Bissett Stock Market Challenge: the 13th Annual ATB Investment Challenge is up and running!
Bissett student headed to the Canadian Business Model Competition
Ray DePaul, Director for the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship says “this competition is unique in Canada as the students are not evaluated on their final venture idea, but rather on the journey they took to arrive at a validated business model. Emily and her co-founder Austin Lang are a great example of the effectiveness of the Lean Startup model as they continuously tested their assumptions by engaging first hand with their potential customers. The result was a very successful business that might otherwise have failed due to a series of invalid assumptions. Emily heads to Halifax on March 10th to tell her story to the judges.”
MRU Enactus students find success at the Enactus Canada Regional Exposition
The Bissett School of Business is pleased to share the success of the MRU Enactus team at the Enactus Canada Regional Exposition – Western Canada which brings together student, academic and industry leaders to celebrate the achievements of Canada’s future leaders and entrepreneurs. This is the 16th year our interdisciplinary Enactus Mount Royal team has participated!
Enactus Canada teams from 17 universities across western Canada shared their stories of community outreach on Friday, March 3 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Calgary at this Western Regional Exposition
Enactus Mount Royal participated in three (3) Challenges and earned three (3) awards:
First Place: Scotiabank EcoLiving Green Challenge -Enactus Mount Royal Project Unravelled.
Runner Up: TD Entrepreneurship Challenge – Enactus Mount Royal Project Green Cup. The idea of Emily Bartlett and Austin (Ozzy) Lang, Green Cup is a social-minded enterprise that provides compostable coffee cups to businesses and events, funded by advertising for local businesses printed on the cups. Recent partners include MacEwan University and Absolute Dental Care, along with Waste Management with which Green Cup has collaborated to create designated waste containers for coffee cup disposal and recycling
Second Runner Up: Capital One Financial Education Challenge – Enactus Mount Royal Project EmpowerU. EmpowerU assists women in leaving the sex trade and achieving independence. EmpowerU helps educate these women with financial literacy, life skills, returning to school, and obtaining employment.
Our MRU students will be continuing to work on their projects over the next two months and sharing additional successes at the Enactus Canada National Exposition to be held May 9, 10 and 11, 2017 in Vancouver.Bissett Associate Professor and Enactus Mentor, Wendelin Fraser describes the exposition as an opportunity for students to showcase how their community outreach projects, social innovation projects and business ventures are making a real impact in Canada and beyond.
“The competitive process, along with additional programming, provides an opportunity for collaboration and best-practice sharing, fosters innovation, encourages results and rewards excellence in entrepreneurial, community leadership.”
Bissett School of Business thanks Wendelin for her continued dedication in mentoring our MRU Enactus team. In turn Wendelin would like to thank Ray DePaul and Jennifer Richardson who were able to come out and support the Enactus Mount Royal students as they presented their initiatives at the Exposition.
Congratulations to all o f the winners and participants. Good Luck in Vancouver!
Bissett students compete in Supply Chain Case Competition
BASS students host successful case competition
Congratulations to the Bissett Accounting Students’ Society, participants and winners for another successful case competition:
“Bissett Accounting Students Society (BASS) was fortunate to host a financial case competition on Friday November 18th. The day started off with six teams of two students each. With the whole morning to prepare a case, students were anxious to present to the judges. This years judges included Paula Overguard from Arc Resources, Andrew Beingessner from Crescent Point Energy, Scott Bauman from Collins Barrow, Brent Hall from BDO and Simon Magennis, from Mount Royal University.
The contestants and professionals had the opportunity to network over Spolumbos lunch. In the afternoon, each team gave a 10-minute presentation showcasing their accounting acumen to the judges. After deliberation the judges announced the top three teams:
1st Place to Timothy Lipp and Sean Sarjeant
2nd Place to Steven Reed and Brendon Layton
3rd Place to Braden Smith and Miles Myers
Thanks to CPA Alberta’s generous support, $2,000 was distributed to the top three teams with the top team taking home $500 each. BASS is extremely thankful for all the support CPA Alberta gives us throughout the year. By continuously sponsoring us, BASS is able to not only host events such as the case competition, but also provide scholarships to students with financial need. Thank you CPA Alberta for all your support!
Additionally, a special thank you to all our judges for whom this event would not have succeeded without. We are excited for the future and hope you return as judges again!”
