
at the commercialization of technologies
from universities, which produce a lot of
groundbreaking research.
In those days, however, fi nanciers did not
bankroll university “spin-outs.” It was Mahler’s
job to change their minds. After she spoke
with a number of fi nanciers, the Business
Development Bank of Canada (BDC) approached
her to offer her a position in its Venture Capital
Group. “And that’s how I moved into venture
capital,” Mahler says.
She describes her role as reviewing
opportunities, saying “no” to most, then doing
the due diligence on the rest, which in her case
has involved assessing business opportunities
and management teams, exploring matters
of intellectual property, and researching the
competition. Mahler has joined her clients’
boards and gotten involved in the strategic
aspects of their business. She savours the
excitement of building something new with
equally stimulated peers.
In the 1990s, while at BDC, she saw a
clear need for startup funding for “seed stage”
Canadian technology companies. So Mahler co-
founded and was General Partner of the Western
Technology Seed Investment Fund, which
helped obtain fi nancing for more than 25 such
companies. In 1999, Mahler and two other UBC
graduates, Brent Holliday and Richard Osborn,
co-founded Greenstone Venture Partners, which,
after 12 years, still has two companies left
in its portfolio.
As a venture capitalist in the area of
technology, Mahler spent time in Silicon Valley.
There, she soaked in the positive energy and
drive of its entrepreneurs. At the same time, she
was developing an interest in mining, a business
that was constantly in the news. “I actually
started seeing that Vancouver, for mining, was
what Silicon Valley was for technology
venture capital.”
The mining industry in Vancouver spans
the entire business eco-system, nurturing
large mining companies, serial entrepreneurs,
technological experts and venture capitalists
who are willing and able to raise money for
early stage projects. Many of the companies that
Mahler was interested in were at the exploration
stage—that’s where the risks, and the rewards,
are highest.
UBC’s Dr. Eldad Haber inspired Mahler’s
next move when he approached her, suggesting
that technologies developed at UBC could
work for the mining industry. Haber’s ideas
aimed to improve the outcomes of geophysical
exploration surveys, and the mining community
needed better data processing capabilities.
“Any geophysical survey involves collecting
data, which comes from the surface. And
eventually one has to invert that data in order
to start fi guring out whether there are targets
underneath and where they are and how they
look. While in the past mining companies have
focused on more shallow deposits, today’s many
undiscovered mineral targets lie deep below
the earth’s surface, where technology can play a
critical role in the discovery process.”
Haber brought the science, Mahler brought
the contacts and the money, and the pair
co-founded Computational Geosciences late
last year.
Mahler’s responsibilities have now shifted to
licensing inversion code technologies from UBC,
and managing contracts with mining companies.
Though she acknowledges that the company is
small now, she expects it to grow, to develop
more technologies and tools, and to “always be
at the forefront of this business.”
In the meantime, occasionally, there are other
interests to pursue. In her spare time—“What
is spare time?” Mahler asks, laughing—she tries
to run every day. One of her adult daughters
now lives in Australia—the family fi nally has its
doctor—while the other specializes in investor
relations for mining companies in Toronto.
Mahler, now single, also likes to travel, for
business—which has taken her as far away
as an Ivanhoe Mines project in Mongolia—
and for pleasure. Last year she overcame her
claustrophobia to go scuba diving in the
Great Barrier Reef, which she describes as an
“incredible” experience.
Still, it’s clear that work is always hovering at
the edge of her consciousness. “I’ve lucked out
to be able to have this opportunity to work with
people that are unbelievably smart and creative,”
Mahler concludes. “Bringing new ideas, taking
risks, building something, creating something
—it’s never nine to fi ve.” ■
Technologies, mining and business are all major detours from the path laid out for the
Lithuania-born Mahler by her father, who decided early on that she ought to be a doctor.
She grew up in Israel alongside her sister, and her affi nity for sciences had her dad convinced.
“I’ve lucked out to be able to have this opportunity to work with people that are unbelievably smart and creative.”
19VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
Jason Goto, MSc 1999
The Beedie goes When Ryan Beedie talks about his life as the
president of BC’s leading industrial development
company, his observations, recollections and
dreams rush along like a North Shore mountain
creek during spring runoff.
In the austere boardroom of the Beedie
Development Group’s Burnaby headquarters,
the wiry 42-year-old MBA 1993 speaks non-stop,
as if punctuation might be a questionable
investment. By the time he confi des, “I often
have three conversations going on in my head
at the same time,” it’s not much of a surprise.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
20 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
www.beediegroup.ca
on
Sauder MBA Ryan Beedie and the industrial development business
his father founded, the Beedie Development Group, appear to know
no bounds. You might well be working in one of their projects.
Last year, Ryan donated $250,000 to the Sauder School’s
Opening Worlds Campaign. He was pleased to contribute to “an
educational institution that helped me.”
“I often have three conversations going
on in my head at the same time.”
“I often have three conversations going
on in my head at the same time.”
“I often have three conversations going
on in my head at the same time.”
BY KATE ZIMMERMAN PHOTOS BY KENT KALLBERG
Ryan Beedie MBA 1993
21VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
22 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
WHEN KEITH BEEDIE STARTED CONCENTRATING
on industrial development in the 1960’s he
quickly learned that he did not want to be just a
contractor building for developers or end users,
he wanted to be a contractor AND a developer.
His approach was to say “‘I’ve got the land, I’ll
design your building, I’ll build it for you, and
if it’s a lease, I’ll own it and I’ll manage it for
you. I’m not going to sell it out as a merchant
developer,’” says Ryan. “So his model, the
integrated structure, is genius. It’s the founda-
tion of our whole company. I took this idea that
he’d been using for years, and just revved it up. I
said, ‘Well, okay, this is great—why don’t we do
more, and bigger?’”
“More and bigger” has turned out to be
his mantra. The Beedie Development Group’s
revenues have leapt by 600 per cent since Ryan
took over responsibility for development in the
mid 1990s, prior to his assuming the mantle
of president from his father in 2001. When he
started working for the company in the early
1990s, it owned and managed 2 million square
feet of industrial space; that number has grown to
more than 7.5 million. The Beedie Development
Group is now the largest landlord of industrial
space in the province of BC. Its assets are worth
more than a billion dollars.
Its projects’ dimensions have also blossomed.
Until a few years ago, the company had never
built anything larger than 200,000 square feet;
last year it developed 400,000 square feet for
Home Depot, and is presently developing a
500,000-square-foot facility for Kruger Products
in New Westminster—the largest single-fl oor
warehouse constructed in BC.
The Beedie Development Group recently
crossed the border into southern Alberta, where
it is developing the Highland Industrial Park in
the town of Airdrie (just north of Calgary), and
has completed a 200,000-square-foot facility for
TransCanada Turbines. Witnessing this kind of
relentless push, one can imagine a gimlet-eyed
rival saying gloomily of Ryan, “First he’ll take
Alberta, then he’ll take Berlin.”
Concurrently, Ryan has the company expand-
ing into large-bay industrial strata projects and
residential property. It is no wonder that in 2009
he was named the overall Pacifi c Region Entre-
preneur of the Year by Ernst & Young.
It seems like new business schemes latch
onto his constantly gliding form like remora
to sharks. Not that he has a shark’s dead eyes or
iffy temperament. Ryan appears to be a perfectly
affable fellow, with the disarming friendliness
and charm of an archetypal surfer dude.
The 600 bottles in the cellars and wine
fridges at his West Vancouver and Whistler
homes, the passion he expresses for Italian
food, and the more than 100 friends he has got
listed on his Blackberry Messenger (BBM), are
testaments to his ability to relax. As a matter
of fact, one of his favourite lyrics comes from
a song by The Kings called This Beat Goes On/
Switchin’ to Glide—“(I) can mobilize some
laughs with just one call.” It might be a BBM
call, Ryan says, but he loves the fact that these
days, he can “make tons of stuff happen within
three or four minutes.”
