See you Thursday Feb. 12th at Le Social for the next MBA Alumni 6 à 8 I hope you'll be able to join us on Thursday Feb. 12th, 2009 from 6pm to 8pm a

I hope you'll be able to join us on Thursday Feb. 12th, 2009 from 6pm to 8pm at Le Social on Bishop between Ste. Catherine street and de Maisonneuve.

I've arranged for us to have a room all to ourselves and we can take over even more of the bar if we need to. The menu looks good if you fancy having dinner there and is between $15-20.

Please RSVP so that I can adjust the reservation accordingly!
By email: annagunaratnam@gmail.com
By web: facebook event page

Till then,

Anna

ARE YOU READY FOR THE FIRST MBA ALUMNI 6 À 8 EVENT OF 2009?

If so, the first one is taking place on Thursday, February 12th

After having the entire month of January to recover from the madness of the holidays and enjoy all aspects of the 28th annual John Molson MBA International Case Competition, I know I'm more than ready to meet up with my fellow MBA alumni so I catch up on what's been going with all of you.

The first event of 2009 is scheduled for somewhere downtown on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 from 6 to 8 pm (or thereabouts). Over twenty people have already RSVPed that they will attend on facebook, so short of a massive snowstorm there's bound to be a great turnout.

I'll be in touch soon with more details, in the meantime feel free to RSVP to my new email address annagunaratnam@gmail.com or RSVP directly on the facebook event page.

ARE YOU ON linkedIn? IF SO, WHY NOT JOIN THE JOHN MOLSON MBA ALUMNI GROUP...
To add the John Molson MBA Alumni group to your Linkedin profile just check out my public profile, scroll down and click on the group. This will help us identify ourselves to each other while also increasing visibility for the John Molson MBA brand. Better yet, take a few moments to expand your network even further by joining the John Molson School of Business Alumni Chapter Group too and connect to even more rising stars in the JMSB alumni community. And don't forget we're always happy to have new members on our Facebook John Molson MBA Alumni Group.

LINKS:
Photos on flickr
Photos on facebook

See you on the 12th,

Anna

My Tweet by Tweet Updates From The Final Banquet at the MBA Case Comp

For an idea of how the final banquet went check out my tweets from the evening- keep in mind twitter is all about keeping each tweet to 140 characters or less, so it takes a little bit of squeezing to get my message across.

Dr.Pierre Brunet is just about to announce the Coaching award named in his honour... Peggy from Memorial, I am so happy for her! 8:29 PM Jan 10th

Pat (North Carolina) is about to announce the Richard Outcault team spirit award- he's telling us the history of the award. Awesome. 8:32 PM Jan 10th

Lost luggage, snow storm and dangerous blood clot (DVT), it's got to be Miami who wins the R.O team spirit award. 8:36 PM Jan 10th

There are some awesome approaches in these speeches. The Bombardier Speaker is getting the 3 final teams to cheer for first place. 8:39 PM Jan 10th

Dusseldorf was the round robin winner for the week! 10:01 PM Jan 10th

Love that Dusseldorf brought Claudia Wagner to the stage with them she has to be the best lifelong cheerleader in the MBA-ICC history 10:03 PM Jan 10th

Dusseldorf as round-robin won $5000 10:03 PM Jan 10th

In the third place was University College Dublin, not bad for their first time in the competition.
In second place... Helsinki!10:10 PM Jan 10th

And if you couldn't guess first place goes to South Carolina! 10:14 PM Jan 10th

Coach Pat from South Carolina is really on fire with the speeches tonight. I am do happy to see his team win! 10:15 PM Jan 10th

I can't believe another case comp is over. This was my 7th year in a row.If it wasn't for the fact that I got carded today I would feel old. 1:10 AM Jan 11th

I've posted the remainder of my photos from case comp on picasa. http://tinyurl.com/8dtlmb about 8 hours ago

Dublin, Helsinki and South Carolina To Compete In the MBA-ICC Finals

It's 1:30 am on Saturday January 10th, 2009 and as I write this 33 teams are currently unwinding and celebrating in style in what used to be the Accent Impression Judges Briefing Room which has since been transformed into a masquerade ball complete with a leopard-clad DJ (don't worry the leopard skin was fake), a dance floor, several mirror balls and an old-fashioned popcorn cart. Meanwhile, the 3 teams of finalists were ushered to bed before midnight so they could get a good nights sleep and rest their fabulous business minds before they go head-to-head tomorrow afternoon starting at 3:10 pm.

