Thirteen HEC Montréal students have embarked on a two-wheeled odyssey that will see them bike 500 km from Montréal to Boston in 11 days, from August 13 to 24. The group of cyclists is enrolled in the Montréal-Boston experiential course, giving them a first-hand look at the themes of sustainable development and entrepreneurship.

Along the way, the students will go on company tours, including at Hydro-Québec and Téo Taxi, in Quebec, and at the sustainable agriculture company Intervale, in Vermont. In Boston, they will visit the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Participants will also have the opportunity to enjoy some cultural activities en route.

The intensive 3-credit course is given by Anne Pezet, Full Professor in the Department of Management, and Brian King, Associate Professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The choice of the route, from Montréal to Boston, is no accident, as Professor King explains: “Having lived in Boston for 8 years, I see striking differences between these two university cities, even though they are much the same size. I would like the students to come away from this course with a better idea of the importance of culture and history in the business world.”

The two professors were saluted for their initiative of launching a bicycle course last year, after the first edition travelling between Montréal and Quebec City, on the themes of history and development. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) hailed this experiential course as one of the 30 innovations that best represent the way business schools are reinventing and diversifying the learning environment.

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Business French Summer School increasingly popular

August 21, 2017, 9:00 pm

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The Business French Summer School at HEC Montréal welcomed close to 85 students from 21 countries* this year between July 17 and August 11, 2017 – 60% more than in 2016.

Since the first edition in 2014, the Summer School has seen its demand climb steadily. In fact, sometimes two members of the same family sign up, as was the case this year: “The school helped Teresa and Blanca improve their French considerably,” says a proud Maria Lorente, mother and aunt of two of the students from Venezuela.

HEC Montréal is the only business school in North America to offer a summer immersion program in business French. It includes lectures and seminars on themes related to establishing and managing SMBs, urban marketing and managing cultural organizations.

In addition to credit courses in business French, the program organizes meetings with local economic, cultural and community players.

“It was a terrific experience,” concludes Canadian participant Jaymie Park.
“I strongly recommend the program to anyone wanting to quickly improve his or her French and who is interested in discovering life in Montréal.” In 2018, the Summer School will be held from July 16 to August 10.

* Home countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, China, Germany, Hungary, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Syrian Arab Republic, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela.

The students could even enter a photo contest on their impressions of Montréal. The winners:

EEFA - 2017 - Concours de photos sous le thème « Montréal, ma réalité »

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The team of researchers led by Christian Vandenberghe receives a $2 million grant for research infrastructure

August 21, 2017, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Martin Boyer becomes President-Elect of the American Risk and Insurance Association

≪ Previous: Business French Summer School increasingly popular

The team of researchers led by Christian Vandenberghe receives a $2 million grant for research infrastructure

The John R. Evans Leaders Fund of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has awarded a substantial grant to support the research infrastructure project proposed by Professor Christian Vandenberghe and his team of professors Michel Tremblay and Yany Grégoire. The $800,000 CFI grant is in addition to the $800,000 awarded by the Quebec government and a private-sector contribution, adding up to a total of $2 million. These sums will allow the team to create a panel of potential respondents for collecting management research data over a five-year period.

The CFI John R. Evans Leaders Fund is a federal government program aimed at funding scientific infrastructure projects to give researchers the best tools or the technology they need to innovate in their fields. The HEC Montréal team’s project, while not a piece of equipment or a laboratory, was approved by the CFI since it will lead to the development of a means of collecting valuable data for advancing management research. “This type of panel is rare and has no equivalent elsewhere in Canada. […] It will allow us to gather sophisticated and complex data guaranteeing top-quality information,” says Professor Vandenberghe.

Access to this new data will open the doors to leading scientific journals for our researchers in different management fields, on subjects relating to industrial psychology, human resources management and marketing (e.g. analyzing employees’ social comparison processes within an organization, or longitudinal observation of interactions between a firm’s customers and its front-line employees).

The CFI grant to the team of HEC Montréal researchers will go largely to a marketing research firm chosen through a tendering process. The firm will be responsible for assembling this panel of potential respondents selected from about 100 Canadian companies. The panel will consist of employees from over 100 work teams and will be used for a variety of surveys over a multi-year period. This means that the panel will give researchers access to data from over 10,000 participants, holding different positions in companies in different sectors.

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Martin Boyer becomes President-Elect of the American Risk and Insurance Association

August 30, 2017, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Emmanuel Raufflet and Nolywé Delannon recognized by the Academy of Management

≪ Previous: The team of researchers led by Christian Vandenberghe receives a $2 million grant for research infrastructure

Martin Boyer becomes President-Elect of the American Risk and Insurance Association

Martin Boyer was appointed President-Elect of the American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA) at this year’s Annual Meeting, held in Toronto in early August. He is only the second non-American president in the Association’s 85-year history.

Over the past year, Professor Boyer has served as ARIA Vice-President, and as such was responsible for this year’s Annual Meeting program, bringing together scholars from around the globe for the four-day event.

His role in the coming months will be to develop a strategic vision for the Association. “This is an important milestone in my career and much-appreciated recognition by my peers. This year will be a real turning point,” he says.

The American Risk and Insurance Association is the world’s foremost association devoted to the study of different insurance markets and corporate risk management. It brings together all experts and academics in this field, and gives them the opportunity to discuss and share their knowledge.

Martin Boyer has been a Professor at HEC Montréal since 1997 and holds a Professorship in Economic Behaviour in Finance and Insurance. He has published nearly 70 scientific papers, the vast majority of them dealing with corporate risk management and insurance. He has been a jury member for over one hundred supervised projects, dissertations and PhD theses, in addition to teaching BBA, MSc, MBA, Specialized Graduate Diploma and PhD courses. Professor Boyer has also been a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia, the University of New South Wales, Cornell University and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

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