Over the years, however, he has learned to
pause, refl ect and appreciate what he already
has in his personal life rather than constantly
pushing for more. In that arena, he takes as his
motto a line from U2’s song Gone—“What
you thought was freedom is just greed.”
Still, “more and bigger” prevails when
it comes to business. Where some high-
performing entrepreneurs savour their
opportunities to unwind, Ryan stays busy. At
family getaways in Whistler, he waves the kids
and sometimes his wife, Cindy, off to the slopes,
preferring to socialize with family and friends
at night and spend the day by himself beside
the fi re, laptop ablaze with work. “I’d feel really
stressed if I were disconnected.”
If relaxation is on the agenda, he is eas-
ily bored. When the family is on one of its
frequent short holidays in Europe, Hawaii or
Las Vegas, he craves business correspondence.
He even welcomed it when the self-described
“music nut” was following U2 around two
continents on 10 dates of its tour last year.
“When I land somewhere, I want the
number of emails to be as big as possible.”
He’s clearly his father’s son. At 85, Keith
Beedie is still the company’s CEO, signs every
cheque it sends out, and expects to be contacted
on business matters while on vacation.
“He’s a real presence,” says the junior Beedie
of the senior. “I really love working with him.
He gave me a lot of authority at a young age.
I took it.”
Keith Beedie says he spotted the entrepre-
neur in his youngest son when Ryan was about
nine. The boy had a game he wanted to sell and
he’d put an ad in the paper. When a potential
buyer came by, Keith said he could show the
man the game, but Ryan wanted to handle it
himself. The pair went into the basement, had
a chat, and Ryan made the sale. Beedie remem-
bers saying to himself, “I think I know where
he’s going to end up.”
His sentences tumble over each other as he explains how the Beedie Development Group remains
true to the original concept of his father, Keith Beedie, whose company was incorporated in 1954.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
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23VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
With his older brother Colin on the construc-
tion side, Ryan started off at the company by
leasing buildings, dealing with brokers and listing
agents, and helping show the structures the Beedie
Development Group built. Then he heard about an
opportunity to buy 60 acres of land in the Tilbury
area of Delta. The Group had already completed
its fi rst industrial park in Port Coquitlam.
“‘(That’s) a great model—it’s worked
very well,’” he recalls pointing out. “‘But
here’s a chance to build in Delta—why not? It
complements that land, it’s cheap, and it’s land
inventory for us to build on, why wouldn’t
we do it?’ My dad’s saying, ‘Grr, grr, they want
too much money’—but he was 65, he didn’t
have the energy, he didn’t want to do this. But I
came in—I was still in graduate school—quite
hungry for deals. So we bought the land, and
we built a second industrial park.”
Ryan quickly realized that it wasn’t leasing
that captivated him. Some of his dates with
Cindy, whom he had met in the fi rst week of
his Business Administration program at Simon
Fraser University, when he was 17 and she was
18, consisted of taking her to watch some of the
dredging operations at the project in Delta.
“Here it is, you’re taking this piece of land
and creating something from what was just a
bunch of grass before,” Ryan recalls, explaining
his excitement. “Now it’s a fi lled site, you’re
putting roads in, you’re building buildings.
It was the most rewarding, wonderful, fun
experience. It was ‘Forget me doing leasing, I
want to be doing that.’”
Cindy, a one-time developer who is
currently at home with their three children—
17-year-old son, and daughters aged 15 and
12—now calls Ryan a “buildaholic.” He thrives
on the wheeler-dealer aspect of overseeing the
Beedie Development Group, but says it is the
structures that matter most to him.
“Some of these buildings will last 100
years, 200 years. You’re making a pretty much
permanent imprint. You’re leaving your mark.”
Ultimately, for him, the power of con-
structing a building lies in its creativity. “It’s
a vision and an idea that ends up becoming
something.”
Ryan is the youngest of Keith’s children, the
sole scion of a second marriage and the only
one to remain an employee.
“I always knew at some point I’d end up
here,” he says.
When he was young, he and his parents
would go for Sunday drives and, steered by
Keith, would fi nd themselves at his construction
sites, looking at projects. Ryan couldn’t help
but be impressed by these edifi ces. “You think
‘Wow, that looks like fun. That’s interesting.’ So it
becomes ingrained in you.”
After toying with the idea of becoming a
Chartered Accountant, Ryan signed on full-
time with the Beedie Development Group after
graduate school. He had chosen the Sauder
School, in part, because it was local and allowed
him to take an accelerated program, so he could
still work at Beedie.
His father appreciated the effort. “I didn’t
fi nish high school, so I respected the fact that
he got an MBA,” says Keith. Now, he adds, “He’s
leading the troops. If it weren’t for him, all this
would not have happened. He’s been a godsend.”
Naturally, Keith infl uenced Ryan in other
ways. Beedie Senior fi nancially supports many
worthy causes through the Keith and Betty
Beedie Foundation. Ryan has been involved
with the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation and
recently helped it raise $700,000 toward the
$8.5 million, 15,000-square-foot North Shore
Hospice, the North Shore’s fi rst freestanding
palliative care centre.
In 2011, Keith and Ryan Beedie donated $22
million to the Simon Fraser University business
school, which was renamed the Beedie School
of Business in honour of the largest gift that SFU
had ever received.
Beedie says at this stage in the Beedie
Development Group’s life, it is time to be more
generous, and more structured about where and
how it donates.
As an individual, he says, “There’s only so
much you need for your lifestyle. A successful
business gives you an opportunity to generate
income so you can give it away—there are so
many worthy causes—and make a difference in
your community and the world.”
As for the future of the Beedie Development
Group, it is dazzling, as far as Ryan’s concerned.
“We’ve got this great energy here, and I don’t
need to roll the dice and risk what we’ve got
going, so it’s steady she goes. You hope things
work out, and 95 per cent of the time they do.”
He likes to keep things percolating. Even in his
time off, says Ryan, “I always have options. When
I’m going out for dinner, I’ll have reservations at
four places. I’ll cancel the other ones with plenty
of notice, but I want to have fl exibility. It drives
my wife nuts.”
Cindy sometimes tells him, tongue in cheek,
that she’s a “passenger on the Ryan bus.” He’s
not offended. After all, says Ryan Beedie, “It’s
a pretty fun bus. The music’s good and we’re
going places.” ■
“We’ve got this great energy here, and I don’t need to roll the
dice and risk what we’ve got going, so it’s steady she goes. You hope things work out,
and 95 per cent of the time they do.”
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
24 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
www.chriscoldewey.com
twitter.com/#!/krrish
linkedin.com/in/chriscoldewey
Chris Coldewey MBA 2010
Red Rovr, Red Rovr
We call Chris Coldewey over
With half an eye on the Twitter stream scrolling
by one night a few years ago, Chris Coldewey
realized with a start that a favourite band, Fleet
Foxes, had not only slipped into town for a concert
unbeknownst to him, but were playing another
show that night just down the road in Seattle.
The MBA 2010 graduate had built a solid
resume around futurism and corporate strategy,
and felt attracted to the entrepreneurial energy
in Vancouver. “With a lot of strategy consulting
and scenario planning under my belt I wanted to
get experience in the tech startup world and build
something myself,” Chris recalls.
Drawn to the idea of a shiny new object in the
form of a company, Chris conceived the idea of
RedRovr in 2010, a tool to help fans bring the
people and the bands they were interested in to
where they live. Originally focused on bringing
musicians and their followers together, the idea
quickly grew to include speakers, authors, and
other celebrities.
BY ALLAN JENKINS AND JENNIFER WAH
PHOTOS BY PERRY ZAVITZ
25VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
26 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AS WITH ANY NEW VENTURE, ESPECIALLY ON THE
web, Chris has course-corrected as he learned more from his users and customers. “I initially focused on helping fans request speakers and bands to come to town. But I found that venues and event organizers wanted to use RedRovr to ask fans who should play at their club or speak at their event, so I am developing that now.”
