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TORONTO, November 23, 2001 -- The Rotman Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of theYear Awards 2001 recipients were announced last night in Toronto during a dinner and awards ceremony. The Awards are an annual initiative of the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and are presented by Bank of Montreal.

"We are proud to be celebrating ten years of entrepreneurship," said Rotman School Dean, Roger Martin. "Tonight the Canadian women entrepreneurs we are honoring have relentlessly pursued innovative and unique business strategies to create value in the economy and for their customers. They have combined attitude, creativity, risk-taking and ambition to become industry and global leaders. We truly believe that these Awards help encourage and inspire the kind of integrative thinking that will help Canada compete in the new millennium."

The 2001 Awards are presented by Bank of Montreal in partnership with the National Post, Women's Television Network (WTN), Ford Motor Company of Canada, Export Development Corporation, Chatelaine Magazine, supported by Ireland +Associates = Design, Deloitte & Touche, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, Industry Canada and Tiffany & Co.

The Rotman Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2001 recipients are:

Start-Up Award - Kim McArthur, President & Publisher, McArthur &Company Publishing Ltd., Toronto, Ontario - Presented by Deloitte & Touche
McArthur & Company is a Canadian-owned and operated publisher andexporter of quality international and Canadian fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. Kim McArthur founded the company following the closure by Time Warner of Little Brown Canada, a subsidiary that Kim had started and run since 1987. McArthur & Company is now the second largest Canadian-owned publisher of Canadian fiction with sales of over $10 million. In its first three years of operation, McArthur & Company has had an astonishing record of twenty bestsellers - half Canadian-authored, half of them international and split about evenly between fiction and non-fiction.

Innovation Award - Jody Steinhauer, President & Chief Visionary Officer, The Bargains Group Ltd., Toronto, Ontario - Presented by Ford Motor Company of Canada
Jody leveraged the work experience along with her innate competitive edge in buying into an innovative business concept called The Bargains Group. The organization fed national and local retail chains, along with small independent stores, with wholesale deals on men's, women's and children'sclothing. Jody then took her entrepreneurial experience and knowledge and mixed it with her innovative tendencies and developed a specialty market niche: necessities for the needy. It's a win-win solution for corporate giving and charitable service delivery. The social service/non-profit sector is faced with increased demand at a time of shrinking financial resources. Corporations are trying to make giving an important part of their community involvement. Jody and The Bargains Groupserve both the supply and demand aspects of the giving equation. Buying and giving power is increased by almost 400% in a time-effective and need-specific manner.

Impact on Local Economy Award - Linda Knight, CEO,CarePartners, Belgrave, Ontario - Presented by Bank of Montreal
Growing up in the rural setting of Huron County, Linda had unique insights into the dynamics and challenges of small communities. After gaining some hands-on experience in the field, Linda identified a niche and resigned from a secure position in 1983 to start her own home-based nursing agency, Community Nursing Services. In the last five years, CarePartners has experienced phenomenal growth and success with revenues approaching $12 million. Linda's nursing experience and business acumen have placed her at the helm of a strong and dynamic agency serving both rural and urban areas throughout Southwestern Ontario. Her small, self-managed team approach attracts highly qualified staff that manage over five hundred registered and practical nurses from a number of support offices in the region.

Export Award - Rosemary Marr, President & CEO, Transera Group of Companies, Calgary, Alberta - Presented by Export Development Corporation
Transera can be viewed as a travel agent for cargo, handling all modes and types of cargoes but has made its reputation managing project logistics inthe mining and oil industries. The company is an industry leader in freight logistics to the former Soviet Union and is regularly responsible for coordinating global dimensional heavylift shipments via air, land and sea. More than 40% of Transera's sales are generated abroad and that number is expected to double over the next five years through acquisitions and the establishment of additional offices around the world. With a strong work ethic and a passion for her business, Rosemary has created a dynamic, financially strong, global-market freight forwarding business with incredible revenue growth. Since its inception, revenues have grown from $1 million to this year's projection of $42 million in sales.

Lifetime Achievement Award - Doreen Braverman, President, International Flag & Banner Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia - Presented by Women's Television Network
Doreen started The Flag Shop as a whim after a ten-year career as an elementary school teacher and an associate professor at Simon Fraser University. The flag industry is a relatively small market, probably about $7.5 million in annual sales. The chain of Flag Shops holds the number oneposition in the industry in Canada by offering full service - design to installation - and a broad product line. The banner market, however, is a billion dollar industry and there too, Doreen has found her niche. For 25 years, Doreen has been manufacturing flags and banners for events including the Winter Olympics in Calgary (1988), The Calgary Stampede (1982-2001), the G7 Summit Conference in Halifax (1995), Expo 86 in Vancouver, and the Royal British Columbia Museum's Leonardo da Vinci Exhibit in Victoria (1998).

The University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management offers leading-edge research and degree programs, including the prestigious Rotman MBA, the newly redesigned Part-Time MBA, the Executive MBA, a first-rate Doctoral Program, the distinctive Master of Management & Professional Accounting program, the undergraduate Commerce program in partnership with the Faculty of Arts and Science, combined programs with the University of Toronto faculties of Law, Engineering and Nursing, and an innovative series of Executive Programs tailored to the current needs of businesses and individual managers.

The 2002 call for nominations will begin on November 23, 2001. For more information please visit the CWEYA website at www.cweya.com.

Ken McGuffin
Manager, Media Relations
Rotman School of Management
Voice: (416) 946-3818
E-mail: mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca

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