MANAGEMENT REPORT

Jeannette Eberhard, PhD Associate Director, BMOS Program

There is an expression that “it takes a village to raise a child.” I can attest to the fact that it takes a team of instructors, teaching assistants, academic advisors, student volunteers, alumni, and administrative personnel to support the journey of a King’s BMOS graduate. Thanks to all on the BMOS team for your dedication to our students and your support of each other inside and outside of the classroom.

As the Associate Director for BMOS, I’ve come to realize how much of a successful four-year student journey occurs outside the classroom – through individual program counselling, career development events, and student club involvement.

As a faculty member, I’m inspired by the efforts of my colleagues to incorporate simulations, case studies, and real-world events to bring theoretical concepts to life inside the classroom. Their efforts elevate student engagement and teach students how to apply textbook concepts to decision making and people management –skills they will need in their future careers. Here are just a few examples of what you might see by dropping into a BMOS class here at King’s…

In the Accounting program: Alexandra Vance brings CPA-style cases into the course, preparing senior students for the type of questions they will encounter when they write their exams. Stacey Hann recreates a typical audit situation by requiring student teams to plan an audit of a real public company. Students in Lisa Macklem’s business law class discuss the responsibility for insurance on freight in transit using the highprofile case of Brinks and the shipment stolen while in transit through Pearson Airport.

In the Finance program: Students in Grigori Erenburg’s class use real data from the financial derivatives markets to complete assignments. Similarly, and since corporate finance revolves around determining firms' fundamental values, Amanjot Singh pulls Yahoo Finance pages (i.e., live trading of stocks) in the class to help students understand how theoretical ideas resonate with the real-world investors' trading and expectations. Josephine Gemson taps expert speakers – many of whom are King’s alumni – to share their experience with students. Recent guests included investment managers from TD Canada Trust and BMO Nesbitt Burns, a technology manager from WorldQuant LLC, and managers in the field of professional ethics from the Better Business Bureau and KPMG.

In the Human Resources program: Hina Kalyal worked closely with our alumni relations department to match fourth-year HR student teams with King’s alumni in the HR field. The student teams worked with their alumni contacts to understand and provide recommendations to solve a real HR management problem.

Of course, the efforts of our BMOS team only work when students come to campus ready to learn – and to have a bit of fun! My final thanks go to our students, and especially the ones who are graduating this year, for your positive attitudes and commitment to learning. Well done and best wishes for wherever your career takes you. We look forward to you coming back to share your experience with future King’s students.