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Donation Creates $8 Million Expansion of Finance Research and Teaching
The donation from Mark Bonham, U of T alumnus and CEO of Bonham & Co. Inc. Asset Management, will establish two endowed chairs and help support a financial research and trading lab. Funding of the two chairs ($3 million) has been matched by U of T. The remainder of the gift - $2 million - will support research and the expansion of the Bonham Centre for Finance, as well as establish an annual lecture series. The Bonham Centre was founded in 1999 with a $1million donation from Bonham.
"This is a remarkable gift to the Rotman School of Management," says Dean Roger Martin. "The work of these new chairs, coupled with the enhancement of our research capability, will not only add to our award-winning academic and research complement, but will help protect our coveted position as a top finance school into the new century."
"Mark's generosity will enable us to continue drawing great minds to Canada and the University of Toronto and ensure that the next generation of business leaders has the tools necessary to compete in the rapidly globalizing new world order," says Prof. John Hull who is also director of the Bonham Centre.
The Financial Research and Trading Lab will help researchers to improve methods of managing and interpreting large amounts of financial data, and create the environment of a real commercial trading floor. Students will gain hands-on experience working with financial data and software. The Rotman School will also be home to the $500,000 MBA fellowships, established as part of his 1999 donation and matched by the university.
The chair in international finance will study the factors that make global markets competitive, provide an understanding of global capital flow, foreign direct investment, foreign exchange risk management and the management of foreign exchanges. The chair in asset management will teach students to assess a company's or an industry's long-term earnings growth potential, the evaluation of portfolio returns, valuation levels and asset allocation, as well as methods to reduce investment risks.
"The Rotman School of Management has some of the greatest minds in the world in finance education," says Bonham. "The more students understand about the theory of business, the better they will be in the practice of business. But the real world is also the classroom - your last, best chance to learn by failure, to ensure that the experience gained will sustain you throughout your working life. I'm glad that we can provide a place for that to happen for the next generation of finance leaders."
Bonham, 41, is one of the youngest major donors in the history of U of T and one of its most committed volunteers. With matching funds, Bonham's long-time support of the university has provided more than $9.5 million in funding to the Rotman School of Management's finance area. Committed to investor and financial education in Canada, Bonham and his company - together with the Rotman School and Rogers Media - has published an annual Advisor's Guidebook in conjunction with the Bonham Centre's activities. The guidebook now has a circulation of over 55,000 copies and is published in both English and French.
A 1982 bachelor of commerce graduate from U of T's University College, Bonham is a member of the Rotman School's Campaign Cabinet and sits on various committees, including the selection committees of the Chancellor's Award and the Moss Scholarships.
Maple Financial Group Establishes Chair In Derivatives and Risk Management
The first chair holder will be Professor John Hull, Director of the Bonham Centre for Finance and winner of the 1999 IAFE International Financial Engineer of the Year Award. Hull is widely recognized for his work in stochastic volatility, numerical procedures, modeling of interest rates, market risk and credit risk. He and his Rotman colleague Alan White won the prestigious Nikko-LOR research competition for their groundbreaking development of the Hull-White Interest Rate Model - a model widely used by financial engineers to value nonstandard interest rate derivatives.
"The Rotman School has a proud history of excellence in finance teaching and research, and counts some of the world's leading experts among its faculty complement," says Dean Roger Martin.
"Maple Financial Group's visionary gift will help ensure that we can continue to carry out cutting-edge research that will lead to new knowledge and perspectives in the field, as well as helping us produce a pool of skilled graduates who can lead businesses successfully in this new era of intense global competition."
"We're proud to partner with the Rotman School on this important initiative," says David Roffey, BA'68, MBA'70, president and CEO of Maple Financial Group. "The Rotman School is the first business school in Canada to offer an MBA elective in this area, and has been at the forefront of derivatives and risk management education since the early 1980s. By creating this chair we hope to enhance understanding of the changing dynamics of world capital markets and help develop graduates in Canada with more refined skills in financial engineering and risk management."
The chair holder's research will focus on predicting capital market trends, developing new techniques for evaluating derivatives and their use in various areas such as corporate finance and investments. The chair holder will also educate the next generation of financial managers about the derivative transaction environment, providing the students with an understanding of the use of futures, swaps and options, and their associated risks.
The gift will help keep the Bonham Centre at the forefront of finance education. In recent years, the Bonham Centre has benefited from the establishment of several new chairs in areas such as structured finance, investment strategy, capital markets and financial services, international finance, and asset management. As well, the school recently unveiled a state-of-the-art new financial research and trading laboratory to give students the experience of a real trading environment.
Maple Financial Group Inc., a financial services holding company, owns Maple Bank - the second largest foreign bank in Germany as measured by assets, with operations in Toronto, New York, London, Frankfurt, Milan and Amsterdam - and Maple Trust, the largest independent mortgage lender in Canada. Maple provides structured financial products to other financial institutions as a risk-reducing mechanism, and makes extensive use of financial derivatives - notably in the creation of market-neutral investment portfolios for its private banking clients.
David Beatty Appointed to Lead Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics
Prof. Beatty has taught at the University of Toronto since 1995. He is also chair of Selwyn Mines Limited, a copper and gold mining firm, based in Sydney, Australia and a director of a number of Canadian public companies including the Bank of Montreal, (where he serves as chair of the Risk Review Committee and as a member of the Governance and Executive Committees), Cambridge Shopping Centres, and Goldcorp, among others. Over his career he has been on 26 boards and has chaired five companies.
In the international arena, Prof. Beatty was founding chair of Orogen Minerals, a $500 million mineral resource company owned 51 per cent by the government of Papua New Guinea, and until recently, he was on the board of Bancomer, in Mexico City. Early in his career he worked in the governments of both Tanzania and Papua New Guinea.
In the social sector, he is the vice-chair of The Peter F. Drucker Foundation in New York and chairs its work in Canada seeking to find and celebrate innovation in community-based programs. He is the immediate past chair of Upper Canada College and serves as a trustee of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
As an operating executive, David was president of Weston Foods, a division of George Weston Limited, from 1985 to 1994, and president of Garbell Holdings from 1980 until 1985. He has also worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Co and The Canada Consulting Group (now Boston Consulting Group.)
The Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics was founded in 1988 by the late Professor Emeritus Max Clarkson, a former dean of the Rotman School. Its mandate is threefold: to foster the development of research in business ethics and corporate social performance; to facilitate the application of such research in the classroom; and to contribute to the improvement of the management and governance practices of the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.
Rotman School Introduces New Alumni Board
Donald Morrison, MBA '83, Chief Operating Officer, Research in Motion, will serve as the Board's Chair for a two-year term.
"It is exciting to see such a prestigious group of alumni step forward to serve their School on a volunteer basis," says Nancy Holmes, Executive Director, Alumni & External Relations. "Their support is crucial for the School is to grow and prosper."
The Rotman School of Management Alumni Association works to improve communications between the Rotman School and its alumni; assists the School's fundraising efforts to support the Rotman School's vision and academic priorities; engages alumni in the mentoring, training and recruitment of Rotman students; and serves to strengthen ties between the Rotman School and the business community.
Directors who were appointed to the Board at the October 11 meeting are:
Rotman School Redesigns Part-Time MBA Program
Subject to necessary approvals, the planned curriculum for the Part-Time MBA will incorporate the School's trademark "Integrative Thinking" approach to modern management education, as well as allowing students to choose one of the Rotman MBA's three more popular specialty streams: corporate finance/investment banking, e-business/marketing, and entrepreneurship/new ventures - the Rotman School's newest innovation stream.
"Today's rapidly changing business economy demands accomplishments in a shorter time frame than ever before," says Dean Roger Martin. "Jobs and careers aren't what they used to be. Markets are global, competitors and collaborators regularly change places, and new ventures arise out of nowhere while traditional organizations downsize, outsource and re-assess their core competencies. These trends symbolize the environment of constant change that is the essence of business in the New Economy."
Professor Harvey Kolodny, Part Time program director adds: "Not everyone can leave their full time job to pursue an MBA. Now, ambitious professionals seeking a truly world class business school experience can enjoy all the benefits of the Rotman community, while continuing to work. The influx of a great Part Time class of 60 top students who are actively engaged in the business world helps create a rich and vibrant learning community encompassing a broad range of experiences in all industry sectors."
