Toronto – A full time MBA student from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management has won a Graduate Business Forum (GBF) Leadership Award for her efforts to establish sustainability as a core element within the MBA program
Vanessa Matos Tudela, MBA’19, who is the current president of Rotman Net Impact (RNI), a student club focused on sustainability, received the award last week from the GBF, a global network of current and former student leaders from the world’s top MBA and graduate business programs at a conference in Paris. She was nominated for the award by the Rotman Graduate Business Council.
Matos and her team at Net Impact saw the growing need to ensure sustainability is a deep-rooted part of the Rotman MBA program in both the curriculum and extra-curricular activities.
As a result of her leadership, she and her team were able to launch three initiatives on sustainability.
First, the Rotman MBA program introduced a new elective course focused on Social Value & Impact Investing and a renewed Sustainability Strategy course was offered. A new Sustainable Finance course is planned for the Fall 2019 semester. The introduction of this course was a multi-stakeholder effort led by RNI which included the support and guidance of the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship and Prof. Joseph Milner, the academic director of the Rotman Full Time MBA program.
From left to right: Thierry Michels, member of the French National Assembly; Wieteke Dupain, CEO, Graduate Business Forum; Vanessa Matos Tudela, MBA'19; Jim Deveau, Founder, Graduate Business Forum.
Secondly, Rotman Net Impact organized, with the support of other Rotman student clubs, the inaugural Rotman Sustainability Conference. Held in February, the event featured panel discussions and networking sessions related to sustainability consulting, entrepreneurship & innovation, sustainable finance, and clean energy. Other organizers included the Rotman Energy and Natural Resources Association, Management Consulting Association and the Rotman Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Association.
Thirdly, students in the Social Value & Impact Investing course also participated in the first Rotman Impact Investing Competition. The winning team participates in the finals of the MBA Impact Investing Network & Training (MIINT) program to be held at the Wharton School this weekend.
In addition, RNI also hosts annually Hult Prize @ UofT, a regional qualifying round for the world’s largest student competition for social enterprises, and the A4S International Case Competition. This year was the second edition of the A4SICC, which was conceptualized by The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) and is sponsored by Brookfield Asset Management, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and CPA Canada.
“Vanessa is an inspiring student leader. Her focus and resolve helped the Rotman School leap forward on sustainability. Now, watch her change the world,” says Rod Lohin, Executive Director of the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship at the Rotman School, who led the Social Value & Impact Investing course.
Established in 1983, the Graduate Business Forum is a global non-profit organization dedicated to developing responsible leadership, global citizenship and driving positive change in management education, business and society. Over 100 elected student government leaders and alumni drawn from the top 75 global business schools and MBA programs around the world met in Paris at ESCP Europe Business School campuses from April 2 to 6 to share best practices on student government, global views on responsible leadership and learn from global business and industry leaders.
The Rotman School of Management is part of the University of Toronto, a global centre of research and teaching excellence at the heart of Canada’s commercial capital. Rotman is a catalyst for transformative learning, insights and public engagement, bringing together diverse views and initiatives around a defining purpose: to create value for business and society. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca
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For more information:
Ken McGuffin
Manager, Media Relations
Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto
Voice: 416.946.3818
E-mail: mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca