Twenty-four students in the Master of Science in Administration (MSc) made the Honour Roll in the fall term of 2017.

To appear on the Honour Roll, students must have earned a minimum grade point average of 3.9/4.3 during the term in question, not have exceeded a fifth term of enrollment, have accumulated a minimum of 12 credits and have been registered for a minimum of 9 masters credits during the recognized term.

Congratulations to all of you!

National Bank announced today that it is joining CDL-Montreal (Creative Destruction Lab Montreal), as a founding partner. National Bank joins forces with Bank of Montreal (BMO), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Espace CDPQ, which have been supporting the CDL since autumn. This new investment in CDL-Montreal brings its overall operating budget to $8 million.

“As the Institut d’entrepreneuriat Banque Nationale – HEC Montréal’s early partner, it was natural for us to extend our support to CDL-Montreal, which brings together new businesses at the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence. Supported by a team of entrepreneurs, scientists and angel investors, these businesses will be in an exceptional development environment that promotes all types of innovation,” says Louis Vachon, President and CEO of National Bank. “And supporting new tech companies like this provides abundant rewards in terms of knowledge development and social and economic vitality.”

Canada’s largest program for massively scalable, science-based startups was launched in May 2017 by HEC Montréal in co-operation with the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

The first cohort of 25 startups in the artificial intelligence field started receiving coaching in December 2017. The vast majority of these new businesses already had or were about to be granted a patent. The average financing they had received was $900,000. The program will run until June 2018.

Startups in the program receive objectives-based coaching led by experienced entrepreneurs, representatives of major investment funds and world-class scientists, with the goal of maximizing equity-value creation. They are also able to count on collaboration with Montréal’s Institute of Data Valorization (IVADO) and the Montréal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA), both of which are recognized internationally for their work in data science, operational research and artificial intelligence.

Furthermore, specially selected MBA students assist these startups with their business plans, with a possible emphasis on human resources, marketing, finance and administration according to each venture’s needs.

HEC Montréal is one of the academic partners of the AI-Powered Supply Chain Supercluster – SCALE.AI, which has been selected by the Government of Canada to receive $230 million in funding under the Innovation Superclusters Initiative.

The announcement was made on February 15^th by the Honourable Navdeep Bains, the federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.

“SCALE.AI will build something unique: bolster Canada’s leadership in AI and data science, and define the new supply-chain platform, deeply impacting the retail, manufacturing and transport sectors. It will drive economic growth, create highly skilled jobs and boost our talent pool, putting AI at the service of all Canadians,” said Hélène Desmarais, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the Centre d’entreprises et d’innovation de Montréal and Chair of the Board of Directors of HEC Montréal.

Working alongside its supercluster partners, HEC Montréal will collaborate with industry stakeholders and draw on its expertise in education, commercialization and business development.

“HEC Montréal has a unique set of strengths when it comes to supply chains, logistics, operational research and artificial intelligence, relying on one of the country’s most talented and experienced academic faculty,” said Robert Gagné, Director, Research and Knowledge Transfer at HEC Montréal and Chair of the Board of the Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO).

HEC Montréal professors are also very active with GERAD and CIRRELT, two world-class research centres focused on the application of operational research to supply chains. In addition, HEC Montréal is one of the founding partners of IVADO.

From an educational standpoint, HEC Montréal offers master’s programs in global supply chain management and business analytics. Its EDUlib platform will readily provide access to online courses in supply chain management in contexts where artificial intelligence is poised to play a key role.

Executive Education HEC Montréal has already teamed up with IVADO to deliver various professional development programs in artificial intelligence and has plans to create new courses in logistics, transportation and supply chain management.

HEC Montréal is already committed to commercializing the results of leading-edge AI and supply chain management research through CDL-Montreal, a seed-stage program for science-based companies. And the School will soon be welcoming NextAI, an accelerator for AI-enabled startups.

“This expertise and these advantages will allow HEC Montréal to make a major contribution to its industrial and academic partners within the SCALE.AI supercluster in order to maximize artificial intelligence applications in supply chain management and thus give businesses in Quebec and Canada an edge over the international competition,” concluded Michel Patry, Director of HEC Montréal.