Like the Rotman Full Time MBA, the Part Time program will emphasize "integrative thinking" -- the ability to look beyond traditional business disciplines to approach problems in a holistic manner. The Part Time program will continue its emphasis on team-based learning.
"It's never been a more exciting time to join our unique learning community, as students, professors and the business community team up to pioneer a new approach to management thinking designed to give leaders new tools for the New Economy," says Martin. "Entrance standards for the new program are high, but that only means we will continue to develop Rotman's elite cohort of great minds."
If you know a potential candidate, please send their co-ordinates to ptmba@rotman.utoronto.ca.
Joint Engineering and MBA degree Launched
"Many of our engineering graduates move into management and executive roles and benefit from a graduate degree in business," says Michael Charles, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering. "The Skoll Program will build on a solid core of expertise in the engineering disciplines with a strong focus on leadership, innovation, and the management of technology, enabling engineering students to obtain an outstanding education tailored to develop their aptitude for technological entrepreneurship."
"Many of the University's undergraduate engineering alumni have identified new technologies by the time they graduate but lack the business skills required to manage their own businesses and careers", says Peter Hughes, Director of the program at the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering." The Jeffrey Skoll BASc/MBA Program at the University of Toronto will address this issue by providing students with the technical and business skills they will require in order to compete in the evolving world of business.
"The influx of talented engineering students at the Rotman School will provide a source of motivation for all MBA students to enhance their own knowledge of the high-tech sector, particularly the emerging e-commerce industry," says Dean Roger Martin. "Similarly, engineering students will benefit from the significant real-world work experience and demonstrated leadership capabilities that other MBA students have obtained prior to beginning their graduate business degrees."
The Jeffrey Skoll BASc/MBA Program is supported through a $7.5M gift (in 1999) from Jeffrey S. Skoll, a 1987 graduate of the electrical engineering program at U of T and co-founder of online auction house giant eBay Inc. The gift established a Chair in Computer Networks and Innovation and a Chair in Software Engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering and a Chair in Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School. The gift will also contribute to the creation of the Bahen Centre for Information Technology, currently under construction.
Rotman Supports United Way With Fundraising and Manager Training
Rotman is entering into an innovative partnership with the United Way to pilot a new form of fundraising and to provide manager training and consulting to agencies supported by the United Way. In September, Anne Golden, President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Way of Greater Toronto, came to the Rotman School to express her support for the School's fundraising activities.
"The Rotman School's support for United Way is outstanding," says Golden. "From financial generosity to providing management and leadership advice for our 200 community agencies, your contribution will help people in need across Toronto."
"We are trying to create the business leaders of tomorrow through our degree programs. By working with the United Way we are demonstrating that giving back to the community is an important part of leadership and showing our students that there are important social and ethical benefits in supporting the not-for-profit sector," says Dean Roger Martin.
The Rotman School was selected as the only educational institution to participate in the United Way @ Work pilot project that permits Rotman MBA students, faculty and staff to make donations exclusively online. It's hoped that the project will enhance campaign results and reduce administrative overhead. United Way @ Work is being tested this year at 10 Toronto workplaces.
A reciprocal partnership with the United Way allows managers from United Way supported agencies to enroll in "Advanced Program in Managing Strategic Change", a Rotman Executive Program, for a reduced tuition fee. The course provides experienced managers from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors with the skills needed to handle the changes occurring in their organizations. Three managers from United Way supported agencies are selected by the United Way and Rotman to participate in each class.
"The unprecedented pace of organizational change in today's global economy is affecting the not-for-profit sector as much as the private sector," says Michael Hartmann, managing director, Executive Programs. "Our program equips participants with the expertise to plan and execute comprehensive change strategies effectively."
The benefits of the program were immediately clear to recent program participants.
"Within my organization there is no room in the budget for outside consultants or to pay the full cost of this type of program," says Kate Stark, Interim Executive Director with Homes First Society, which provides housing for some of the most marginalized people in Toronto. "Our organization is currently involved in major structural change and there has been a major change in housing policy politically. The Rotman program was exactly what I was looking for. It combined theory with classroom discussion of our real-world experiences."
"This was a wonderful professional development opportunity for people, like myself, in the non-profit sector," adds Anne Bird, a program manager with Family Day Care Services, a Toronto-based organization. "There is a notion that the non-profit sector isn't real work. In fact, my organization has a budget of $25 million and faces the same day-to-day challenges as those in the private and public sectors."
