Professor Georges Dionne is to receive more than $3.6 million to pursue his risk management research, focused mainly on high-frequency trading, the phenomenon of securitization in financial markets and the measurement of liquidity risks.

He was recently awarded $1.9 million in funding from the John R. Evans Leaders Fund of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) (40%), the Quebec government (40%) and private partners (20%) including the National Bank. These grants will allow him to develop the infrastructure required for the new Canada Research Chair in Risk Management research program.

The Chair directed by Professor Dionne was renewed in January 2018, representing an additional $1.4 million in funding.

Lastly, with professors François Bellavance, Philippe d’Astous and Bruno Rémillard of HEC Montréal, and Manuel Morales of the Université de Montréal, Professor Dionne obtained $340,000 from the Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO) and Intact Assurance in order to launch new research into artificial intelligence. The research will apply to high-frequency trading, detection of insurance fraud, and optimal insurance ratemaking in the presence of asymmetrical information.

This week, HEC Montréal announced that it is creating a Research Chair in Work Team Management and Effectiveness, to be held by Professor Caroline Aubé of the Department of Management. In doing so the School is looking to strengthen its leadership in this dynamic field of research, viewed as important by both the professional and scientific communities.

“Given the unprecedented competition that many organizations are facing, creating effective work teams is more than ever a vector of innovation, agility and organizational performance,” says Professor Aubé. “This new Chair will help HEC Montréal position itself strategically in this research field.”

The Chair’s activities will focus on three main areas:

• Teams and multi-team systems in crisis situations
• Project management teams
• Teams and governance

These will be combined with three cross-disciplinary themes, centred on studying teams’ effectiveness:

1. Team operations (behavioural, cognitive and affective processes)
2. Management practices and leadership styles
3. The organizational environment and technology

Jordan Di Corpo, Marianne Veilleux, Kaileigh Hamilton-Browne, Marie-Laurence Laroche and René Gendreau.

The HEC Montréal BBA student delegation took 2^nd place in the 10-hour case at the RSM Star Case Competition, one of two parts of the event held in Rotterdam from April 15 to 22. Twelve university teams, from all over the world took part in this year’s competition.

The team of Jordan Di Corpo, Kaileigh Hamilton-Browne, Marie-Laurence Laroche and Marianne Veilleux, coached by Professor René Gendreau, had 10 hours to prepare and present a solution aimed at minimizing litter in the Netherlands to NederlandSchoon, a Dutch NGO.

The School’s students came up with a three-pronged strategy to digitize the company’s activities using an app, to help get their message across and encourage people to pitch in and keep the environment litter-free.

HEC Montréal highlighted the achievements of 1,046 undergraduate students at the convocation ceremony held on Monday, April 30, 2018, at the Théâtre Maisonneuve, Place des Arts. Of the total, 733 graduates attended the ceremony, accompanied by their guests.

Two ceremonies took place: the first at 10 a.m., for the French and trilingual stream cohorts, and the second at 3 p.m., for the bilingual stream cohort.

The Secretary General Federico Pasin served as Master of Ceremonies for both events.

Among the dignitaries present were Michel Patry, HEC Montréal Director, Hélène Desmarais, Chair of the Board of Directors, Éric Filtreau, Vice-Rector of Finance and Infrastructure, Université de Montréal, as well as Louise Béliveau, Vice-Rector of Student and Academic Affairs, Université de Montréal.

Congratulations to all the new graduates!

Videos of the two ceremonies are available on YouTube.

Watch the full 10 a.m. ceremony.

Watch the full 3 p.m. ceremony.

Pierre Des Marais, winner of the 2018 Cultural Management Award

Pierre Des Marais

Pierre Des Marais was chosen by the jury for “his lengthy career wholly devoted to creating and performing contemporary dance. Thanks to his ability to manage teams and build partnerships, he has supported the growth of some of the most innovative dance companies in Quebec and all of Canada. As the head of Danse Danse for nearly 20 years, he has developed a market that now reaches 45,000 people every year, making Montréal a vital hub of international contemporary dance.”