Claudianne Delorme has been playing hockey since she was 4 years old. She knows all about competition, pressure, and how it feels to be a woman in a predominantly male environment. “You’d be hard put to find anyone more competitive than me,” she grins.

The MSc in Management – Finance student will receive one of this year’s three Relève awards from the Association of Québec Women in Finance (AFFQ), for her excellent university grades.

The award will be officially presented on April 11, 2018 at the annual Gala des Talentueuses, bringing together hundreds of professionals from the business community to salute the achievements of women in finance who have distinguished themselves during the year. The award comes with a paid three-month internship with RBC Royal Bank.

Shining in the classroom – and on the ice

“I’ve always had a gift for numbers. What I love about finance is the analytical side. I like using financial analysis tools to solve a problem. It’s all about logic,” she says.

Claudianne’s involvement in sports also helped earn her the award. Her passion for hockey led her to play defence for the Carabins hockey team throughout her undergraduate years.

She managed to complete her program in three years, in fact, despite the 20 or so hours she spent on the ice every week. She has cut back on her training in the past year, to allow her to concentrate on her Master’s studies.

An award that opens doors

Claudianne’s excellent academic and sports performances already won her two scholarships during her undergraduate studies: one from the HEC Montréal Foundation, in 2014, and one from the Association des diplômés HEC Montréal, in 2015.

This award will also give Claudianne her first professional experience and let her get a foot in the door in the banking industry, where she hopes to make her career.

Marc-Antonin Hennebert, Urwana Coiquaud, Christian Lévesque and Lucie Morissette.

The Inter-University Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) at HEC Montréal is one of the main partners in a major international research initiative on the future of work. It will receive $2.5 million in funding over 7 years from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), under this year’s competition.

The project, bringing together 18 advanced research centres and over 140 researchers from 12 countries, aims at developing a better understanding of experimental processes for creating better-quality work. The research teams will focus on understanding how companies, workers, unions, governments and other organizations adopt, mobilize and transform regulatory tools so as to improve work in individual, organizational and societal terms. The CRIMT partnership process is headed up by Christian Lévesque, of HEC Montréal, and Gregor Murray, of the Université de Montréal, respectively the Co-Director and Director of CRIMT.

The project will also create an international database and a virtual observatory for these experiments, combining advanced research and practical examples. HEC Montréal researchers Urwana Coiquaud, Marc-Antonin Hennebert, Christian Lévesque and Lucie Morissette will be contributing their specific expertise in organizational and institutional experimentation in the digital economy era, in reconfiguring regional ecosystems, new forms of collective action and redeploying public policies, union practices and business strategies in terms of employment and labour management.

Project co-director Professor Christian Lévesque notes that “people worldwide are wondering how to make changes to the institutions that govern work. These experiments will shape our future communities and economies. One key challenge is to combine our understanding of these processes and engage social players in shared learning.”

HEC Montréal Director Michel Patry emphasizes the importance of this huge international research partnership. “Creating a network of international research centres opens up all kinds of possibilities for better understanding the challenges facing the different stakeholders in our societies. This will also make it possible to train a new generation of researchers able to draw on international best practices and stay on the cutting edge of knowledge in the areas of work and employment. We are very proud that CRIMT researchers from HEC Montréal will be contributing to this initiative.”

A team of two Bachelor’s in Business Administration (BBA) students, Ariane Pluquet and Adélaïde Morillot, successfully completed the 4L Trophy rally, in Morocco.

The rally participants left Biarritz, France, on February 15 and arrived in Marrakech on February 23, after crossing Spain and Morocco, including five legs through the desert.

Orientation and solidarity

Ariane Pluquet and Adélaïde Morillot

The two students in the “Caribous” team drove 6,000 km in under 10 days, in a “4L” or Renault 4, an old model of car popular in France in the 1960s.

“We had to drive long distances on tracks through the sand and use a compass to figure out our route,” says Adélaïde, just a few days after crossing the finish line.

“Everything went really well. We were impressed by the solidarity among all the participants. When we had a mechanical problem with our car, several other people stopped to help us,” she adds.