McKenzie Schoenthal
Vice President
Bissett Accounting Students’ Society
Visit our website at bassmru.com
Bissett School of Business BASS Students host 13th Annual Golf Tournament
The 13th annual BASS golf tournament was held Friday September 30, 2016 at River Spirit Golf Club. Thank you to the 36 professional accountants and 36 accounting students who made the tournament a success.
The annual tournament is designed so accounting students can spend a day networking with accounting professionals and learn more about working as a professional accountant. BASS executive and members have designed the tournament to provide fun and friendly competition for players of all levels.
The tournament itself was sponsored by the Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) of Alberta, the professional organization representing more than 28,000 CPAs across the province. Representing CPA Alberta and speaking at the tournament breakfast was Farah Albert CPA, CA, CPA (IL, USA). Sarah serves as Director Business Development at CPA Alberta. Sarah spoke to recent and future CPA developments relating to articling pathways into the profession. Her updates on the CPA qualifying experience requirements were well received by both students and professional accountants. The audience was very attentive since half of Alberta articling students follow the pre-approved program route, with the other half following the experience verification route.
Gordon Turtle, Senior Vice-President, Communications at CPA Alberta spoke to tournament participants and guests at dinner. Gordon provided a brief overview of the current priorities of CPA Alberta within the context of the evolution of the CPA designation in Alberta. Reminding attendees that the accounting profession in Alberta was unified on July 1, 2015 Gordon stressed that any CPA candidate qualifying as a CPA after that date must brand themselves with the CPA designation following their name. Following unification, brand value from the each of the CA, CMA and CGA designations is transferred to the CPA by members appending their relative legacy designation in the style of “CPA, CA”, “CPA, CGA”, or “CPA, CMA” after their name. Gordon also stressed the importance of professional ethics as practiced by CPA Alberta members. In order for CPA Alberta to continue as a self-regulated profession serving the public, maintaining high ethical standards within the profession is critical.
Many thanks to the following professional accounting organizations who supported our students in this tournament by providing professional accountant golfers and acting as hole sponsors:
- CPA Alberta*
- Critical Mass**
- BDO
- Crescent Point Energy**
- EY
- PCL Construction
- Deloitte
- Collins Barrow
- ARC Resources**
- KPMG
- Phillips 66
- MNP
- Western Energy Services**
- Gregory Harriman & Associates LLP
- JMH & Co.
- CPA Alberta
- Mount Royal University
*Event sponsor, **Hole sponsor
BBA Student Timothy Lipp wins 3M National Student Fellowship award.
The Bissett School of Business would like to congratulate our own, Tim Lipp for winning the very prestigious National Student Fellowship Award for 2016.
Tim has had a very successful year between the success of Project Stoke, the opportunity to go to the University of Waterloo as a member or the Social Impact Incubator this summer and the now with the 3M Award.
On behalf of all of us at Bissett, we congratulate Tim and wish him great success this summer!
4th Annual JMH LaunchPad Pitch Competition another huge success for Mount Royal Students
On Wednesday April 5th, 2016, the 4th annual JMH Launch Pad Pitch Competition took place in Ross Glen Hall in front of approximately “200 high-energy supporters”. Seven Mount Royal student ventures competed in a “Dragon’s Dens-style” competition that seen the students pitch their ventures and answer questions from a panel of esteemed judges, all while vying for their share of over $75,000 in cash and prizes!
Ray De-Paul, Director for the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, reports that the successful evening began by paying tribute to some of the exceptional students that have participated in this competition in prior years. Ray indicated that all 7 pitches went incredibly well and the judges had the difficult task of announcing the winners.
Bissett School of Business extends congratulations to all of the 2016 LaunchPad winners:
Smoke Barrel (Zac Hartley)
Smoke Barrel manufactures custom hand crafted hot and cold smokers from old wine and whiskey barrels. The most beautiful smoker on the market can also be customized to tailor the product for the most discerning customer.
JMH & Co Award: $10,000
BUSY Foundation Award: $10,000
Stikeman Elliott LLP Legal Services: $10,000 (in-kind)
Green Cup (Emily Bartlett and Ozzy Lang)
Green Cup is a social enterprise that is reducing the amount of coffee cup waste in Canada. They sell advertisements on compostable cups and distribute those cups in the advertiser’s target market.