The finalists (in no particular order) are:
• University College Dublin Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School
• University of South Carolina- Moore School of Business
• Helsinki School of Economics

Presentations take place Saturday January 10th, 2009 at the Montreal Hilton Bonaventure.
• Presentation 1 begins at 15:10
• Presentation 2 begins at 16:05
• Presentation 3 begins at 17:00

The Montreal Hilton Bonaventure can be reached by metro on the orange line, the station is BONAVENTURE.

The finals are open to the public but you'll need to be there on time!

For more information about the 2009 John Molson MBA International Case Competition please visit www.mbacasecomp.com.

Semi-Final Presentation Times

International Semi-Finals Set To Begin Without JMSB

The semi-finalists were just announced. JMSB won their final case Teva Pharmaceutical Industrial 7 to 4 against BEM-Bordeaux, Despite their excellent performance this morning against, JMSB's team did not make it into the semi-finals.

The Semi-finalists are:
Helsinki School of Economics (division winner)
University College Dublin Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School (division winner)
Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University (division winner)
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf (division winner)
Purdue University (division winner)
University of South Carolina - Moore School of Business (division leader)
Brock University (wild card)
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (wild card)
University of Kaiserslautern (wild card)

Things are running a little late so as soon as I have the semi-final presentation times I'll post them.

I hope to see you either at the semi-finals, the finals or both.

JMSB WINS AGAINST CASE 2 AND LOSES CASE 3 BY A SMALL MARGIN!

If you want to see the teams present their 4th case study be at the Montreal Hilton Bonaventure Hotel at 2:25pm sharp!

The 36 teams were very relieved to pass the halfway mark of the round robin yesterday afternoon with the presentation of their 3rd case. For the second year in a row the Wednesday afternoon case was a short one on crisis management which gave the teams only half an hour to prepare their fifteen minute presentations which were followed by ten minutes of intensive questioning from the judges. Before I tell you all about it I must share Organizer Olivier Romain's praise and gratitude to the judges and volunteers who made the difficult trek to the Hilton Bonaventure through Montreal's first snow storm of 2009. It can't be said enough how committed and passionate the judges are about this student-run event, no wonder it's in it's 29th year!

Now back to the business at hand, case 3:
The teams managed to collect their thoughts, get feedback from their coaches and feed their bellies at the TMX Group Luncheon. I sat in on JMSB's presentation and their opponents, BiTS who are new to the competition this year. As you know from the title, BiTS (Germany) won by a close margin of 6 to 5. JMSB provided what I thought was an excellent and creative presentation on how Global Metals Inc., a producer of metal products should respond to a incident in which a train is involved in a crash that kills the train driver and calls into question the quality of their products.

Going into their third case none of the teams knew whether they had won or lost their second case which relied heavily on financial analysis. They had only their gut instincts to judge their performance by. While I didn't see JMSB's presentation, I had to rely on the thoughts and comments from the audience members who watched their presentation against University of Alberta. Watchers said it was close and both teams were on top of their game, however they had a feeling it was likely to go JMSB's way. It turned out that JMSB won their case in a 8:3 split!

Beyond the business of competing in the competition, so much of draws people back year after year to follow their alma-matters performance or to participate as judges and volunteers is what happens outside of the presentation rooms. On Tuesday evening the participants were off to the Winter Bar in the Quays of the Old Port where they were able to let of a little steam, as they skated and got to know other better. Amit and Ted, members of the organizing committee told me they got to know Purdue as they helped them learn how to skate for the first time. Using traffic cones for balance Purdue was very steady on their feet by the end of the evening which should come in very handy if they try and navigate Montreal's slippery streets and sidewalks.

I had the pleasure of meeting up with first-time judge Jennifer Murray, an HEC participant from 2004 who came all the way from Ottawa to judge the competition. It was quite the reunion as she met up with her former teammate Marc-André Roy who is also judging the competition, there was a quick updating of blackberries as contact information was exchanged before we jumped into reminiscing about their spirited participation and they outrageous memories they had of their experience as competitors. I also had lucked out when I met Norma Passaretti, a judge and organizer of the 1982 case competition. It was awesome to hear about how she and her fellow organizer (yes that is singular, there were only two organizers back then) took the competition national and flew by the seat of their pants (her words not mine). She also expressed how impressed she was with the scope of the competition, and how many judges and volunteers donate their time to help the Organizers implement their vision of an outstanding competition.

While I didn't end up having lunch with Pepperdine yesterday I had a chance to catch up with Leslie and her team after their third case as they found out they won their second case. Today I'm determined to meet up with the team from Dublin and many more at the networking 5 à 7.

I'd better end here, otherwise I'll never get to the hotel in time. See you at 2:25pm!

Photos :
My photos from Day 2&3 album
My photos from Day 1 album

Are you on Twitter?
This year I’ll be trying my hand at microblogging, we’ll see how well I manage to keep it down to the essentials with only 140 characters per posting (I’m known for my anything but short blog entries and updates). If you are unfamiliar with twitter my page is located at www.twitter.com/annag (my Twitter name is annag). The Case Comp Organizers will also be on Twitter and their page is at www.twitter.com/mbaicc (Twitter name mbaicc). If you are tweeting throughout the week and want other Twitter users like me to see your case comp related feeds use the tag #mbaicc at the end of you tweets.

To be added to or removed from my mailing list please email me atannagunaratnam@gmail.com or you can subscribe to my blog using the handy RSS feed.

JMSB WINS AGAINST McMASTER IN THEIR FIRST CASE!

If you want to see the teams present their 3rd case study be at the Montreal Hilton Bonaventure Hotel at 4pm sharp!

Imagine my surprise when I arrived to watch the John Molson team present yesterday afternoon and found them up against McMaster in their first case study. The case was an interesting one with a Corporate Social Responsibility focus based on a company called Giving Something Back, a California based privately owned company that sells office supplies with a goal of earning profits with the purpose of giving them back to the community. Not your typical business model, that's for sure! I'm pleased to share that John Molson won their case in an 8:3 split.

To view today's MBA-ICC newsletter visit the Case Comp website.

I saw a load of familiar faces at the Hilton Bonaventure to show their support; a trio from our Career Management Services team, Associate Dean and MBA Director Alan Hochstein, Mahesh Sharma, Bryan Barbieri, Charles Cho, Tim Field, past competitors; Audrey Davis, and Jon Kuczer and previous organizers Doris Kochanek, Ana Marinescu and Muddatthir Jamal.

I can't wait to see you there!

To be added to or removed from my mailing list please email me at annagunaratnam@gmail.com or subscribe using the RSS feature.


Anna

The John Molson MBA International Case Competition is already underway!

The 28th annual case competition kicked off yesterday evening when HEC Montreal returned the Concordia Cup to the Competition Organizers for safe keeping as a week of exciting competition begins. In previous years it’s usually been the Coaches who have returned the cup with a few words of wisdom and encouragement for the teams, this year it was two of the winning HEC team members who took to the microphone and shared their thoughts on what they got out of the case comp experience.

During the opening ceremonies the 36 teams were grouped into six divisions for the first round of competition which includes five cases, one of which is the live case and takes place on Thursday afternoon. The JMSB’s home team is in the Mackenzie Investments division and will be competing against BEM- Bordeaux, BiTS, Purdue, University of Alberta and McMaster. JMSB Faculty members will be interested to know that the coach from McMaster University is Dr. Sourav Ray, a former JMSB professor. To see the rest of the division draw please visit www.mbacasecomp.com.

Organized By
This year’s edition of the MBA-ICC is organized by four fabulous John Molson MBA Students; Rina Maarit Albala, Alex Dumesle, Olivier Romain and Catalina Zambrano. They are also joined by a team of hard working executive assistants; Elizabeth Gillis, Angelika Mehta, Amit Nir and Jenny Therriault. The team is further supported by their superb Advisory board and their Academic Advisor Peter O’Brien. The 2009 competition’s theme is United in a Changing World, and in an effort to make this year’s edition a sustainable event the Organizers have partnered with the John Molson Sustainable Business Group (JSG). This year participants will be lugging their reusable mugs for their coffee, water and hospitality suite beverages, while also consuming locally sourced foods. For more information on this partnership be on the lookout for Edward Walker, the JSG representative for the competition, he’ll be at the competition all week long.

