Business students strike gold again
Concordia’s dominance of the business case competition podium was further reinforced recently when a team of finance students from the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) won gold at the Battle on Bay Street, Ryerson University’s annual financial management case competition.
To claim the top spot, the Concordia team of Michel Berger, Ludovic Jacques, Dennis Kalaycioglu and Dinos Papoulias beat Ryerson’s Ted Rogers School of Management and University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business, which finished second and third respectively.
The January 17 victory comes just a week after another JMSB team won gold for the fourth consecutive year on the same campus, at Ryerson’s Organizational Behaviour Case Competition.
The Battle on Bay Street team was coached by JMSB finance lecturer Reena Atanasiadis, alumnus Amr Ezzat, and alumnus Thomas Horvath.
“We share coaching duties and it allows for us to provide a credible, robust preparation regimen which turns out a winning team,” says Atanasiadis. “We refer to the teams as ‘our kids.’ They win and we burst with pride.”
“The competition is venture capital-focused and the final case was about strategy implementation and negotiation,” said Mark Haber, who is head coach and advisor to the John Molson competition program. “That’s something we put a lot of emphasis on during our preparation.”
Two weeks ago, Berger and Kalaycioglu competed in the finance category at the Queens University-hosted Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (ICBC). And Jacques, Papoulias and teammate Alexandra Duffy were at HEC Montréal competing in the Jeux du commerce (JDC). Both teams won gold.
“This team is unstoppable,” says Ezzat. “Winning gold in three competitions in two weeks, their track record speaks for itself.”
Concordia’s competition success has not been limited to finance. JMSB teams also won gold in entrepreneurship and human resources at the JDC and reached the podium in six other academic categories at that competition and ICBC combined. A week later, a team of Concordians placed third at the inaugural Family Enterprise Case Competition hosted by the University of Vermont.
Earlier in the competition season, JMSB won gold at the Brock University Accounting Conference and at the Dalhousie Business Ethics Case Competition.
“Case competitions enhance our students’ academic experiences by providing them with a platform to apply their knowledge and test their business acumen,” says JMSB Dean Steve Harvey. “We are tremendously proud of our record so early in the new year. JMSB’s continued success in this area is a testament to the quality of our competition program, the dedication of our coaches and the hard work and preparation of our students.”
According to Haber, the competition program is on pace for another record-breaking year. “Over the course of the next few months we will be travelling to a number of important competitions that we’ve traditionally done well at. Our trophy cabinet isn’t full yet!”
Last year, JMSB fielded 57 academic teams and reached the podium 37 times.
Related links:
• John Molson School of Business
• John Molson Competition Committee