International strategy consultant becomes Academic Director of Executive MBA
Ms. Dart comes to the Rotman School after six years with McKinsey & Company in Zurich, Toronto and London, U.K. At McKinsey, she developed e-commerce and global strategies for clients in the financial, high-tech, manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors. Ms. Dart also served as a program leader for internal training at McKinsey, a core recruiter and a member of the international marketing practice group.
Ms. Dart, a Swiss-German, holds a PhD in economic science and a master's degree in information science, both from the University of Konstanz, Germany.
"Beatrix brings a world of high-level business experience to our Executive MBA program," says Jim Fisher, Associate Dean, Executive Programs at the Rotman School. "Her academic background and in-depth understanding of current business issues strengthens the school's school's ability to provide a top-tier Executive MBA program."
Canada's first Aerospace Executive Management Program Blasts Off
The Aerospace Executive Management Program is a joint initiative of the Ontario Aerospace Council (OAC) and the Rotman. School. The program is designed for aerospace companies that want to develop world-class business expertise and enhance the decision-making abilities of their senior managers and executives.
"With this program, our aerospace industry, working together through the OAC, is enhancing its knowledge-based resources," said Rod Jones, Executive Director of the OAC. "This is an effective way to ensure that our companies, their employees, and the economy all gain long-term benefits from a globally successful aerospace sector."
The OAC sought a program so senior managers and executives in the aerospace sector can:
Participants who successfully complete the first stage of the program earn a Certificate in Aerospace Management, which is expected to set a new level of professional achievement in the industry. "The Aerospace Executive Management Certificate reinforces fundamental business concepts with the 'real world' issues that are constantly re-shaping the nature of the global aerospace industry," added Professor D'Cruz.
After completing the certificate, aerospace managers who choose to continue their learning can take the Aerospace Executive Management Diploma. The diploma curriculum covers competencies including strategic management, accounting for executives and developing global alliances.
Those earning the diploma become eligible for advanced standing in Rotman's Executive MBA program and can go on to take the proposed new degree, the Aerospace EMBA from the University of Toronto.
The OAC is an industry-led forum of strategic action for the Ontario aerospace sector. It was formed in 1994. The OAC's 100 member companies represent approximately 60 per cent of Ontario's aerospace sector. The industry employs more than 25,000 people, including approximately 2,500 managers.
Marketing News
Ganesh Iyer (PhD Marketing,'96) recently accepted a faculty position in the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley for the 2000/2001 academic year. He previously served on the faculty of the Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis.
Angela Lee (PhD Marketing'95) and her co-authors Wendi Gardner and Shira Gabriel of Northwestern University, have been selected as the winners of the Otto Klineberg Award for the best paper of the year on international and intercultural relations by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. The paper, entitled "I Value Freedom, but we Value Relationships: Self Construal Priming Mirrors Cultural Judgment", was published in Psychological Science.
Staff Changes
Hannah Mestel, Director, MBA Program Services has left her position at the Rotman School. Until further notice, Ramy Elitzur, Executive Director, MBA Programs will assume responsibility for this role. Should you have any inquiries, please contact Ramy at (416) 978-3827 or Margaret Bauer at (416) 978-1983.
Senior Development Associate Christine Szustaczek has left Rotman School to pursue her new role as Director of Communications and Associate Director of Development at U of T's Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering.
Ahsan Fazili is the new Help Desk Technical Support Specialist. Before joining the Computing Services team, Ahsan worked at Gigabytes Inc. in California and ADC Telecom in Markham. Ahsan graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems.
Bonnie Brand joins the human resources team as the Human Resources Generalist. Bonnie gained extensive experience by working in many areas of human resources at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Women's Studies and is in the process of obtaining her certification as a benefits specialist. She is also continuing her studies in Human Resources Management.
Stephanie Angelinos is the new Admissions and Records Officer for Executive MBA Programs. Stephanie comes to Rotman School from the Faculty of Information Studies where she worked as an Admissions Officer and Assistant to the Registrar. She also worked in various administrative positions at Woodsworth College and the Department of Botany.