Competing For the JMSB
Competing for the JMSB this year are Malaz Al Sebai, Nura Askar, Carole Charbonneau, Ramsay Cook and Patrick Cuningham. The team is coached and supported by Dan Silverman. They would love to see you in the audience this week as they demonstrate their ability to leverage their MBA training with little more than three hours to analyze their cases and prepare their strategies and presentations.

Case 1: Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 4:45
Case 2: Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 11:10
Case 3: Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 16:00
Case 4 (live case): Thursday , January 8, 2009 at 14:25
Case 5: Friday, January 9, 2009 at 11:10
Semi-Finals: Friday, January 9, 2009 17:30
Finals: Saturday, January 10, 2009 15:10

Come see the JMSB team compete! You may arrive up to three hours in advance if you would like to pick up a copy of the case to read before the presentation. Below are the presentation start times. Please show up on time, otherwise you will not be let into the room. No need to RSVP, just show up!

Full Disclosure
Given that I am a John Molson MBA Alumni and I’ve worked in the John Molson MBA program with our awesome students for four years now it’s only natural that I’ve become their biggest fan. Now that I’ve fully disclosed my bias for our home team I’d like you to rest assured that I’ll do my best to provide a reportage on the other teams as well so you can get a taste for the international scope of the event. While there is no substitute for seeing the competition unfold I encourage you to scroll down and read some of my updates from last year’s competition.

As I write this the teams are about to be sequestered and given their first case, which means you still have time to take a late lunch and head down to the Montreal Hilton Bonaventure and arrive early in order to find a seat to see the students in action. Presentations start at 14:45.

Photos
Last night I snapped a ton of photos last night at the opening ceremony, the RBC cocktail and while lending a hand to set-up the Bierbrier Hospitality Suite. To check out the photos please visit my facebook album or my Picasa album.

Are you on Twitter?
This year I’ll be trying my hand at microblogging, we’ll see how well I manage to keep it down to the essentials with only 140 characters per posting (I’m known for my anything but short blog entries and updates). If you are unfamiliar with twitter my page is located at www.twitter.com/annag (my Twitter name is annag). The Case Comp Organizers will also be on Twitter and their page is at www.twitter.com/mbaicc (Twitter name mbaicc). If you are tweeting throughout the week and want other Twitter users like me to see your case comp related feeds use the hash tag #mbaicc at the end of you tweets.

To be added to or removed from my mailing list please email me at annagunaratnam@gmail.com or subscribe to my blog using the RSS feature.

December MBA Alumni 6 à 8 and a Long Awaited Update

A chance to catch up, relax and enjoy each others company before the holiday hoopla and chaos begins!

Date: Thursday, December 4, 2008
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Hurley's Irish Pub
Street: 1225 Crescent, Montreal, QC

Please RSVP so that I can book enough space for us. You can RSVP on the Facebook event page or by email (annagunaratnam@gmail.com).


JMSB's New Building Update
As you can see from the photo above, work on the interior of JMSB's new home is well underway. Construction is on right on schedule and the Faculty is expected to begin moving in this Spring well before the start of September classes! In addition to turning on the lights JMSB and Concordia's office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs has been turning out one great announcement after another. Here's a re-cap in case you missed it...


Manulife Financial Donates $500,000
On October 23rd, 2008 Manulife Financial donated $500,000 towards the creation of a Professorship in Financial Planning and construction of a 120-seat amphitheater in the new building.
To the full story: http://alumni.concordia.ca/calendar/news/2008/10/23/013610.php


Chancellor David O'Brien Donates $2 million
On November 18th Concordia announced that Chancellor David O'Brien has donates $2 million to further University's sustainable business education. The gift will result in the creation of the David O'Brien Distinguished Professorship in Sustainable Enterprise. Naturally the new centre will be housed in the John Molson School of Business.