A fruitful career

• He began his career as a dancer with the Anna Wyman Dance Theatre company in Vancouver, from 1970 to 1981, before becoming its Tour Director from 1981 to 1987.
• In 1987, he became Executive Director of the Karen Jamieson Dance Company, also in Vancouver.
• He returned to Montréal in 1990, as Executive Producer of La La La Human Steps, and guided the creation of Édouard Lock’s famous piece, Human Sex.
• From 1992 to 1995, he was Executive Director of the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault.
• Along with his management work, from 1992 to 1996 he served as Associate Producer for three editions of the Dance Canada Festival in Ottawa.
• From 1996 to 2000, he headed up the Compagnie Marie Chouinard in Montréal. His most notable accomplishment during this time was in 1998, when he and Clothilde Cardinal cofounded Les Productions LOMA, the organization that produced the Danse Danse series.
• In 2000, he devoted himself full-time to Danse Danse, serving as its Executive Co-Director and Artistic Co-Director for 15 years.
• Since 2015, he has been the Executive Director and Artistic Co-Director of Danse Danse, the leading contemporary dance company in Canada.

Pierre Fortier, winner of the 2018 Cultural Management Award

Pierre Fortier

In presenting the Cultural Management Award to Pierre Fortier, the jury praised “his exceptional commitment to promoting song in Quebec and throughout French Canada. Drawing on his experience as a communicator and producer, his knowledge of the media and his ability to rally a whole artistic and regional community, he succeeded, in the midst of the transition to digital, in propelling the Festival international de la chanson de Granby to new heights.”

An exemplary career

• In 1989, after earning his Bachelor’s in Communication from UQAM, Pierre Fortier launched his career by creating Les Productions Girafe, an agency for Acadian musicians.
• In 1999, he co-ordinated the cultural portion of the Sommet de la Francophonie in Moncton.
• In 2000, he became Executive Director of Coup de cœur francophone and Artistic Director and Director of International Development for Diffusion YFB.
• In 2003, the Radio-Canada radio network put him in charge of developing song, worldbeat music and jazz.
• In 2007, he became the Executive Director and Artistic Director of the Festival international de la chanson de Granby. Since then attendance at the Festival has rocketed from 4,000 to 55,000, while the number of employees has tripled and private and public investment has increased tenfold. Thanks to major media partnerships and innovative initiatives, he has boosted the event’s profile in Quebec, across Canada and in Europe.
• In 2015, he was made a member of the Ordre des francophones d’Amérique.

Photo : Stéphan Poulin

The 2018 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking placed Montréal high on the list again this year, among the top places to study in the world. The 2018 QS Best Student Cities ranking, published on May 9 on the TopUniversities site, calls Montréal the best student city in North America, and the best in the world for the student experience.

What does this mean? Montréal offers the best university experience, in the opinions of the 50,000 students and alumni surveyed. Our city maintained its popularity with students, in particular for its attractiveness – architecture, green spaces, etc. – and its affordability, multiculturalism and vibrant arts scene, not to mention its high-quality universities.

Overall, Montréal came in 4^th worldwide this year, behind London (1^st), Tokyo (2^nd) and Melbourne (3^rd).

QS conducts an annual ranking of the world’s 100 best student cities, out of the 489 candidates. The ranking is based on 6 criteria measuring different important considerations for future students:

• student experience
• student mix
• ranking of its universities
• desirability
• employer activity
• cost of living and tuition fees

Watch the video by Montréal International on our city’s ranking.

Pauline Faivre, Caroline Giroux-Huppé, Anne Bourhis, Lamiae Senhaji and Marianne Frigault.
Photo: HEC Montréal Competitions Committee

A team of Master’s-level students representing HEC Montréal pulled off a brilliant success in the International Graduate Competition, held in Montréal from April 28 to May 3, 2018.