Chris cites the example of bestselling author and entrepreneur Seth Godin, who started reaching out to his readers and fans, to ask them where they thought he should come and speak. Less formally, luminaries such as author Guy Kawasaki have been known to ditch hotel room service and evening email, in favour of adding a tweet-up (when an online conversation evolves into an informal real-life gathering, usually between people who have connected on the social media platform, Twitter) on to a major keynote presentation.
Chris describes an emerging trend of social networking online—the “interest graph”: not only are you and all your friends connected on Facebook, but others you might be interested in, for reasons other than personal, are also there. These are people you may be connected to incidentally through real-world friendships, work, or geography, but primarily—and perhaps only—because you share similar interests. He sees it as a nexus, where different interests and fi elds come together—an intersection of real-world event planning, trends, and people. “RedRovr is about activating your interest graph—helping you discover other people in your city who share your interests in people or bands and make something happen together.
“Part of my ongoing strategy consulting work has been paying attention to these sort of early indicators of an unfolding future. Sometimes that’s a data point, but often it’s people who are pointing the way,” refl ects Chris, mentioning thought leaders such as author and futurist Kevin Kelley, and social media consultant/author Chris Brogan, as examples
of those living in the future. “You can see these outliers interacting with tools differently, making different kinds of choices; harbingers of where we are going.” He references Seth Godin again, who is walking away from the publishing world and trying to reinvent publishing in a more participatory manner.
An entrepreneur in the truest sense of the word, Chris has seized an opportunity out of the democratizing force of the Internet, where the voices of customers can now be better heard by companies. “Social media is all about learning from customers, trying to engage with customers. RedRovr is about giving people a platform to tell you what they want. I had a lot of conversations to get me to that point!”
Alongside RedRovr, Chris advises organizations on innovation and technology strategy. “I am currently working with one of the UN aid agencies to develop an internal innovation system—surfacing needs and ideas from fi eld operations and connecting them with external partners and resources. One of the greatest challenges large organizations face now is how to operate lean, fast, and creatively—essentially like a web startup. Having a foot in both worlds lets me apply expertise from one to the other.”
When he is not dreaming and scheming about RedRovr, or a quiver of other ideas, Chris spends time with his wife Beth, one-year-old son Obie, and says daddy Chris has learned to operate on very little sleep, if he has to. “When I can get away, I go mountain biking on Vancouver’s North Shore, snowboarding at Whistler, or do a CrossFit workout,” he says. ”My best ideas come to me when I am outside, so it’s good for my health and my work.”
“Sauder helped me solidify a toolkit of operational and critical thinking skills that I bring to bear on my work every day. Through the MBA program I met some fantastic people—both students and professors—and got plugged
in to the Vancouver tech community.” ■
“The seed came out of social media tools such as Twitter, which is a fantastic power tool
for people who are thought-leaders in any area, allowing them to directly interact with fans.
I noticed people who were starting to use these tools in new way, including connecting with
fans from around the world.”
Start me upEntrepreneur Chris Coldewey offers his tips on web startups.
1. Get a team you feel comfortable with. That can
just be two people, but in areas where innovation
is key, you want a team with capacity. The
dynamic partnership is helpful for developing
new ideas, products, services and business
models. You can bounce ideas off each other and
take advantage of different skill sets.
2. Connect to the resources around you.
Sauder has a great network, in alumni, and as a
school. Professor Thomas Hellman’s technology
entrepreneurship classes were fantastic for
bringing engineering graduate students together
with MBA students in an intensive class to create
new products and new businesses. Then they
brought in a who’s-who of BC venture capitalists,
angels, entrepreneurs, and successful company
CEOs to react to these ideas and potentially fund
some of them. Vancouver has tons of resources
for startups, from Meetup Groups to coworking
spaces to startup accelerator GrowLab.
3. On the product side, be ready to reiterate.
By defi nition, innovation is an experiment.
Nobody knows the right answer, and it’s rare
to hit the nail on the head right away. Being
good at innovation means fi guring out how to
experiment in smart ways. You have to reiterate
your product vision: engage with customers,
fi nd out if there’s a different customer segment
that’s actually much more profi table or much
more engaged with your product. Or look at
innovations in other sectors and see if you can
bring those into the one you are trying to enter.
4. Bring your Sauder skills to the table.
In economics class we studied two-sided
markets—platforms with two different user
types where network effects increase the value
to each as the two sides grow. Think about the
challenge of marketplaces in general. In the case
of RedRovr, fans want speakers to be on the
site, and speakers want fans. So I have to design
features that attract the segment that is harder
to get, so that the easier-to-get segment will
just follow along.
27VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
“The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.”
– William Gibson
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
WestJet CEO takes off, fl ies high, through turbulence and fair skies
BY ROB MCMAHON PHOTOS COURTESY OF WESTJET
The wonder of fl ight was common conversation
around the Saretsky dinner table. Gregg’s
father was a 35-year employee at Air Canada,
and both his older brothers work as commercial
pilots. Always the entrepreneur, even as an
undergraduate, between UBC microbiology
lab tutorials Gregg worked summers as an
Air Canada fl ight attendant. Later, he helped
pay his Sauder MBA tuition as a customer
service agent at WardAir. Years later, his
general curiosity and interest in air travel
translated to the business world.
28 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
linkedin.com/in/greggsaretsky
www.facebook.com/westjet
Gregg Saretsky MBA 1984
“I think that employee ownership contributes to high levels of engagement.
When our company stock rises, employee-owners are in essence giving
themselves a raise.” – Gregg Saretsky
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30 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
NOW CEO, GREGG CONTINUES TO SUPPORT THESE
forward-looking practices, including self-service
baggage-tagging—an innovation already in
place at many major Canadian airports resulting
in fewer line-ups and shorter check-in times.
“I remember when WestJet was only 12
or 13 years old: a young, upstart airline that
caught everyone’s attention with its low costs
and fl exible ticketing,” said Gregg. “At fi rst it
was a step down to join them, since I’d worked
in higher positions at bigger airlines. But the
opportunities quickly presented themselves, and
since that leap I’ve never looked back.”
Along with cultivating new technologies, as
CEO, Gregg is building alliances with American,
Delta, British Airways, Air France, KLM and
Cathay Pacifi c to support WestJet’s expansion
into the Asia Pacifi c. Internally, the company is
strengthening its culture of engagement with
employees—a practice that refl ects its status
as one of Canada’s most admired corporate
cultures. According to Gregg, 85% of more than
8,000 WestJetters own shares in the company.
These ideas are paying off: when the airline’s
‘Ideas Make Cents’ program crowd-sourced
money-saving ideas, thousands of contributions
fl ew in. Gregg believes employees’ stake in
WestJet’s success motivated this input, and raves
about their creative contributions.
“The amount of money we saved thanks to
WestJetters would blow your mind,” said Gregg.
“I think that employee ownership contributes to
high levels of engagement. When our company
stock rises, employee-owners are in essence
giving themselves a raise.”
In his classes at Sauder, Gregg tested new
ideas and built up the negotiating skills he
is known for today. He remembers Prof. Bill
Stanbury’s high-pressure public policy classes,
which taught him never to enter a situation
unprepared. In casual meetings, he impressed
with his verbal confi dence. For example, soon
after graduating from Sauder, the Bank of
Montreal hired him based on a mock interview.
A senior vice-president chatted with Gregg
while a photographer snapped photos of the
pair for a recruitment brochure, and by the end
of the photo session, the VP had offered Gregg a
position.
“He told me ‘even if you’ve never seen
yourself as a banker, I’d like to hire you because
you’d be great at it,’” said Gregg, laughing. “But
I soon came back to the airline industry. I was
young and envied all the free travel my brothers
did. Sure, BMO gave me low mortgage rates, but
my siblings got free weekends in Hawaii!”