Some 1,450 two-person teams – nearly 3,000 students in all – took part in this year’s edition of the 4L Trophy, the world’s largest international student rally. The event, now in its 21^st year, depends on participants’ orientation skills rather than speed.

The 4L Trophy also helps Moroccan children, since the teams distribute donated school, sports, medical and computer supplies. Partners associated with the teams also offer financial contributions and sponsorships.

off the beaten track

This was the second time that an HEC Montréal team took part in the competition, but the first time that two female students from the School took on the challenge. Entirely female teams represented only 23% of all the teams in the 2018 edition.

“This was sort of a dangerous adventure for us. Two 3^rd-year BBA students, on another continent and with little knowledge of car mechanics… It definitely took us out of our comfort zone. We were looking to get off the beaten track, push our limits and show that when you want to do something, you can,” explains Ariane.

“Not many people in Quebec know about the 4L Trophy rally, so this let us do something unusual to mark our last year of studies at HEC Montréal,” says Adélaïde.

They add that the experience was also an opportunity to put their project management skills to use, including the search for financial partners. The cost for rally entrants is more than $12,000.

Note that they received logistical support from HEC Montréal Student Services, and help from the Groupe d’aide aux initiatives et au développement d’activités étudiantes (AIDAe) and the Vivre intensément de sport et d’aventures (VISA) association at HEC Montréal.

This was the second time in the 4L Trophy rally for the “Charibou,” the nickname given to the 1988 Renault 4L piloted by Ariane Pluquet and Adélaïde Morillot.

Léon Laulusa, Assistant Executive Director, ESCP Europe, Frank Bournois, Executive Director, ESCP Europe, and Federico Pasin, Secretary General and Director of International Activities, HEC Montréal.

HEC Montréal has signed an agreement with ESCP Europe, regularly ranked among the top European schools, to allow students from the two institutions to earn a dual Master’s degree.

The official signing ceremony was held in Paris on March 7, attended by Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, the Secretary General and Director of International Activities at HEC Montréal, Federico Pasin, the Executive Director of ESCP Europe, Frank Bournois, and Assistant Executive Director Léon Laulusa.

A solid general education combined with a specialization

Starting next year, 10 students per year – 5 from each school – will be able to enroll in this special stream and earn a Master of Science (MSc) in Management from HEC Montréal and a Master in Management (MIM) Grande École from ESCP Europe.

The Master in Management from ESCP Europe is a highly renowned general management program. In fact it placed 6^th in the 2017 Financial Times world ranking.

The MSc degrees from HEC Montréal included in this program will offer high value-added specializations:

• Global Supply Chain Management / Logistique internationale
• International Business / Affaires internationales
• Business Analytics / Analytique d’affaires
• User Experience in a Business Context / Expérience utilisateur dans un contexte d’affaires
• Finance / Finance
• Financial Engineering / Ingénierie financière
• Commerce électronique (only in French)
• Ressources humaines (only in French)

“We are very proud of this agreement, which will give talented and motivated young students a trans-Atlantic experience combining a cutting-edge field in which HEC Montréal is known worldwide, such as Global Supply Chain Management, with one of the world’s top Management programs, at ESCP,” said Federico Pasin.

Learning about business cultures in Europe and in Quebec

HEC Montréal students enrolled in this program will do their first term in Montréal, before completing two terms at one of the ESCP Europe campuses in Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris or Turin.

ESCP students, for their part, will do the first year of their Master’s in Europe, and then come to HEC Montréal the next fall to complete their program in their chosen specialization.

The first HEC Montréal cohort will be landing in Europe in January 2019, while the first ESCP students will arrive in Montréal in fall 2019.

Another attractive advantage for students enrolled in this dual degree program is that they will pay the tuition and registration fees of their home institution, and only the registration fees at the other school.

The Institut d’entrepreneuriat Banque Nationale – HEC Montréal (IEBN) has finalized a series of agreements with leading entrepreneurship promoters in France. The agreements were signed or announced in Paris during the economic mission to France led by Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, from March 5 to 8.