Click here to view the article in the Concordia Journal.
Click here to read the clipping published in the Montreal Gazette on Wednesday Nov. 19, 2008.


Net Impact CSR Competition
Our MBA students just came back from Net Impact Corporate Social Responsibility Competition which was hosted by the Rotman Business school. The program was represented by two teams of MBA students and JMSB's teams tied for 3rd place, while Stanford and Queen's placed first and second respectively. Congratulations to both John Molson Teams: Carole Charbonneau, Malaz Sebai, Ramsay Cook, Patrick Cunningham and Elizabeth S. Loucks, Chantal Forgues, Edward Walker and Nura Askar!


Sustainability in Business
From November 12 to 14 JMSB's Career Management Services (CMS) and the John Molson Sustainable Business group (JSG) teamed up to present an interactive event to encourage our future business leaders to adopt sustainable business practices. The event garnered the attention of Concordia's entire community and was covered in the Concordia journal. In February 2009 the JSG will be hosting the 5th annual Sustainable Business Conference, it will be the first year that the conference falls under the umbrella of JMSB.
Click here to read the article in the Concordia Journal.


MBA-ICC in the News
It won't be long until the 2009 edition of the John Molson MBA International Case Competition gets underway, this year's competition begins on Tuesday January 6th, 2009 and the competition is already making news abroad. Last week the UK's Times Online featured an article titled Problem solved which discussed the competition and also included 2008 JMSB competitor Peter Vogopoulos. This is fantastic international exposure for the Competition, JMSB and Concordia University!!! Hats off to the Organizers! I can't wait to see the fruits of efforts unfold as the competition inches closer!
Click here to read the article in the Times Online.


The Passing of an MBA Alumnus and Friend To Many MBAs
Karine Wei (MBA 2001) passed away earlier this month after battling cancer for the past year. Karine, 36, was an organizer of our 20th annual MBA International Case Competition which was held in January 2001. Karine leaves behind her husband Andrea and their two young daughters. If you have a memory of Karine that you would like to document for Karine's daughters please email me by December 1st, and I will pass it on to Lissa to share with Karine's family.

Here are some links to clippings from the 2001 competition which feature Karine, her fellow organizers and her classmates.

2001 MBA-ICC Panel
Concordia Thursday Report
Concordia Alumni Magazine


Another MBA Couple to Tie the Knot
Prior to our last event I left you with a bit of who's getting hitched mystery, well I'm pleased to share with you that the happy newlyweds are Dror Amar and Young Cho. Dror and Young met in the program.

Links:
Photos on flickr
Photos on Facebook


ARE YOU ON linkedIn? IF SO, WHY NOT JOIN THE JOHN MOLSON MBA ALUMNI GROUP...
To add the John Molson MBA Alumni group to your Linkedin profile just check out my public profile, scroll down and click on the group. This will help us identify ourselves to each other while also increasing visibility for the John Molson MBA brand. Better yet, take a few moments to expand your network even further by joining the John Molson School of Business Alumni Chapter Group too and connect to even more rising stars in the JMSB alumni community. And don't forget we're always happy to have new members on our Facebook John Molson MBA Alumni Group.

2009 John Molson MBA Case Competition is Already in the HeadlinesIt won't be long now until the 2009 edition of the John Molson MBA International Case

It won't be long now until the 2009 edition of the John Molson MBA International Case Competition begins and in case you can't wait for my updates to begin again you're in luck! The competition was featured in yesterday's edition of the UK Times!

Hats off to the Case Comp Organizers: Rina Maarit Albala, Alex Dumesle, Olivier Romain and Catalina Zambrano for making the news so early in their mandate! They are also supported by a new and fabulous team of executive assistants (Jenny Therriault, Amit Nir, Elizabeth Gillis and Angelika Mehta) and their devoted advisor Peter O'Brien.

Here's the article so check it out!

You'll also be happy to know that you can now become a fan of the competition on facebook and show you're support of the world's oldest and largest case competition in the world so I hope you'll join. The official fan page is called John Molson MBA International Case Competition.