Twenty-fi ve years ago, Gregg similarly
impressed recruiters at Canadian Airlines. The
company hired several recent MBA graduates as
internal consultants to come up with creative
solutions for its Vision 2000 strategic planning
program. At the time, government regulations
divided the world between airlines: Air Canada
got access to major European countries, while
Canadian was relegated to a secondary market
position there, but had route rights to Asia. As
the industry became more liberalized, Gregg
helped Canadian push its presence in the Asia
Pacifi c, growing service to ten cities in eight
countries. To support these long-haul fl ights, he
built alliances between airline carriers, a practice
then in its infancy.
“Expo ’86 really put Vancouver on the map
in Asia, and we saw the opportunity to reach
overseas,” said Gregg. “The company allowed me
the wide scope I needed to get aggressive, and I
did my best to deliver.”
Despite this growth, the airline faced serious
fi nancial challenges after merging with Pacifi c
Western and WardAir. American Airlines bought
a quarter of Canadian Airlines and quickly
streamlined and outsourced its systems and
services, in effect dismantling the organization.
Faced with this grim situation, and a demanding
personal schedule that involved travelling
between Calgary and Vancouver on a weekly
basis, Gregg decided to move on.
An opportunity opened at Alaska Airlines
at the end of 1997, and Gregg and his family
moved to Seattle. As VP of Marketing, he received
a lump of “no strings attached” seed capital to
experiment. His team spent the money wisely,
harnessing the potential of the largely unknown
Internet. Alaska was the fi rst airline to sell tickets
online, and to design self-serve kiosks and RFID
tags that enabled automatic passenger check-in,
in an early application of mobile technology.
Later, Gregg led Alaska’s partnership strategy,
guiding the regional airline to become an
international carrier that boasted alliances with
heavyweights Delta, Northwest, Continental and
American.
While Gregg eventually left Alaska to join an
enterprising airline based in Western Canada,
he still speaks fondly of his time there, and
particularly of the executive team’s support of
innovative thinking.
“The Board at Alaska encouraged innovation:
gamble, take some chances, experiment in the
name of fi nding a break-through. That kind of
fl exibility paid off, and I try to encourage it in
my work with WestJet,” he said. “Even today, if
you go to SeaTac, you can see the ‘airport of the
future.’ Every time I visit, it makes me smile.” ■
When offered a position as VP of WestJet Vacations, Gregg was immediately drawn to
the company’s culture of innovation. At that time, WestJet led the industry with several
pioneering technologies. It was among the fi rst airlines to support mobile device-ready
boarding passes and install seat-back TVs.
“The amount of money we saved thanks to WestJetters would blow your mind.”– Gregg Saretsky
31VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
32 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
In her own words
WHEN I GRADUATED FROM THE SAUDER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS IN 1996,
I wanted to use my BCom to pursue a career in organizational
development and corporate culture. As it was a relatively new
discipline, I went to work in other HR disciplines at Westcoast
Energy and Seagate Software, among other places. But I kept
hearing about WestJet, a company with a great corporate culture,
and so, I decided to put my interest in corporate culture to the
test and I joined the WestJet People department in 2003.
It was the best decision I’ve ever made. At WestJet, corporate
culture is not something we pay lip service to; we really all do
walk the talk, from the boardroom to the cockpit. Today, I am
responsible for designing, facilitating and delivering programs
that energize, engage and connect WestJetters to our culture of
care. Leaders here are active in ensuring our culture thrives, and
all of them, including Gregg, facilitate our programs in this area.
I think I have the best job in the world, and every day I
come to work, it’s pretty easy to energize, engage and connect
WestJetters to our culture of care.
Monica (Deane) Mochoruk (BCom 1996) is a Business Advisor in
Culture & CARE, with WestJet, based in Calgary.
Today you can fi nd me living in Calgary with my husband, and
two daughters. We take great advantage of our WestJet travel
privileges to visit family and friends across the country to bike,
golf and ski. We always connect with my Sauder classmates for
a girls’ weekend once a year and an annual family camping trip
in the Shuswap. My husband is a University of Saskatchewan
grad so the conversation in our home often revolves around our
university stories as we both think we had the better experience
and hope our daughters will follow in our footsteps. (I think we all
know where they will end up!) ■
“Working at WestJet has brought the textbooks from my UBC days to life, and
taught me so much more.”
33VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
communications among vehicles, and between vehicles and ground-based
infrastructures. The Canadian research team will work with and develop
leading-edge communications technologies and systems that signifi cantly
improve effi ciency, safety, productivity and mobility on the road, while
reducing threats to travel safety and security, as well as greenhouse gas
emissions. ■
Sauder welcomes new faculty member
Professor Russell Lundholm joined
Sauder’s Accounting division in
January and will take on the Alumni
Professorship in Accounting.
He joins the school from the
University of Michigan where
he was the Andersen Professor of
Accounting and held the position
of accounting department chairman
from 2004 to 2007. A prolifi c
researcher with an extensive
list of citations in top journals,
Lundholm’s research areas include
fi nancial statement analysis and forecasting equity valuation. ■
Professor Russell Lundholm
Sauder researchers receive major funding from Canada Foundation for Innovation
At a January media conference
emceed by Sauder’s Dean Daniel F.
Muzyka held at UBC Robson Square,
Stockwell Day, former president of
the Canadian Treasury Board,
announced new funding from the
Canada Foundation for Innovation
for research infrastructure at Sauder
and UBC, as well as 20 other
British Columbia post-secondary
institutions.
Sauder marketing professor
Darren Dahl also spoke at the event
to describe research he is pursuing
with fellow marketing professor
Juliet Zhu that will receive CFI
support. The funding will go towards
lab construction that will facilitate
the professors’ examination of
consumer creativity in product
development.
Other Sauder professors who
will receive funding for research
infrastructure from CFI include Karl
Aquino, who is studying factors
infl uencing moral behaviour to
gain insight into unethical business and government conduct, and Andrew
Burton-Jones and Izak Benbasat, who are focusing on how companies can
improve the benefi ts derived from information systems. ■
Professor part of network receiving $8 million in funding toward smart car technology research
Sauder associate professor Garland
Chow is a member of a research
network recently awarded a
$5 million grant from the
Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada and
an additional $3 million from
industry partners towards a large-
scale research program that will
transform the way Canadians drive.
The goal of the project is to
design wireless networks and
applications that support high-speed
Professor Darren Dahl
Associate Professor Garland Chow
Professor Juliet Zhu
SAUDER FACULTY INSIDER INFORMATION
Professor Joel B. Cohen
2011 Pollay Prize goes to Professor Joel B. Cohen
Awarded annually by the Sauder
School of Business, the Richard
W. Pollay Prize is named for
Sauder Professor Emeritus
Richard Pollay in honour of
his contributions as a scholar
in areas of marketing and
advertising in the public interest.
This year’s prize was awarded
to Joel B. Cohen, distinguished
service professor emeritus
and adjunct professor at the
University of Florida, for his
most recent research examining aggressive techniques used to market
products and services, such as debt consolidation loans.
Dr. Cohen is highly regarded for his expertise in the areas of
marketing and society, including public policy and regulation. He
has served as a consultant and expert witness for the United States
Federal Trade Commission and has been invited to appear as a witness
before congressional committees to explain cigarette advertising and
proposed warning information. ■
34 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
Award (Senior). One of longest-
serving active faculty at Sauder, Levi
has accumulated an exceptionally
long and consistent research
record, beginning with a Journal
of Political Economy study in 1975
and continuing today with papers
currently at the revision stage at
Econometrica and Management Science.
Assistant Professor Andrew
Burton-Jones of the Management
Information Systems Division is the
recipient of the Sauder Research
Excellence Award (Junior). Burton-Jones has accumulated an exceptional
publication record and is rated as one of the top fi ve contributors in the
world to major information systems journals from 2006 to 2010. ■
Assistant Professor JoAndrea
Hoegg of the Marketing Division
is the recipient of the 2010-2011
UBC Killam Teaching Award for
undergraduate teaching. First
appointed in 2006, a core element
of Hoegg’s teaching practice is
the use of in-class research to
motivate and encourage learning,
by providing students with the
opportunity to generate, develop
and test research ideas.
