Over the weekend in Ottawa, CME sent its first team to JDC Central (Jeux du Commerce). JDC Central is an annual business case competition featuring top business schools and students from across Ontario and the Maritimes. JDC is now the biggest business case competition in the country (with East, Central and West). Each university sends one team of more than 45 representative students to participate respectively in one of 10 Academic Competitions. Points are awarded and accumulated towards a team being declared "School of the Year". Since it was CME’s first appearance at JDCC, we were only allowed to compete the half-team category.

I am very pleased to report that our team won Half-School of the Year. Our College was led by our co-captains, Chelsea Galoni and Alexis Butty. Their leadership allowed our team to showcase our talents and the Guelph savoir-faire.  They began working on this project in May 2011 and the competition results are evidence of their hard work.

In addition, CME is now JDCC champion in the HR division. Emily Jeffery, Kira Harrison and Conner MacLeod came in first place in the HR category. They were coached by Agnes Zdaniuk from the Department of Business. This certainly is an incredible achievement for them. Many people at the ceremonies were very impressed, including some potential employers.  

Our finance team also brought some "hardware" home. We had a strong performance from our finance team who came in second place overall. Meghan Pohl, Rebecca Fenech and Jenna Whytock were outstanding during their case presentation. Only Rotman did better. These students were coached by Elliott Currie and Sandra Scott from the Department of Business. Again, job well done!

In the end, half of our teams reached the podium in Ottawa over the weekend. We also had teams in marketing and accounting who missed the podium by just a few points. Leanne Foti and Melanie Lang, both from the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies, also provided valuable coaching and support to the entire team.

Wilfrid Laurier was proclaimed School of the Year for the third year in a row. Nonetheless, CME shined in Ottawa and our students left the award ceremony believing that they were as good as any other school. It all bodes well for CME at next year’s competition when we will attempt to win our first School of the Year title.

Congratulations to all involved.

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois
Dean (Acting)
College of Management and Economics
University of Guelph