By the way the Organizers are still hoping that you'll join them as volunteers for the 2009 edition, if you are interested please visit their website and sign-up at your convenience

Get Back In-Touch With MBA Alumni

You may be negotiating the back-to-school season with your children, or if you’re like Ken Trueman you may be delighted to have just received your second masters and be taking a break from pursuing formal education for now, but that doesn’t mean you should stay in on Thursday nights to watch must-see-TV. Why not get back in touch with your MBA alumni and give a second life to the friendships you created during your graduate studies or establish new ones with our growing MBA alumni base?

Just to get you started I’ve arranged for Mark Burger (MBA 2003) to fly in from Cuba (where he has been stationed for Canada’s Foreign Affairs department) and join us for our next 6 à 8 which we be held on Thursday September 4th, 2008 at the Irish Embassy on Bishop. For those of you who volunteered at the 2003 edition of the MBA International Case Competition Mark’s wife Danah will also be joining us so you’ve got twice as much reason to join us. We’re a friendly crowd so feel free to bring your other half or colleague from work!

Thursday’s event will also be your chance to say goodbye to Lisa Potter-Oster a DIA alumnus and great friend who has joined of us for many of our happy hours over the last year. Lisa will be moving back to Philadelphia next week.

Time: 6 à 8ish
Date: Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Location: Irish Embassy Pub and Grill
1234 Rue Bishop
Montréal, H3G 2E3
www.irish-embassy.com

Please RSVP so that I can book enough space for us. You can RSVP on the Facebook event page or by email annagunaratnam@gmail.com


The latest MBA News and Information:

The Passing of an M.Sc Alumnus and Friend To Many MBAs
I thought I wouldn’t have to share news like this for at least twenty years, but unfortunately I do. I’m very sorry and saddened to let you know that Kristin Price (John Molson M.Sc. 2003) passed away on Saturday August 16th, 2008. Kristin was only 29, but had been living with Cystic Fibrosis and had been in hospital for about a month. Those of us who got to know her during our graduate studies loved her for being a sunny, bright and intelligent woman. After completing M.Sc. at John Molson Kristin went on to pursue her Ph.D. in organizational behaviour at Penn State and she was in the process of completing her dissertation. If you would like to send your condolences to her parents please contact me.


Last Event
The last event and send-off for Errol Lobo was a fantastic event with about forty alumni showing up to wish Errol and Kenia much success for their move. We were also joined by our youngest attendee-ever, six-week old Tristan Carrier (son of Donna Morris and Mike Carrier). Yves Dupuis who graduated last year also joined us with his wife Pascale (she’s a current MBA in our program) and Dan Silverman let the cat out of the bag and announced that Yves and Pascale are expecting a second child. Speaking of Dan, he’s ready to kick-off his third year of teaching the case comp class which takes place on Thursday nights this fall. I’m hoping that he’ll finish up the first class early so he can join us for a quick drink before he heads home to his beautiful ladies. Speaking of teaching at JMSB, Dan, Tim Field and Anna Giampa aren’t the only MBA alumni teaching in the faculty this fall, also joining them are Nasos Makriyiannis, Jim Kellett and Peter Vogopoulos. To find out more about the August 6 à 8, check out the photos posted in my facebook album.


MBA Girls Reunited
Last week Ksenija Cvetkovic-Trahan dropped in town for a night out with some of the girls, which meant I got to touch base with Emily Bradshaw (MBA 2005) and Linda Susnik. Ksenjia has been after me to visit her in Toronto, so don’t be surprised if I drop by Toronto and schedule a Toronto edition our MBA Alumni 6 à 8 get-togethers. I’m also proud to share that Emily was recently promoted to Consultant with Massy Forget Public Relations. Ken, sorry we didn't invite you to join, we've decided you are more than welcome to join us as long as you wear your pink bunny suit.

Another MBA Couple to Tie the Knot
Another couple that met in the MBA program will be tying the knot within the next month, but to find out who they are, you’ll have to stay tuned for my next alumni update.
Financial Times MBA Ranking
Last but not least, it’s that time of year for alumni to respond to the Financial Times MBA Ranking Survey. This time around they are calling on the class of 2005 to share their opinions on their MBA experience, to find out more about the survey please check out the attached letter forwarded to me by Amalia Dinut in JMSB’s External Affairs Department. Amalia can be contacted by email at adinut@jmsb.concordia.ca or by phone at 514-848-2424, ext. 2836.