The School’s delegation of Pauline Faivre, Marianne Frigault, Caroline Giroux-Huppé and Lamiae Senhaji not only took first place overall, but also won the award for the best written report.

The teams, from all over the world, had 48 hours to solve a multidisciplinary case. This year, they had to come up with a strategy for the city of Montréal to become a “smart city,” taking account of international, technological and financial considerations.

The four winning students were coached by Professor Anne Bourhis (Human Resources), with the support of Professors Jacques Lemay (Finance), Marie-Claude Trudel (Information Technologies) and Gwyneth Edwards (International Business), as well as alumna Valérie Grenier-Paquette (MSc 2016), who had herself taken part in this competition before.

On Friday, May 11, the School saluted the achievements of its MBA and EMBA McGill–HEC Montréal graduates, at the convocation ceremony in its Hydro-Québec atrium.

There are 75 graduates from the full-time program and 66 from the part-time program in the 2018 MBA cohort. In addition, 45 students successfully completed the EMBA program this year.

A total of 164 of the 186 graduates attended the ceremony, led by HEC Montréal Secretary General Federico Pasin.

MBA Program Director and EMBA Academic Director Louis Hébert took the opportunity to congratulate Jason Annahatak, second recipient of the First People’s Scholarship for managers of Indigenous origin, on his success in the EMBA program. Mr. Annahatak is Director, Post-Secondary Student Services for the Kativik School Board.

Antoine Lapointe, a Bachelor’s in Business Administration (BBA) program graduate, has won a Governor General’s Silver Academic Medal. He was selected as one of three undergraduate recipients from the Université de Montréal and its affiliated schools, for his excellent grades and his involvement in student life.

This is the most prestigious award students at a Canadian school can receive. It will be officially presented to him on June 1, 2018, at the Université de Montréal PhD graduation ceremony.

A few highlights from Antoine Lapointe’s BBA studies

• GPA of 4.29 out of 4.3
• Twice made the BBA Honour Roll, with the highest grades in his year
• Winner of several scholarships, including the Jean-Louis Mercier Scholarship, awarded to the top two Finance students, and the Pierre Mantha Scholarship, in recognition of his contribution to the School’s reputation
• Head of the event organization team for the Association internationale des étudiants en sciences économiques et commerciales (AIESEC) in his first year
• Competition consultant and director, and then President, of the Club de consultation en management (CCM), for which he also helped organize an interuniversity case competition
• 11 inter-university competitions, including 3 international ones, finishing with a 1^st place in New Zealand and a 2^nd place in Toronto
• Competitive water polo player for 11 years. His team won the Quebec championship 2 years running. During an exchange with the National University of Singapore in winter 2017, he joined the water polo team there and won the national championship.

A campaign is now underway to highlight the contribution of the city’s universities to Greater Montreal. Developed in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM), the “10 together” campaign is intended to show the importance of our universities in Montrealers’ daily lives in the areas of innovation, research, economic development and culture.

Ten universities are taking part in the campaign. In addition to HEC Montréal, they are the École de technologie supérieure, the École nationale d’administration publique, Polytechnique Montréal, the Institut national de recherche scientifique, Concordia University, the Université de Montréal, the Université de Sherbrooke (Longueuil campus), the Université du Québec à Montréal and McGill University.

Ads featuring an “I love Montréal’s brains” logo have been posted in several metro stations since May 14.

The 10 together website also showcases 10 innovations, ranging from services to activities and inventions, that we owe to the knowledge and expertise of Montréal university researchers or graduates.

One of these innovations is the result of research by HEC Montréal Professor Jean-François Cordeau and Charly Robinson La Rocca, a Master’s in Management (MSc) – Operations Management graduate. They helped develop an application based on big data processing that has allowed Téo Taxi to serve more customers with the same number of employees (see the news item from May 26, 2017).