JMH & Co Award: $10,000
Institute for Environmental Sustainability Award: $2,500
Nomad Eco Products (Zachary Champoux)
Nomad Eco Products produces a 100% recycled yoga mat that mends our relationship with the planet by making what is torn, whole again. The yoga mats are made from recycled denim and are as unique as they are environmentally friendly.
JMH & Co Award: $10,000
TANG (Brad Williamson)
Tang is a geographic-based, temporary social media network that allows users to see what people are up to around them. Users can search for relevant content based off of a hashtag, within a particular vicinity, or both. The user controls how long the content exists so can share silly moments without the infinity history of most social media.
JMH & Co Award: $10,000
Little Blue Cloud (Carille Mendoza and Michaela Day)
Little Blue Cloud is an online/app-based resource for students struggling with depression and anxiety. Features such as an anonymous peer support chat system and a self-help database provide a comfortable, non-stigmatized environment where users can talk to others facing similar situations.
Institute for Community Prosperity Award: $2,500
Design4Change Marketing Services: $5,000 (in-kind)
The Well Brewing Company (Quinn Wilton)
The Well Brewing Company is Alberta’s first community-driven craft brewery and well-positioned to take advantage of the booming craft beer industry. Members receive exclusive access to member only beer, tasting events, and democratic voting on names and the types of beer being produced.
BUSY Foundation Award: $5,000
Congratulations to all participants and winners! The Bissett School of Business would also like to acknowledge the continued success of The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, for their continued success in mentoring and inspiring the entrepreneurial minds and ambitions of our Mount Royal Students!
“Community feedback about our students consistently puts them in a class of their own in Calgary.”-Ray DePaul
Bissett School of Business students take 1st Place in the 2016 CPA Board Governance Case Competition
The 2016 CPA Board Governance Case Competition was held on March 17-18 at Hotel Arts in Calgary. This competition is an annual event, organized and hosted by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Alberta, originally initiated by CMA Alberta. In this competition students are given a case to analyze. The case covers issues in accounting, board governance, and ethics. The case is kept secret until it is handed to the teams at the competition. Teams are then given six hours to analyze the case and present their analysis, recommending solutions to a judging panel of business leaders. Only four teams are selected to advance to the final round and prizes are awarded to the top three teams.
A total of thirteen teams representing all the universities and post-secondary institutions in Alberta participated in this year’s competition, vying for the top prize of $10,000.00. The Bissett School of Business from Mount Royal University had two teams participating.
Both teams from Mount Royal performed very well at this year’s competition. In particular, out of the thirteen teams that entered the competition, one of the Bissett teams not only made it to the final round, but finished first overall! This is a tremendous accomplishment! The participants work under extreme pressure to come up with their solution to the case to present to the panel of judges. They also have to be very strong technically in their accounting knowledge and other subject matter. Another critical component for the winning team was their strong presentation skills.
The students from the winning Bissett team were:
- Ross Graham
- Melissa Kinzner
- Shaelynn (Shae) Prefontaine
- Corey Reinhardt
- Peter Serafini
The following faculty coached the Bissett teams:
- Rafik Kurji
- Shiraz Kurji
- Simon Magennis
A lunch has been organized on Friday April 8 at 12:30 pm in room EB2027 to celebrate our teams from Mount Royal. The Dean, Associate Dean, and all Accounting faculty will be in attendance to celebrate the success of the students who participated in the 2016 CPA Board Governance Case Competition.
On behalf of the Bissett School of Business we would like to congratulate the winners on a job well done! Congratulations also goes out to the other participants. Thank you to our dedicated faculty members for providing coaching and mentoring to our students!
Bissett Finance students compete in the CIFP Case Challenge
The Bissett School of Business wishes to congratulate our students, coached by financial services contract faculty member, Sean Bjorkland, who competed in the annual CIFP Case competition, western edition, hosted by SAIT on March 12th.“After a sequestration period where the students analyzed a personal financial planning case, the students presented and answered questions from industry leaders. It is a challenging, if not daunting task. I was extremely impressed with our team’s bold, yet reasoned and comprehensive recommendations.- Cathy Roy-Heaton
Coach:
Sean Bjorkland, VP, Financial Planning, BMO Group & Contract Faculty, Bissett School of Business