Links:
Photos on flickr
Photos on facebook


ARE YOU ON linkedIn? IF SO, WHY NOT JOIN THE JOHN MOLSON MBA ALUMNI GROUP...
To add the John Molson MBA Alumni group to your Linkedin profile just check out my public profile, scroll down and click on the group. This will help us identify ourselves to each other while also increasing visibility for the John Molson MBA brand. Better yet, take a few moments to expand your network even further by joining the John Molson School of Business Alumni Chapter Group too and connect to even more rising stars in the JMSB alumni community. And don't forget we're always happy to have new members on our Facebook John Molson MBA Alumni Group.

See you on the 4th!

Don't Forget, We Meet On Thursday August 7th at Irish Embassy To Give Errol An Unforgettable Sendoff!

We're one week away from our next event and I'm excited to report that we've already got about 30 positive RSVPs for the event and another 30 maybes, so it should be a great evening out. In case you haven't noted down the details, we'll be meeting at the Irish Embassy on Bishop from 6pm to 8pm. I'm counting on Errol to be early one last time in case anyone gets out of work early and is eager to fashionably ahead of the rest of us.

If you're still undecided, take a look at the photos from our previous events or read all about them in my previous blog postings. I'm excited to report that you can now subscribe to receive an RSS feed and receive alerts whenever I post new updates, which will hopefully be more frequent!!!

By the way, have you see our future building lately, almost all the glass is up, and it's looking stellar! To see the most recent photos I've taken of our future home visit the John Molson MBA fan page where you can also check out older photos taken during earlier stages of the construction. You won't be able to keep yourself from getting excited for your alma mater. If you'd like to show your support for the program, become a fan, better yet, maybe add a positive comment to the wall so future students can benefit from your insights.
For those of you that have yet to attend one of our events, rest assured MBA alumni don't bite, in fact, because everyone is so friendly and eager to meet you, I'll be happy to introduce you to everyone that attends.


To RSVP for the event, please email me at annagunaratnam@gmail.com, call me (514) 812 8810 or indicate you participation on the facebook event page.
Time: 6 à 8ish
Date: Thursday August 7th, 2008
Location: Irish Embassy Pub and Grill
1234 Rue Bishop
Montréal, H3G 2E3
www.irish-embassy.com

LINKS:
Photos on flickr
Photos on facebook


ARE YOU ON linkedIn?
IF SO, WHY NOT JOIN THE JOHN MOLSON MBA ALUMNI GROUP...
To add the John Molson MBA Alumni group to your Linkedin profile just check out my public profile, scroll down and click on the group. This will help us identify ourselves to each other while also increasing visibility for the John Molson MBA brand. Better yet, take a few moments to expand your network even further by joining the John Molson School of Business Alumni Chapter Group too and connect to even more rising stars in the JMSB alumni community. And don't forget we're always happy to have new members on our Facebook John Molson MBA Alumni Group.

See you on the 7th!

THE MBA ALUMNI EVENT ON THURSDAY JUNE 12TH WAS SO GREAT

THERE’S ANOTHER 6 À 8 AROUND THE CORNER... August MBA Alumni 6 à 8, Thursday August 7th, 2008.

Our happy hour reunions are getting bigger and bigger from one event to the next! We had such a fantastic time on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 that we barely remained seated as caught up with each other.

While there must have been at least 45 of us in attendance, we couldn’t help but notice that Donna Morris was absent. Given that her RSVP message was something along the lines of ‘I’ll be there unless I’m in labour’, many of us were wondering whether she and her husband Mike Carrier were welcoming there new bundle of joy. Well, let me officially put our suspicions to rest, Donna and Mike welcomed their son Tristan about a week later. Nadia Molluso and her husband Ryan welcomed their son Luca (which made a very proud aunt out of Adriana), Adina Derrick and Jeffrey were joined by their son Marshall last week and last but not least (as far as I know), Chris Tomiuk and his wife Debra-Lynn welcomed their son Anthony. Given that Chris and Mike have been playing on an MBA alumni hockey team against Tuck over the past few years, it wouldn’t surprise me if their boys join up with Luca, Marshall and Jim Kellett's son Oliver (born in May) to start their own hockey team in a few years.