Professor Martin Puterman
of the Operations and Logistics
Division is the recipient of the CGA
Graduate Teaching Award for his
work in course development and
classroom teaching in the MBA,
EMBA, and PhD programs. He is also
applauded for his contribution as
the primary architect and champion
of the Master of Management in
Operations Research program.
Instructor Paul Cubbon of the
Marketing Division is the recipient
of the Sauder Talking Stick Award for
Pedagogical Innovation. Cubbon has
made important innovations in the
MBA Core, including implementing
the CapSim simulation, integrating
the “decision brief” activity, and
pioneering the use of social media
and other online resources.
Professor Ralph Winter of the
Strategy and Business Economics
Division is the recipient of the
2010-2011 UBC Killam Research
Prize. Winter is recognized as one
of the world’s leading scholars in
industrial organization and is best
known for his work on vertical
contractual relationships between
fi rms.
Professor Maurice Levi of the
Finance Division is the recipient
of the Sauder Research Excellence
Assistant Professor Andrew Burton-Jones
Instructor Paul Cubbon
Professor Maurice Levi
Professor Martin Puterman
SAUDER FACULTY INSIDER INFORMATION
New leader for Ch’nook program and Aboriginal business education at Sauder Beginning June 15, Rick Colbourne joined Sauder as director of the
Ch’nook program and leader of Aboriginal business education initiatives
at the school in the newly created position of Assistant Dean, Indigenous
Business Education.
Colbourne replaces Sauder Professor Emeritus John Claxton who
started the Ch’nook program in 2002. Though formally retired from
teaching at Sauder in 2006, Professor Claxton continued to lead
Ch’nook to signifi cant growth and success, working with Aboriginal
groups across the province to promote and increase access to business
education.
Stepping back into an advisory role, Professor Claxton conducted
a lengthy search with the school and Ch’nook Advisory Council Chair
Grand Chief Ed John to recruit Rich Colbourne as his successor.
Rick Colbourne is a PhD graduate from the University of
Cambridge, and joins Sauder from the Segal Graduate School of
Business at SFU where he was Executive Director of the Learning
Strategies Group. A member of the Mattawa/North Bay Algonquin First
Nation, Colbourne also led the design and delivery of the Leadership
Exchange in partnership with the Industry Council for Aboriginal
Business in Vancouver.
A fi rst in Canada, this program provided Aboriginal and non-
Aboriginal senior leaders the opportunity to experience each other’s
work and cultural environments, and to share insights into the
decision-making processes of corporate and First Nation senior
leadership roles. ■
Sauder announces faculty teaching and research awards
Assistant Professor JoAndrea Hoegg
35VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
Sauder presents marketing research during UBC Celebrate Research Week
In March, Sauder assistant
professors JoAndrea Hoegg, Tim
Silk and Tirtha Dhar presented the
research symposium, “Marketing
in the Social Interest,” as part of
UBC’s Celebrate Research Week.
This seminar, held at UBC Robson
Square, aimed to enlighten
consumers about marketing effects
and possible abuses.
Assistant Professor Hoegg took
the opportunity to speak about
deceptive sizing practices aimed
to boost clothing sales. Assistant
Professor Silk focused on how
Canadian and US legislators are now
protecting consumers against rebate
offers that don’t deliver on their
promises. Finally, Assistant Professor
Dhar examined how Quebec’s ban
on fast food advertising directed at
children led to a drastic reduction in
fast food consumption. ■
New FAB membersThe Sauder School of Business is delighted to announce the new members of our Faculty Advisory Board
A Chartered Accountant, Jane Greene
joined Aeroguard in April 2005,
bringing more than 20 years of
experience in the service industry
to the fi rm’s management team.
Greene is an accomplished business
leader and strategist with expertise
in service and knowledge-based
industries. Before joining Aeroguard,
she held the roles of President and
Chief Financial Offi cer of Carlson
Wagonlit Travel Canada, including
specifi c responsibility for managing
customer relationships. She was instrumental in ensuring Carlson managed
the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Under her leadership, the company was
named by Maclean’s magazine as “One of Canada’s Top 100 Employers.”
Greene serves on the Board of Contemporary Security Canada (a joint
venture between Aeroguard Group and Contemporary International),
who provided security screening to the 2010 Winter Olympics in
Vancouver, BC and the G8/G20 summits in Toronto. She is also a Board
Director and Member of the Audit Committee of the Delta Hotels Group
and Silverbirch Hotels.
Cameron Bailey began his
consulting career in 1988 in
Calgary, where he assisted
leading oil companies in strategy
development and organizational
restructuring. In 1994, Cameron
transferred to Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, and spent nine years
working with national oil
companies throughout South East
Asia, including Thailand, Malaysia,
and Indonesia. During this time,
Bailey also served different
Government Ministries on issues of
public policy, including the liberalisation of the energy sectors in Thailand
and Malaysia. He moved to Moscow in 2004 to work with several leading
oil companies in Russia and the CIS. In January 2010, Bailey returned
to Calgary to join McKinsey as a Director where he is a member of the
Canadian leadership team and a member of the leadership team for the
Americas Oil and Gas practice.
Sauder researchers win Best International Paper award
Professor Daniel Skarlicki and PhD candidate Ruodan Shao’s research
paper, “Employee Sabotage Associated with Customer Injustice: A
Comparison of North America and East Asia,” recently won the Academy
of Management’s Best International Paper award in the Organizational
Behaviour Division. The award was presented in San Antonio, Texas
at the organization’s 2011 annual conference in August.
The study compares the way employees from Canada and China
react to unfair treatment from customers, and explores the prevalence of
employee sabotage. The fi ndings show that the link between customer
injustice and employee sabotage towards customers is stronger in Canada
than in China, and attributes this difference to different cultural values. ■
Assistant Professor Tirtha Dhar
Assistant Professor Tim Silk
Bailey serves on the Board of the Calgary Homeless Foundation and
the Telus Calgary Science Centre, and is a member of the Board of Trustees
of Westside King’s Church in Calgary. He is the Chair of the Board of UBC
Sauder Business Club of Calgary.
Jane Greene, Director, President and Chief Executive Offi cer, Aeroguard
Cameron Bailey, BCom 1983Director, McKinsey & Company, Calgary
36 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTSFALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
GLOBAL REACH
On June 27, 2011, the Sauder School of
Business at the University of British
Columbia and Copenhagen Business
School (CBS) announced a strategic
alliance to dramatically increase
collaboration. Motivated by shared
values and a similar academic culture,
and building on an active 16-year
exchange partnership, the institutions
signed an agreement providing
stronger ties across a broad range of
initiatives, including research,
academic programs, student and
faculty exchange, and other scholarly
pursuits.
Copenhagen Business School is home to
about 18,000 students and has an annual intake
of about 1,500 exchange students. With this
number of students, as well as around 550
full-time researchers and 900 administrative
employees, CBS is among the largest business
schools in Europe. CBS’s overall strategy is to
put learning into focus, to contribute more to
society, and to strengthen the region and
engage globally.
“Today’s agreement represents an important
landmark in the University of British Columbia’s
ongoing quest to open up the world to our
students and faculty,” said UBC President
Stephen Toope. “UBC’s goal is to create a
learning institution that is a global hub for study,
research and partnership, and the possibilities
created by this agreement take us another step
closer to realizing this vision.”
Sauder and CBS have identifi ed several
areas of mutual interest across a wide range
of emerging disciplines, including business-
guided design principles, creative enterprise
development, and sustainable business. To
further develop their common objectives, the
schools will pursue collaborations in curricula
development, the delivery of executive
education, faculty research, doctoral supervision,
and the development of new teaching and
learning platforms.