The 10 together campaign, with TV and radio host Jean-Philippe Wauthier as spokesman, will continue for several weeks. An installation made up of school desks, designed to boost public awareness and knowledge of the importance of our city’s universities, will be heading to different sites around Montréal starting May 25.

Co-winners of the 2018 Marcel Dagenais Award, Pierre-Carl Michaud and Marine Carrasco.

Pierre-Carl Michaud, a Full Professor in the Department of Applied Economics, was honoured with the Marcel Dagenais Award on May 10 at the 58^th annual congress of the Société canadienne de science économique (SCSE).

He and Marine Carrasco, a Full Professor in the Department of Economics at the Université de Montréal, shared this distinction.

The award recognizes the remarkable contribution of a researcher to economic scientific life in French in Quebec or Canada as a whole, and comes with a cash prize of $6,000 and an SCSE medal. It is awarded every three years by a jury, which studies the candidates’ scientific output over the previous six years.

“Publishing in the field of economics is not easy, so this is welcome recognition. It’s a pleasure to see that our work is appreciated,” said Professor Michaud.

In recent years, he has made a name for himself with his research combining micro-simulation and economic behaviour models. One of his papers, published in 2017 in the Journal of Political Economy, on the topic of financial literacy and wealth inequality, received wide international attention.

Professor Michaud is the second HEC Montréal professor to be accorded this honour, after Georges Dionne in 2012. Professor Dionne had in fact already won the award once before, in 1991, when he was a Professor at the Université de Montréal.

HEC Montréal has received Cabinet approval for its proposed new building in the business district, on the site next to St. Patrick's Basilica. The official announcement was made at the School on May 24^th by the Honourable Hélène David, Minister of Higher Education and Minister responsible for the Status of Women, and by the Honourable Dominique Anglade, Deputy Premier and Minister of Economy, Science and Innovation and Minister responsible for the Digital Strategy.

The Quebec government has confirmed that it will be investing $93.5 million in the new building, out of a total estimated cost of $183.1 million.

“HEC Montréal has earned a stellar reputation. The School is an excellent drawing card for Montréal, attracting and training students from all over the world, many of whom will go on to be agents of change in Quebec and throughout Canada. This financial assistance will let HEC Montréal continue its teaching and research missions and offer facilities better adapted to its clientele,” said Minister David.

The new building, needed given the serious shortage of space at the School, will also be an opportunity to bring HEC Montréal physically closer to the business community at a key time in its history, as fast-moving technological developments are creating both a tremendous demand for training and the need to closely harmonize the labour market and advanced research, particularly in data science and artificial intelligence.

The School’s new presence in the downtown business district will also let it better serve its clientele, since the courses and programs to be offered in the new building are aimed specifically at practising professionals: the School’s MBA programs, certain specialized graduate diplomas and certificates, and training through Executive Education HEC Montréal. The building is to open when students return to classes in fall 2021.

“I’m delighted to know that the School’s new proximity to the business community will improve access for professionals, executives and entrepreneurs to the expertise developed at HEC Montréal,” said Hélène Desmarais, Chair of the HEC Montréal Board of Directors.

“The new building in the heart of the city’s business district is sure to add new vitality to our relations and partnerships with businesses and public organizations. But above all it will be a guarantee of success in this age of digital transformations, when we all have to innovate and rethink the way we do things,” added HEC Montréal Director Michel Patry.

Minister Navdeep Bains and IEBN Director, Luis Cisneros.

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Navdeep Singh Bains, was visiting on May 24 to take part in a discussion with the HEC Montréal community on jobs of the future.

The discussion with Minister Bains took the form of an interview and was led by Luis Cisneros, Director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship National Bank-HEC Montréal. After the discussion, the audience was invited to ask questions.

The Minister set out the course of action to be taken by the Canadian government to face the technological innovations of the past few years. Education and access to continuing education are the core priorities of the federal government’s Innovation and Skills Plan.

