Three JMSB Recipients Among Concordia Sustainability Champions

March 12, 2010 - Congratulations to JMSB’s Shelly Elsliger, Kelly Laidlaw and Raymond Paquin.  On Wednesday March 10, 2010, the three were among the Concordia Sustainability Champions recognized at the inaugural Sustainability Awards Gala hosted by President Judith Woodsworth and Sustainable Concordia.  Provost and Vice-President of Concordia University David Graham, Vice-President Services Michael Di Grappa and respective nominators presented the awards to the recipients.  Shelly was introduced by Gerry Hughes, Director of Career Management Services.  Kelly was introduced by fellow MBA students Rina Albala and Chantal Forgues.  Raymond Paquin was introduced by his colleague Judith Walls. The event closed with a speech by Paul Shrivastava, Director of the David O'Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise. Dr. Shrivastava commended the drive and passion for sustainability at Concordia and remarked that a carbon-free university may be a potential future goal for the Concordia community.

About the Award Recipients from JMSB

Shelly Elsliger is a Career Advisor at JMSB’s Career Management Services. She sits on the board of Sustainable Concordia and act as an advisor to the John Molson Sustainability Group (JSG).  She serves as Editor of Sustainable Scoop -a monthly newsletter dedicated to providing information on sustainable events, development and awareness, training and workshops, networking and career development for the Concordia student community.  Shelly is Co-managing the implementation of The JMSB Sustainable Internship Program along with the David O'Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise.  Shelly recently obtained her Canadian Environmental Practitioner Training certificate (CEPIT).

Kelly Laidlaw, an MBA student,  is the current Vice-President Sustainability for the John Molson Sustainable Business Group (JSG).  As the JSG VP, Sustainability, Kelly made tremendous efforts to ensure that the John Molson MBA International Case Competition was a sustainable event.  The competition was held at Queen Elizabeth Hotel and Kelly developed systems for the hotel to change their regular meal offerings, waste disposal methods and several other logistical aspects.  Through her efforts towards a paperless event, the competition's daily bulletins, results and other communication were broadcast via monitors in the hotel and other online communication tools.  She also researched and secured sponsorship from sustainable sources.  Kelly is also the Communication Officer for the Concordia international Community Outreach Program (iCOP), a program that encourages graduate students to transfer their business knowledge, skills and experience to help improve capacity and reduce poverty in the developing world .

Raymond Paquin is an Assistant Professor in the Management department. He recently developed a new sustainable strategy MBA course and revamped an undergraduate course in Business and Environment.  These efforts have paid off: students have praised his courses as the best ever and leaving them wanting more courses on the topic.  Raymond also serves as faculty advisor for the Concordia International Community Outreach Program (iCOP) which sends MBA students into emerging economies to develop community-level sustainable business opportunities within a given locale, and 'InProspect', a new student-run sustainability program in JSG.  He also speaks regularly at conferences related to sustainability.  Raymond’s own research and work focuses on sustainability consulting in the US and Canada, interorganizational relationships related to the natural environment and sustainability, and sustainability audits and analysis.