“This agreement with a very strong and
highly regarded North American business
school represents a new phase in the
internationalization of CBS,” said CBS Acting
President Alan Irwin. “The alliance will actively
contribute to our education and research
initiatives. It will also enhance the global
mindset and mobility of CBS students, faculty
and administrative staff while furthering our
international reputation.”
“With the formal signing today we are
celebrating a new relationship between two
great international business schools,” said
Sauder Dean Daniel F. Muzyka. “This agreement
formalizes our collective vision and will allow
our institutions to innovate together for the
benefi t of our students, faculty and researchers
in support of businesses and organizations in
Canada and around the world. This represents
yet another important move for Sauder toward
creating an international platform for learning
and research.”
The fi rst initiative under this new strategic
partnership is the Sauder–CBS health care
European Exchange. Students from Sauder’s
Executive MBA in Health Care traveled to
Copenhagen from August 21 to 26 to gain a
European perspective on issues in health care
leadership and management. During their time
in Denmark, the team learned from Danish and
Dutch professors, and visited private and public
health care organizations to acquire fi rst-hand
experience with experts in the fi eld. ■
Sauder School of Business and Copenhagen Business School forge strategic partnership
37VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
Gary Coopland BCom 1959
After I graduated in May, 1959 I joined the
investment Department of Great West Life
Assurance in Winnipeg as a Securities Analyst,
where I started and managed the fi rst equity
segregated fund, later becoming the manager
of equity research.
In the early 1970s I established the Pension
Investment department, advising DB plans
on investment policy issues and doing some
marketing. In 1984 I moved to my third invest-
ment role as Vice President, Venture Capital, a
position I held until retirement in 1992 at age
56, a year later than I planned when at UBC.
On retirement I established Ascent Con-
sultants working with Governments, pension
funds, and venture capital organizations. I served
on the Manitoba Securities Commission, and
Chaired the Manitoba Civil Service Pension
Fund Board for 14 years. During my
career I served on many Corporate Boards
including PCL Construction, National
Equipment Leasing, a Portland chain of funeral
homes, and served with CESO in Sri Lanka.
I also helped establish the fi rst microbrewery
in Manitoba—when it went public I became
the Chairman of the Board and later President.
I continued as Chairman until we merged with
Russell Brewing of Vancouver.
On the social side of my life I helped
establish the Manitoba Jack Rabbit Cross Country
Ski Program which is now a national program,
I took up long distance running, did three
Marathons and some 15 half-marathons (that
should surprise my fellow graduates). My wife
Gwendda (marrying her was the smartest thing
I ever did) and I have travelled extensively, fi ve
countries in Africa, China, Brazil, Greece and 12
times to Nepal to lead treks with Everest Trek-
king Canada. I am also a member, Captain, of the
78th. Fraser Highlanders, a resurrected regiment
that fought in 1759 in Quebec City.
We volunteered to help in the Falklands war
in 1982, but were not needed.
In 2006 I had a major stroke while out
running, so retired again, now only doing
volunteer work, non-profi t and of course
political.
Rudy North BCom 1963
Rudy North graduated from UBC in 1963 with
a Bachelor of Commerce, and was one of the
founding partners of Phillips, Hager & North
Investment management in 1964.
He “retired” in 1998 and established a new
investment fi rm: North Growth Management. He
started the company with one Fund, the US Equity
Fund, and the desire to manage money according
to his “growth at a reasonable price” philosophy
that he had been using and developing for over
three decades.
A longstanding and active supporter of a wide
variety of social, environmental and educational
causes in BC, Rudy contributes his time, ideas and
money to pioneering projects such as the conserva-
tion of the Great Bear Rainforest on the central and
north coast of the province, and the Imagine BC
and CarbonTalks dialogue series on the future of
our society. He also provides ongoing support to re-
search at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Sciences
Centre, the Rivers Institute, the Nature Trust of BC,
and numerous local social service organizations.
Rudy and his wife, Patricia, were awarded
the United Way’s President’s Award of Distinc-
tion in 2002; and, in 2006, he was conferred
with a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa by Simon
Fraser University. In 2010, Rudy was named a
member of the Order of Canada for his ongoing
commitment to philanthropic work.
Dear alumni, From Vancouver to Hong Kong and from London to Karachi, the Sauder community includes 30,000 alumni in 67 countries.
Each of our alumni holds a piece of the School’s history as well as its future. The connections that hold our community
together are our School’s most meaningful strength.
So tell us your story, and share your news. We want to hear from you! Whether you just got the job of your dreams or
are still fi nding your way, took a trip around the world or have been enjoying the comforts of home, got married or became a
parent—fi ll us in on your family and career, accomplishments and interests. Let us hear from you, and send us your photos.
We’ll print your news in the Class Notes section of Viewpoints magazine, which is consistently ranked as one of the most
popular segments of our publication. Through the Class Notes, you will share your story with your fellow alumni and current
students, reconnect with old classmates, and stay connected as a vital part of the Sauder community.
We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
1950S 1960S
CLASS NOTES
38 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
CLASS NOTES
John Clark BCom 1979
Pacifi c Spirit Investment Management Inc is
proud to announce that John S. Clark (BCom
1979) has been named a 2011 Five Star Wealth
Manager based on an independent survey of one
in four high-net-worth households in Greater
Vancouver. Wealth Managers were evaluated
based on nine criteria, including customer
service, integrity, knowledge/expertise, value for
fee charged, quality of recommendations and
overall client satisfaction. John’s peers were also
surveyed to evaluate our integrity, knowledge/
experience and overall reputation.
John S. Clark was amongst only 5% of
Wealth Managers who were awarded this high
honour. The recognition was announced in a
special section of the June issues of Business in
Vancouver and Vancouver Magazine. John and the
Pacifi c Spirit team are committed to maintaining
these high service levels and quality of advice.
Lesley Williams BCom 1979
After receiving a BCom from UBC, Lesley
returned to further her education and became a
Certifi ed Specialist in Orthodontics. She currently
has a private specialty orthodontic practice in
South Surrey, BC. Lesley is currently the President
of the Pacifi c Coast Society of Orthodontics
(which represents the 8 western US States and
4 western Canadian provinces), the Chief
Examiner (Orthodontics) for the Royal College
of Dentists of Canada, and is an examiner for the
American Board of Orthodontics. Lesley notes
that “my BCom from UBC has served me
extremely well in my career.”
Tessa Marks BCom 1980
After 20 years in Milwaukee with KPMG, I have
returned part time to KPMG in Vancouver and
in the US tax practice. I am dividing my time
between Vancouver and Milwaukee and enjoying
the best of both!
Peter Baran BCom 1982
My wife Robyn, our girls and I moved this past
year from BC to make a new home in Alberta.
Robyn (DULE 2008) started a career with the
Real Estate Council of Alberta while I have started
a consulting business to help clients ensure that
major business innovation projects generate
their expected fi nancial, operational and strategic
benefi ts. We’ve made many new friends and
professional connections already and are looking
forward to our new lives as Calgarians.
Doug Querns MBA 1982
Started work as the Director, Finance &
Accounting VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation.
David Ferguson MBA 1982
Started Vedado Properties in October 2010 and
am buying income properties just outside of
Vancouver’s core.
YOUR FEEDBACK MATTERS Tell us what you think of this issue of Viewpoints.
Go to www.sauder.ubc.ca to complete our reader survey.
SHARE YOUR NEWSClass Notes are easier than ever
to submit. Simply fi ll out the online form at www.sauder.ubc.
ca/alumni/classnotes
1980S1970S
39VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
Jean Lesperance MBA 1982
Enjoying the challenge and stimulation of
writing the HowToInvestOnline and CanadianFi-
nancialDIY, investing and personal fi nance blogs,
where I’m fi nally getting to indulge the fi nance
interest of my UBC MBA after a career in all
sorts of other fi elds.