The Minister spoke lengthily on Canadian expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and more specifically, on Montréal AI expertise. He underlined the importance of, not only encouraging research in the field, but also supporting the growth of an industry which creates jobs in AI. He said he hopes to continue to work with the industry and the university community to create structures like SCALE.AI, the intelligent supply chain supercluster, on which HEC Montréal is a partner.

Professors Martin Boyer and Pierre-Carl Michaud, flanking Paul Desmarais Jr from Power Corporation, Mélanie Gagnon from the HEC Montréal Foundation and Michel Patry, Director of HEC Montréal.

The Retirement and Savings Institute (RSI) thanked its main financial partner, Power Corporation of Canada, at a recognition event held on May 30 at the School. This was also an opportunity to report on the Institute’s activities and projects, now that it has truly taken off.

Created in 2017 thanks to a major donation from Power Corporation of Canada, the Institute aims to promote cutting-edge research so as to better understand issues related to individuals’ retirement, savings and insurance.

The Institute encourages research in these areas by supporting the work of the two Chairs at the heart of its ecosystem: the Industrial Alliance Research Chair on the Economics of Demographic Change and the Power Corporation Research Chair in Insurance and Pension Plans, created in October 2017. Other research chairs will likely be added in years to come.

HEC Montréal earned very good performance indicators, including 12 “A” scores, in the 2018 U‑Multirank international ranking of universities. Each institution is evaluated using a series of 29 criteria divided into 5 categories:

• teaching and learning
• research
• knowledge transfer
• international orientation
• regional engagement

The School scored particularly high for its international orientation, regional engagement and research.

International orientation

The description of HEC Montréal on the U‑Multirank site emphasizes the international character of its student community. The School earned the maximum score for its student mobility, the percentage of international academic staff (27%), international joint publications (56%) and international doctorate degrees (55%).

Regional engagement

The School was also highly ranked for its engagement in its region. It received an “A” score for the proportion of bachelor and master graduates working in the region, and for the percentage of joint publications with regional partners (41%).

Samir Saissi Hassani and Georges Dionne

Professor Georges Dionne and Samir Saissi Hassani, a Lecturer at the Université de Sherbrooke, have won the award for the best paper published in the past year in the Journal of Operational Risk.

The paper, “Hidden Markov regimes in operational loss data: application to the recent financial crisis,” published in June 2017, was praised for its original approach. It proposed a method to consider business cycles in operational risk data, using the financial crisis in 2007-2009 as an example.

The judges felt that the model described in the paper was very “elegant” and the authors obtained original estimated results using actual data from US banks. The authors showed that their approach made it possible to reduce banks’ regulatory capital for operational risk by 30% – a particularly attractive perspective for US banks, which suffered record losses during the most recent financial crisis.

The authors presented their model to the American Bankers Association in Washington in fall 2016, to representatives of over 60 major banks that develop internal models for calculating regulatory capital.

On June 7, HEC Montréal and the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership announced the creation of the Hub for Data in Culture (Pôle sur les données massives en culture). It is intended to provide expertise and training to Quebec’s cultural enterprises, helping them benefit from the many possibilities opened up by advances in data science and analysis.

The Hub was selected based on a call for proposals resulting from a measure included in Quebec’s Digital Economy Action Plan, produced by the Ministère de l’Économie, de la Science et de l’Innovation. It was named one of Quebec’s 9 centres of digital excellence, and as such will receive $600,000 in government funding over 3 years.

In the fall of 2016, the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership launched a data-sharing initiative in collaboration with members of the Quartier’s cultural sector. In March 2017, HEC Montréal and the Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO) joined the philanthropic data initiative led by AIMIA, a marketing agency, to analyze data from 20 cultural organizations based in the Quartier. Lastly, in June 2017, the Carrefour de philanthropie des données, a project led by IVADO in collaboration with AIMIA and HEC Montréal, was launched by Marketing Professor Renaud Legoux and Decision-Science Professor Marc Fredette. (See the news item from June 13, 2017.)