Partnership with Ubisoft

Quebec and French companies with high growth potential in video gaming and electronic entertainment will be able to benefit from a partnership agreement between the IEBN and Ubisoft, the French giant in creating, publishing and distributing video games and interactive services.

Young digital firms in Quebec that receive the support of both partners will be able to join a coaching program specially designed for startups in the gaming and entertainment sector, managed by Ubisoft at Station F. Described as the world’s biggest startup campus, Station F opened in Paris in June 2017.

At the same time, young French entrepreneurs from the Ubisoft program at Station F will be able to take advantage of a landing pad at HEC Montréal. There they’ll receive IEBN support to help them optimize their commercial development potential and enter the Quebec, Canadian and North American markets.

Alliances with Blue Factory and Paris&Co

The Accélérateur program of the National Bank – HEC Montréal entrepreneurship institute (IEBN) also signed an agreement with Blue Factory, the incubator at the ESCP Europe business school. The two parties agreed to collaborate on supporting the entrepreneurs in their respective programs, by giving them reciprocal access to their premises and business networks.

A similar agreement was reached between the National Bank – HEC Montréal accelerator program and Paris&Co, the city’s economic development and innovation agency. Once again, firms supported by the two organizations will have access to premises and landing pads.

Scholarships for student entrepreneurs

The trade mission was also an opportunity to announce agreements with some financial partners, to provide scholarships for entrepreneurs from the Accélérateur program.

The Paris office of the National Bank of Canada will be awarding $5,000 scholarships to two HEC Montréal students who intend to launch businesses in France and on the European market after completing the Accélérateur program.

HEC Montréal and Canadian NPO Mitacs also announced scholarships for Quebec startups looking for internships in incubators abroad. Four $5,000 scholarships, two of them funded by Mitacs and two by HEC Montréal, will help to cover the expenses of four business representatives during internships lasting 4 to 16 weeks.

HEC Montréal has been selected to take part in a project with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), giving students in programs with a finance specialization access to internships with various airlines. The School has just signed an agreement with IATA for this purpose.

Last fall, IATA launched a call for applications to a limited group of 56 universities around the world, to attract the top talent to jobs in finance in the air transportation industry. HEC Montréal is one of 10 institutions selected.

The paid internships will last from 2 to 11 months, in the finance departments of IATA member airlines. The association has 280 members in all, in 120 countries, representing 83% of total world air traffic.

“It’s an opportunity for our students to have high-quality internships with established employers, in a very competitive industry,” says Guy Benoît, Director of Customized Business Services at HEC Montréal, who piloted the School’s application for this program. He notes that many of these internships will be in other countries, giving students valuable international experience.

The agreement with IATA will last five years, and HEC Montréal will offer from 5 to 10 prospective candidates every year.

Once again, HEC Montreal’s MBA has distinguished itself in CEO Magazine’s 2017 Global MBA Rankings. According to the magazine, the School is in the first tier of the best institutions in North America offering an MBA program.

This year, CEO Magazine received data from more than 270 MBA and EMBA programs being offered in business schools throughout North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, as well as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

The global performance of these institutions was determined according to various criteria, among which were quality of the faculty (worth almost 35% of the performance benchmark), international diversity, class size, accreditation, faculty to student ratio, and price.

HEC Montréal was not participating in this year’s rankings for its EMBA McGill-HEC Montréal program.

The HEC Montréal team came in second in the overall rankings of the Happening Marketing, the most important interuniversity marketing event in Eastern Canada. The competition was held at the School on March 16, 17 and 18.

This year, the 25th edition of the Happening Marketing brought together 10 universities, 400 participants, and included more than 10 partner companies.

Competitors measured themselves in four categories: participation/contribution, sports, social and academics which consisted in proposing solutions for 7 case studies using marketing tools and knowledge.