Patrick Nangle MBA 1986
I have recently relocated to Vancouver to assume
a new role as President of Digital Dispatch
Systems, based in Richmond. My wife Carmelita
and I have just bought a house and are still
suffering from sticker shock. Would love to
hear from any former classmates in the area.
Paul V. Azzopardi MBA 1987
In June 2010 my book, “Behavioral Technical
Analysis—An Introduction to Behavioral Finance
and its Role in Technical Analysis,” was published
by Harriman House of the UK. The fi rst part
of the book is an introduction to behavioral
fi nance. Many investors taking up BF for the fi rst
time fi nd its observations too dispersed so
I used a new classifi cation and deal with all the
main BF topics under these headings:
complexity, perception, aversion, self, society
and gender. In the second part of the book, I
link BF to those aspects of Technical Analysis
which I use in my work: trends (serial
autocorrelation), extreme prices, support and
resistance. I also introduce the Market Matrix
which is a behavioral model of capital
markets. Anyone interested in jointly
developing this model please contact me on
David Hobden BCom, MSc 1991
Shot 4 over par 76 at Fraserview Golf Course
last June to win a Men’s Club tournament—NY
best round ever. Dropped 25 pounds of excess
weight in the past three months by eating a
South Beach diet—didn’t even have to give
up alcohol.
Thoroughly enjoyed my ninth year as an
Economist with Central 1 Credit Union.
Victoria Shiah BCom 1999
Last year, my partner and I started our own
photography business —Love is in the Lens
Photography Inc. (www.loveisinthelens.com)
—specializing in wedding and portrait
photography. The entrepreneurial experience has
been incredibly rewarding, but not without its
challenges. Being able to pursue one’s passion
and explore one’s creative potential
is an amazing feeling and I treasure every
moment of it!
Jeff Chan BCom 2003 MIS Specialisation
Professional: Jeffrey works as a Senior Consultant
for Ernst &Young providing audit and advisory
services to clients, mainly specializing in IT related
areas (fi nancially signifi cant applications, informa-
tion security and business process reviews). Jeff
has experience servicing clients in Vietnam,
Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, China and HK.
Personal life: Jeffrey likes to be involved
with the UBC Alumni group in HK (where time
permits). He is an active enthusiast of Muay Thai
boxing and has undergone training in Thailand.
Janet Yuen BCom 2003
After fi nishing four years at PwC in China
and Hong Kong, I’ve just started an MBA at
INSEAD in Singapore, and will be in France
come September. Are any Sauder alumni in the
neighborhood? I’d love to meet up if so!
Nada Chan BCom 2005
Since graduation I have gotten my CA
designation, moved to Hong Kong, explored
SE Asia, and found a job at the height of the
id Hobden BCom MSc 1991
2000S1990S
40 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
CLASS NOTES
fi nancial crisis. I have now found myself at
the Global Institute for Tomorrow, a company
that is described as an independent social
venture think tank dedicated to advancing
understanding of the impacts of globalization.
Through this job I have travelled twice now to
rural parts of China where I worked with local
NGOs to help farmers write business plans for
social and economic development in the rural
sector. I personally experienced how farmers
in China live and have interviewed government
offi cials to gain more information on how
we can return more benefi ts to those who are
producing our food. Being in Asia for the past
two years has really opened my eyes to the huge
issue of consumption and the gap that exists
between the rich and the poor. I don’t regret
making the move to Asia but will be returning
home to Vancouver soon to share my experience.
Sam Wong BCom 2006
Subsequent to my BCom in 2006, I’ve jump-
started my career at Deloitte & Touche LLP in
Vancouver where I obtained my CA designation
by 2009. Throughout my career, I’ve embraced
the value of mentorship. As a result, I’ve been
involved in various mentorship programs at
UBC and the Vancouver Board of Trade. To take
this one step further, I’ve gathered a group
of young energetic CAs and began our own
mentorship programs—Inspired Connections.
2011 has been a life changing year so far, but
nothing’s more signifi cant than marrying the
love of my life, Nina.
David Klippenstein BCom 2006
2010 ended up being an “academic” year
for me: spend the fi rst half studying for the
CFA Level III exam (passed!) and the last half
preparing my MBA applications. I ended up
choosing Kellogg starting this fall. Hope the
experience living in Vancouver has prepared
me for the Chicago winter!
Jonathan Chan BCom 2006
Life has been a learning experience. I’m going
to start working again soon in almost 3/4 years
after my short gag @ CS. My 2nd episode for
my chronic depression helped me to see what is
important to me as a person. Looking forward
to my new life under God’s guidance whether
it means getting back to the banking sector or
having to chase my entrepreneurial dream in
China... gratefully accept what is planned ahead
for me in God’s hands...
Calvin Lee DAP 2007
After graduating from UBC’s DAP program
I pursued the Chartered Accountant designation
and successfully became a CA. I want to
thank my professors, classmates, family, and
friends for their support and love. After passing
the Chartered Accountant’s Uniform Final
Exam (UFE), I took a vacation to Shanghai,
Beijing, and Xi’an exploring the Shanghai
Expo pavilions, climbing up the magnifi cent
Great Wall of China, and visiting the famous
Terracotta Warriors.
Ken Lo MBA 2007
I have started biking to work in the mad city of
Toronto! I would have never imagined it, but I
fi nally took the step. For those who think they
can never do it, just try it for a few days and it
will change your mind.
Alex Stewart BCom 2007
I have been living in London working at UBS
for the last year in the fi nance department
focusing on risk management. I have found the
W BC 2006
YOUR FEEDBACK MATTERS Tell us what you think of this issue of Viewpoints.
Go to www.sauder.ubc.ca to complete our reader survey.
41VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
experience to be both exciting and rewarding.
After obtaining my CA designation, I took the
giant leap to the UK to fulfi ll a dream of working
in an international fi nancial centre and being
able to travel throughout Europe during my spare
time. While not at work, I am a devoted support-
er of Fulham Football Club cheering them on
every weekend at the Cottage and taking advan-
tage of all London has to offer including shows,
restaurants, royal weddings, and tea time.
Jody Sawchuk MBA 2008
It has been a few years full of constant change
... but all great! This past January I celebrated
the one year anniversary of my marriage to
my beautiful wife Whitney. I have also recently
completed one year with Canadian Linen &
Uniform Service where I am the Director of
Human Resources and Labour Relations for
Canada. Whitney and I were proud to participate
in our 3rd Ride to Conquer Cancer June 11 &
12 (Toronto version) where we have raised over
$15,000 for this incredible fundraiser. My role
has recently taken me back to Vancouver where
I had the chance to reconnect with fellow Sauder
MBA friends Travis, Hartland, and Kiu and watch
the Canucks on their playoff drive.
Aleksey Nozdryn-Plotnicki MMOR 2008
Dawen Peng, another Sauder Alumni (MM 2009),
and I are practicing our craft as Operational
Research Consultants with Capgemini in London,
England. We travel extensively and visited 16
different countries in 2009, 19 last year, and 11
this year to date. Highlights include a recent two
week trip to Ethiopia to “celebrate” the Royal
Wedding, and hiking in Norway (see Besseggen
Ridge, photo).
Demetri Galaxidas DAP 2009
Upon completing the DAP program in 2009,
I returned home to Banff and began working in
the Accounting Department at Sunshine Village
ski resort, where I am currently pursuing a CGA
designation. I’m fortunate that I’m able to apply
what I learned in DAP in such a fun working
environment—one that affords me numerous
ski breaks during the ski season!
AJ Delisle MBA 2009
I recently received the highest mark of all British
Columbia writers on the October 2010 CMA
National Entrance Exam.
