UFV takes two wins at international business case competition in L.A.

UFV students (l-r) Rebecca Whitmell, Chad Charest, associate professor and coach Masud Khawaja, Amandeep Rai and Monisha Kingra standing outside of Loyola Mount University in Los Angeles where they participated and won first place in two categories at the International Business Ethics and Sustainability Case Competition.

Four students majoring in human resources management from UFV’s School of Business earned first place in two categories at the International Business Ethics and Sustainability Case Competition (IBESCC) held in Los Angeles April 12–14.

Chad Charest, Monisha Kingra, Amandeep Rai, and Rebecca Whitmell succeeded against formidable U.S. business schools, including Pennsylvania State University, the University of Florida, George Washington University, and host Loyola Marymount University. The team came out on top of their division’s 10-minute and 90-second business case presentation events.

“It was a moment of tremendous pride for the team when the University of Fraser Valley was announced as the winner — our team certainly brought the spotlight on our institution,” said team coach and UFV School of Business associate professor Masud Khawaja.

“They’ve put UFV on the map, having competed against some of the top business schools in North America.”

Preparing for the competition took more than two months, with UFV’s team spending 12–15 hours every week perfecting their presentations. In addition to Khawaja, the team benefited from expertise and input from UFV Dean of Business and Computing Chris Schinkus, former director of UFV’s School of Business Rod Hayward, and director of UFV’s School of Computing Carl Janzen.

“As a prof, I want to help every one of my students realize their full potential. I knew these four students would be on par with other students from around the world. They had a passion for their chosen topic, believed in their subject matter and I think that is what propelled them to deliver in the way they did,” said Masud.

Team member Rebecca Whitmell knew the group wasn’t going to be satisfied with mediocre results, saying, “It was really challenging to have the idea of going internationally to do this competition and having this pressure on ourselves to not just do well but also wanting to succeed.”

Teammate Monisha Kingra agreed, saying the entire team benefitted immensely from the experience.

“It creates confidence and builds resilience through our ability to do the work, constantly change based on feedback, balance life commitments, and challenging our ability to handle hard times, setbacks, and critiques,” she said.

“We want to better ourselves and carry these different traits we’ve learned into the future.”

UFV’s accomplishment didn’t go unnoticed by event organizers, who welcomed 37 teams from 25 universities competing in eight divisions (three graduate and five undergraduate).

“We’ve been honored to have UFV join IBESCC and congratulate the team on their impressive performance,” offered Jeff Thies, director of the Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainability

“They masterfully presented their case analysis … leading the judging teams to award them first place recognition in two categories, competing against strong competition. Each member of the team should be very proud.”

UFV’s successful case study presentations focused on opportunities for decent work and developing indigenous partnerships around lithium mining in Alberta. To learn more about the IBESCC, click here.