Betty Kung has joined the Rotman School as the new Development and Communications Assistant. Betty bring both fundraising and communications experience to her new role, including working as a Marketing Assistant at Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan, and as an Administrative Assistant at United Way of Greater Toronto.
Faculty News
Dan Ondrack, professor of organizational behaviour, spoke at a conference at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management in Brussels on Nov. 16-17. His talk was on "Development of Professional Competencies in Management Consulting Firms."
Richard Bird gave presentations on several different topics during the fall including: "What's Next for Provincial Taxes?" at a C.D. Howe Institute policy conference in Calgary on Oct. 27, "Information Technology and its use to Reduce Corruption in Revenue Administration: The Case of Singapore" at a World Bank-InterAmerican Development Bank workshop in Washington D.C. on Nov. 3, "Constraining Sub-national Fiscal Behaviour in Canada" at a symposium of European Fiscal Federalism in Comparative Perspective at Harvard University on Nov. 4, and "Sub-national VATs: Experience and Prospects" at the Annual Conference of the National Tax Association in Sante Fe, NM on Nov. 11.
A new book, Conflict of Interest in American Public Life, by Andrew Stark, associate professor of strategic management, was recently reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. The review noted that "Mr. Stark probes (conflict of interest) with great care and thoughtfulness. His prose is superbly readable, his analysis relentless (and) erudite."
Jack Mintz, Arthur Andersen Professor of Taxation, recently spoke at several international academic conferences. He was a plenary speaker at the German Finance Association, in Konstanz Germany, Oct. 6, discussing "Taxation, Investment and Finance: Implications for Capital Tax Competition". He was also a keynote speaker at Project Link's conference in Oslo, Norway, Oct. 5 on "Tax Competition". He presented a paper with Henry Tulkens of CORE, Belgium, on a "New approach for co-operative federalism in Belgium: Lessons from Canada" in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 7-8.
Yue Li, Associate Professor of Accounting, was invited by the World Resources Institute to participate in the BELL 2000 International Conference on Environment and Business Education on Nov. 3-5, 2000 in Beijing as a panel expert on environmental accounting. He gave a talk on "Environmental Accounting and Financial Reporting: Challenges and Research Opportunities" at the conference.
Andrew Mitchell, Patricia Ellison Professor of Marketing, presented a paper entitled "The Moderating Effect of Product Knowledge on the Learning and Organization of Product Information" at the School of Business in the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington on May 12. He also presented a paper entitled "The Effect of Brand and Attitude Accessibility on Memory Based Choice" at the Marketing Science Conference in Los Angeles on June 23. In addition he made a presentation entitled "What we Can and Cannot Learn from the Analysis of Scanner Data" at the Professional Marketing Research Society Conference 2000, held in June.
Jin Gyo Kim (PhD Student, Marketing) presented a paper entitled "Capturing Choice Dynamics Through a Bayesian Dynamic Logit Model with Time Varying Parameters" at the Marketing Science Conference in Los Angeles earlier this year.
Rotman in the News
A regression analysis model developed by Prof. Joel Baum that drew correlations between CEO compensation and company performance was used by National Post Business in their November rankings of Canada CEOs.
As a result of Peter Dungan's work with the U of T's Institute for Policy Analysis, he has been quoted recently on the Canadian economy in the Globe & Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star.
Ramy Elitzur was featured on MoneySenseTV, which airs on the Life Network, on Nov. 30 in his capacity as director of the MBA program. He also gave two interviews to CFMT on the bio-tech industry for the station's Chinese newshour.
Seven Rotman MBAs outlined the "expectations of the next generation of employees" at a conference sponsored by Towers Perrin and the Conference Board of Canada. The students were profiled in the Nov. 17 issue of the Globe & Mail.
Upcoming Events
Friday December 15, 2000
Thursday January 11, 2001
Friday January 12, 2001
Friday January 26, 2001
8:00 am to 4:30 pm
Fleck Atrium
Rotman MBA Business Conference
"The Consolidation Paradigm - A Path To Global Competitiveness?"
An annual winter event organized entirely by Rotman MBA students, the conference brings together members of the business community and students to discuss important topics and trends in business and to challenge each other's viewpoints.
For more information contact Michelle Stinson, MBA'01, at michelle_stinson@embanet.com
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