Cila Kwong BCom 2010
After my graduation, I have been doing lots of
research to fi nd out my career path. It was a
tough one, as there are so many options for
new graduates. At the end, I fi nally landed a
position in RBC as an Insurance Advisor where
I provide income protection and asset protection
for my clients! The fact that I am helping them
and their families always make my day! Hope
my fellow classmates also can fi nd the career
that they love. ■
SHARE YOUR NEWSClass Notes are easier than ever
to submit. Simply fi ll out the online form at www.sauder.ubc.
ca/alumni/classnotes
S h k MBA 2008
2010S
Contact usIs your information
missing or incorrect? Just let us know by emailing
Become a Sauder School of Business alumni contact
Be a contact for Sauder School of Business and fellow alumni in
your city, country or region. Help counsel prospective
students, advise new graduates, welcome summer interns and
arrange alumni events. To volunteer, contact us today!
We can be reached at:Tel: 604-822-6801Fax: 604-822-0592
e-mail: [email protected]
We always appreciate your feed-back on events and programs in
support of alumni activities.
ALUMNI IN FOCUS
Living person or historical fi gure most
admired and why: Oprah Winfrey—
persevered through so much adversity,
succeeded, flourished, and is a model of
all that is good in our world today
Trait most admired in others: Humility
Talent you would most like to have:
Vertical jump, so I could have at least
been able to touch the rim when I played
basketball in high school
Recommended read: Blink by
Malcolm Gladwell
Recommended listen: Anything
Tragically Hip
Gadget of choice: Motorola Milestone
Android phone—the world at my
fingertips
My best-kept secret: I took part in a
camel race in the desert bordering
Jordan and Israel
Where will you be in 10 years? Likely
living in Toronto, perhaps the Head of HR
for a successful international technology
company, or have started, built and sold
a company or two
Degree and grad year: BCom 2000
Major: Industrial Relations Management
Current home city: Richmond Hill, Ontario
Business club affi liation: Outgoing Chair,
Professional Development Committee,
Sauder Business Club of Toronto
Professional ID: Solutions Architect,
Monster Canada; Social Technology for
HR Evangelist
Business motto or philosophy: People, not
money make the world go ‘round
In business today, it’s important
to... Develop and nurture reciprocal
relationships with people because you
just never know
Most valuable thing learned since
graduation: Opportunity exists within all
four corners of the globe, not just within
your own little world
Biggest risk taken ever taken: Founded
Fusion Point, my own creative human
resources company in 2009
Greatest achievement to date: My wife
and 3 boys
JEFF WALDMAN
Want to be profi led in our Alumni in Focus feature? Activate/update your
information and volunteer interests in the Sauder Global Alumni Network Business
Directory at www.sauderalumni.ca and we’ll be in touch.
Gain insight into fellow members of the alumni community
in this new Viewpoints feature.
42 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
43VIEWPOINTS FALL 2011
BEHIND THE SCENES BCOM 1956 AND 2001
10th anniversary reunionThe BCom Class of 2001 celebrated their
10th Anniversary Reunion on June 22, 2011.
The event was held at Mahony and Sons
Public House, 1055 Canada Place (Vancouver
Convention Centre) from 5 to 7 p.m.
55th anniversary reunionThe BCom Class of 1956 gathered for a cocktail
reception at The Teahouse in Stanley Park,
Vancouver, BC on May 29, 2011 to celebrate
their 55th Anniversary Reunion. Classmates and
spouses reminisced on youthful aspirations and
shared their achievements both past and present.
Although he was unable to attend, we are thankful
to the Dean of the School, Daniel Muzyka for an
informative and enjoyable videotaped message
that was played for everyone at the reunion.
Special thanks to Gordon Thom,
Chair, Henning Brasso (President, CUS-1956),
John Banfi eld, Robert H. Lee (Robert H. Lee
Graduate School), Bill & Gerry Gartside and
Gordon Flemons (Vice-President, CUS-1956)
for their invaluable participation on the
reunion committee. ■
If you were unable to make it to this
reunion, please be sure to stay in touch and
keep your contact details up to date at the
Sauder School of Business so that you can
make the next reunion. ■
Contact usIs your information
missing or incorrect? Just let us know by emailing
We always appreciate your feedback on events and programs in support of alumni activities.
44 FALL 2011 VIEWPOINTS
Transforming the future Take a moment to think about this: Entrepreneurship is the state of mind of
people who want to alter the future. This quote from entrepreneur extraordinaire
Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist of Apple, co-founder of Alltop.com (an
“online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web), and founding partner at
Garage Technology Ventures, perfectly captures the unique mindset and drive
that propels entrepreneurs ever forward.
IN THIS ISSUE OF VIEWPOINTS, WE BRING TOGETHER
people from different industries to talk about one
common theme: what our guest editorialist Judy
Brooks, of Small Business BC and the Forum for
Women Entrepreneurs, terms “the calling and
obsession” that is entrepreneurship. We look at the
different faces of entrepreneurship, from the venture
capitalist (Livia Mahler, MBA 1991) to the real estate
developer (Ryan Beedie, MBA 1993), and from the
Internet startup (Chris Coldewey, MBA 2010) to the
airline CEO (Gregg Saretsky, MBA 1984). You will
enjoy travelling down these winding paths.
On a more personal note, this is also a bittersweet
moment for me—my last message to our readers as
Viewpoints’ Executive Editor. After 36 years at the Sauder
School of Business, the last fi ve of which I spent as
Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Development and
External Relations, I am returning to my academic and
research roots as an Advisory Council Professor in
Sauder’s Operations and Logistics division. In 2012,
I will be taking a leave that will take me to Stanford
University, New York University, and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. I look forward to continuing
to work to strengthen the ties between our School
and these institutions of higher learning, as well
as to meeting alumni and friends of Sauder in
these communities.
I am delighted to pass the Viewpoints torch to my
colleague Dale Griffi n, Advisory Council Professor of
Marketing and Consumer Behavior, and Associate Dean
for Strategic Communications. Dale has been with the
Sauder School of Business for over 10 years, and is
guiding the school’s marketing and communications
efforts. I would also like to take this opportunity to
thank Cristina Calboreanu, Viewpoints’ Editor-in-Chief,
for her inspired work over the past fi ve years. I wish
Dale and Cristina the best of luck, and I know our
magazine is in good hands!
And fi nally, I would like to thank all of you, our
readers, our alumni and friends, our students,
faculty and staff, for being an integral part of this
publication—for your contributions, your passion, and
your ideas. I look forward to reading future issues of
Viewpoints, and continuing to learn about your work
and our community.
Thank you. I wish you all every success. ■
“The reality is that ‘entrepreneur’ is not a job
title. It is the state of mind of people who want to
alter the future.”- Guy Kawasaki,
The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested,
Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone
Starting Anything (2004)
Frieda Granot, CM
EXECUTIVE EDITOR, VIEWPOINTS
SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN AND SAUDER PROFESSOR, OPERATIONS AND LOGISTICS DIVISION
POINTS OF VIEW
MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU
Connect Locally. Connect Globally.Imagine the power of a community of people united by a common bond and mutual commitment to helping one another succeed.That’s the potential of the Sauder Global Alumni Network; more than 30,000 alumni in over 70 countries. With the launch of the new Sauder Global Alumni Business Directory, you can put it to work for you.
Power up the network and support your alumni community by activating your profi le in the new Sauder Global Alumni Business Directory.
You’ll enjoy:
> secure access to the alumni business directory
> free access to the Dow Jones Factiva news and business information database
> exclusive alumni career services and more
JOIN THE NEW GLOBAL ALUMNI BUSINESS DIRECTORY TODAY AT:
www.sauderalumni.ca
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Designed and delivered by world-class faculty and practitioners,
our two- to six-day courses for working professionals are interactive,
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in a variety of areas including leadership, fi nance, communication,
marketing and sales, you’ll fi nd a solution that fi ts your unique need
and busy schedule.
For more information: www.sauder.ubc.ca/exec_ed
604.822.0083 or 1 800.618.EXEC
Please call to take advantage of our 15% discount
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Forward-thinking ideas forforward-thinking organizations.
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