HEC Montréal Delegation Podium Finishes

Delegation Members by Discipline

Brand Activation: Gabrielle Lallier, Élisabeth Mac Neil, Stéphanie Llewellyn
Coaches : Charles-Ely Legris et Bertrand Sinniger 

B2B: Marianne Gélinas, Yi Hui Qin, Vincent Collard-Tremblay
Coaches: Clément Leclerc and Aymerick Freymond 

Surprise Case: Manon Caudrelier, Stéphanie Llewellyn, Léah Bardo
Coaches: Laura Manzi et Valentin Roux-Dufort 

Contract: Claudia Trudeau (named Most Valuable Player (MVP)), Caroline Lavado, Zoé Létourneulx, Laurence Landry-Leduc
Coaches : Jean-François St-Pierre, Mathilde Fresne and Sylvie Lefort 

Digital: Manon Caudrelier, Christophe Grimard, Hugo Jeanbourquin (MVP)
Coach: Anne-Marie Boisvert 

Participation: Sarah Nadeau, Josée-Ann Bellehumeur, Samuel Marcil, Hamza Ghernati, Élizabeth Fontaine, Léah Bardo

Quiz: Charles Gagnon, Alexandrine Pilon, Thomas Lachance
Coaches: Flavie Sumu et Anne-Frédérique Tremblay 

Social: Élizabeth Coutu, Étienne Fournier, Oumaima Tahiri, Mika Beauchamp
Coach: Florence Langlois 

Sports – Quidditch: Robin Houenoussi (MVP), Antoine Vézina, Philippe Lachance, Philippe Charest, Tanya Nadeau, Jessica Rousseau, Arielle Paquette, Caroline Moreau
Coach: Joël Carpentier

Strategy: Marianne Veilleux, Audrey Bond, Thomas Côté Parent
Coaches: René Gendreau et Anne-Frédérique Tremblay

Coordinator: Laura Manzi

Ambassador: Valentin Roux-Dufort

For the third year in a row, the delegation was accompanied by Jean-François St-Pierre, Student Community Relations Director

Organizing Committee

Several HEC Montréal alumni and students helped organize the 2018 edition of the Happening Marketing. Worth saluting are the contributions of the following committee members:

• Benjamin Goldfarb, President
• Elodie Payet, Executive Vice-President
• Fred Buffaras, Vice-President, Communications
• Camille Vermette and Nicolas Lachance, Vice-Presidents, Academics
• Simon Thellend, Vice-President, Sports
• Benoit Chagnon, Vice-President, Participation
• Edith Champagne, Vice-President, Sponsors
• Audrée Archambault, Vice-President, Logistics
• Samuel Cormier, Vice-President, Events
• Joachim Simard (Université de Sherbrooke alumnus), Vice-President, Social
• Romain Pourchon, Treasurer

Full Professor Gilbert Laporte was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Université de Liège, Belgium, in recognition of the quality of his work. The insignia were conferred on behalf of His Majesty the King of the Belgians and of the Government of the French Community in Belgium, during a ceremony in Liège on March 24.

This honorary doctorate is Professor Laporte’s second, as he was awarded a similar distinction in 2016 by the Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands.

Gilbert Laporte is an internationally recognized expert in operational research and decision science. In July 2017, he was proclaimed the world’s most prolific and influential research author in these fields by Omega – The International Journal of Management Science (see news, July 19, 2017).

Gilbert Laporte directs or is affiliated with many research centres, notably as:

• holder of the Canada Research Chair in Distribution Management at HEC Montréal;
• member of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT);
• and founding member of the Group for Research in Decision Analysis (GERAD).

He has also been a member of the Royal Society of Canada since 1998 and a fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) since 2005.

He has received numerous awards and distinctions over the course of his career, including:

• Prix d’excellence FRQNT 2016-2017 du Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT)
• Ranked among the 1040 most cited researchers in the world according to their h index and Google Scholar Citations (2016) public profiles
• Lifetime Achievement in Location Analysis from INFORMS (2014)
• Pierre Laurin Award (2012)
• Robert M. Herman Lifetime Achievement Award in Transportation Science from INFORMS (2009)
• Gérard Parizeau Award (2009)
• The Royal Society of Canada Innis-Gérin Medal (2007)
• HEC Montréal Grand Prize for Teaching Excellence (2001)

Mr. Laporte received a doctorate (PhD) in operational research at the London School of Economics in 1975 and has been a professor at HEC Montréal since 1976.

He is the author and coauthor of 19 books and over 500 scientific articles in combinatorial optimization, mostly in areas dealing with vehicle routing, location and scheduling.

The Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, the Honourable Patricia A. Hajdu, visited HEC Montréal on March 26 for a discussion with the HEC Montréal community and the public on a variety of subjects, including jobs of the future.

This theme is also the focus of the G7 ministerial meeting being hosted by Minister Hajdu and Navdeep Singh Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, in Montréal on March 27 and 28.

This meeting with the Minister at HEC Montréal, an initiative of the National Bank | HEC Montréal Entrepreneurship Institute, took the form of a conversation moderated by Catherine Beaucage, an advisor with the Deschênes – Molson – Lesage Family Business Centre of the HEC Montréal Entrepreneurship Hub.

Members of the public who attended the meeting at the National Bank Amphitheatre were also free to ask questions.

Part of the discussion was devoted to recent innovations, in particular technological ones, and their impact on the labour market and jobs of the future. Minister Hajdu presented her vision of how we can better respond as a society to these changes, and turn them into opportunities for success.

She also spoke about the challenges facing future workers—including students—and women, entrepreneurs and newcomers, and ways of eliminating obstacles for them.

In concluding the forum, HEC Montréal Director Michel Patry pointed out the important role played by students during this time of change. He also emphasized the crucial role of universities and an institution such as HEC Montréal as a vector of innovation for Canada.

HEC Montréal is very pleased with the announcement by Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitão in his 2018–2019 Quebec Economic Plan, tabled on March 27, calling for a 5.9% increase in university funding.

 “The Quebec government has shown the value it places on the Quebec university network. The budget gives universities more means to play a key role in transforming the Quebec economy and our society in the coming years,” said Michel Patry, Chair of the Bureau de la coopération interuniversitaire Board and Director of HEC Montréal.

The new amounts allocated to universities include:

• $173 million for 2018–2019, to update university funding and finance the increase in operating costs and costs associated with rising enrolment.
• $282 million over five years under the Quebec Infrastructures Plan.
• $187 million over five years under the digital action plan for CEGEPs and universities.
• $20 million for the Fonds de recherche du Québec.
• $15 million annually over five years for the fourth practicum for future teachers.
• More financial aid for students.

In its strategy for supporting the development of small and medium-sized businesses and Quebec expertise in artificial intelligence, the province will be supporting business accelerators and incubators, including HEC Montréal’s NextAI and CDL-Montréal projects. These two initiatives will receive $10 million in funding over five years.

Also, $60 million from the Quebec government will be added to federal funding for different projects supported by the SCALE.AI AI-powered supply chain supercluster, of which HEC Montréal is a partner university.

Gabrielle Lallier, Elizabeth Coutu, Élisabeth Mac Neil, Cassandra Fikler and Stéphanie Leverdier.

A BBA student team from HEC Montréal was crowned winner of a design thinking academic competition held in British Columbia from April 3 to 7.

Elizabeth Coutu, Cassandra Flicker, Gabrielle Lallier and Élisabeth Mac Neil won the Royal Roads Design Thinking Challenge, the first edition of a competition organized by Royal Roads University, in Victoria.

Design thinking is an innovation management approach calling for co-creation. Users are consulted frequently about the proposed solution throughout the process.

The teams, from 8 universities and colleges across Canada, had to come up with solutions to cases based on actual problems experienced in the city of Victoria. In keeping with the spirit of design thinking, the teams were allowed and even encouraged to consult and share ideas with each other.

The first round was held online, from February 19 to March 20, 2018. Each team produced and shared a video outlining their solution to the challenge put forward by Victoria’s Mayor: to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips.

The participating teams and judges then had a few days to watch and comment on each other’s videos. When they got to Victoria, in April, the competitors had to be ready to deliver a reworked and enhanced solution.

In the second round, conducted on-site, they had to come up with a strategy to reduce seniors’ reliance on cars. To do so, participants consulted with target users and explored the city’s transit system for themselves.

In addition to taking first prize, the HEC Montréal team won the BC Design Collective Insight Award, voted on by all participants, to recognize the team that was most open to sharing information with others.

Stéphanie Leverdier coached and travelled to Victoria with the team for this competition.