Rather than giving you a full play by play, I’ll let the photos and their captions speak for themselves, however I do have quick updates on what some of our alums are up to.

ALUMNI UPDATES
Tim Field who continues to share his passion for entrepreneurship and competition as member of JMSB’s department of Management will be receiving the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching at a ceremony later on this year.

Hani Tadros has been pursuing his Ph.D in Finance since completing his MBA and just won a Fond Quebecois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC) grant.

While on the subject of Ph.Ds I’ve been waiting for confirmation on this tidbit of news… Sujit Sur who recently received his Ph.D. is joining Dalhousie University as a tenure track professor this month!

Oh and this is awesome news, although he isn't an alumni of the program I can't not share the news that Jordan Le Bel also known as Dr. Chocolate in the media is returning to JMSB after having taught at the Cornell School of Management in the States. C'est vrai, he'll be back inspiring our MBA students to be passionate about marketing in September! Hopefully I'll be able to get him to join us at a future event.

JMSB ALUMNI GOLF TOURNAMENT SUCCESS!
I almost forgot to tell you about how successful the JMSB Alumni Chapter Golf Tournament was! The day was expected to be a rainy one but the sun dances performed by the Organizers which included our own Jim Kellett and and Nasos Makriyiannis ensured a perfect sunny golfing day. Giuseppe Fantigrossi was kind enough to drop of a CD of photos for me before he moved down under so I'll have them up on my flickr site soon.

ERROL HEADS WEST
The last tidbit of news that I have to share is bitter-sweet for the alumni based in Montreal, Errol Lobo is leaving us to head to Calgary. Until now, Errol has been recruiting new MBA students for JMSB as a Graduate Recruiting Officer. Errol has also served his MBA alumni exceptionally well by being the first to arrive and usually last to leave at our MBA alum gatherings and has always been willing to lend me a hand in planning them. While Errol doesn't want a fuss or a show made out of his departure, I couldn't possibly allow him to leave for the wild rose of Calgary without a proper send off, after all it'll be hard for him to fly here every six to eight weeks to join us for a drink. So get those palm pilots, blackberries and iPhones out again and mark your calendars for Thursday August 7th, 2008. We'll be at the Irish Embassy from 6pm to 8pm for Errol's last Montreal MBA Alumni 6 à 8 event.

To RSVP for the event, please email me at annagunaratnam@gmail.com, or indicate you participation on the facebook event page.


Time: 6 à 8ish
Date: Thursday August 7th, 2008
Location: Irish Embassy Pub and Grill
1234 Rue Bishop
Montréal, H3G 2E3
www.irish-embassy.com


LINKS:
Photos on flickr
Photos on facebook


ARE YOU ON linkedIn? IF SO, WHY NOT JOIN THE JOHN MOLSON MBA ALUMNI GROUP...
To add the John Molson MBA Alumni group to your Linkedin profile just check out my public profile, scroll down and click on the group. This will help us identify ourselves to each other while also increasing visibility for the John Molson MBA brand. Better yet, take a few moments to expand your network even further by joining the John Molson School of Business Alumni Chapter Group too and connect to even more rising stars in the JMSB alumni community. And don't forget we're always happy to have new members on our Facebook John Molson MBA Alumni Group.

See you on the 7th,

Anna

Before you take off for summer vacation, join us for our next 6 à 8 on Thursday, June 12th, 2008

Our next get-together which naturally takes place from 6pm to 8pm on Thursday June 12th, 2008, at the Irish Embassy on Bishop. We have a whole new bunch of graduates to welcome into our alumni group!

To check out photos from the last event visit my facebook album or my flickr page.

To RSVP for the event sign up via the John Molson MBA Alumni facebook page or email me at annagunaratnam@hotmail.com.

Our facebook group, John Molson MBA Alumni is now up to 160 members! And we also have a John Molson MBA Alumni Group on LinkedIn. Increase you network's potential by joining the John Molson MBA Alumni Group. To join the group send me your request including the email address you use on LinkedIn and I'll send you an invitation.

To check out the reviews of previous gatherings just scroll down further!

Hope to see you then!

Anna