BBA student facilitates debate among Vancouver’s top CIOs

Beedie School of Business executive-in-residence Dr. Catherine Boivie (left) and BBA student Ellaine Chan.

A Beedie School of Business undergraduate drove debate at a recent gathering of Vancouver’s top CIOs, as they discussed the controversial topic of reselling software licenses under copyright law.

The event, “Advocating the Legalization of
 Reselling Used Software Licenses in Canada”, was hosted by the Program Committee of the CIO Association of Canada’s Vancouver chapter, and held at the Sutton Place Hotel on November 19.

BBA student Ellaine Chan was asked to present her group research paper conducted as part of the course requirement for the BUS 468 Managing IT for Business Value class. During the summer semester the class was taught by Beedie School of Business executive-in-residence Dr. Catherine Boivie, who is also the founding President of the CIO Association of Canada.

For their class project, Chan’s group researched the topic of reselling software licenses and prepared a possible submission to the Canadian government requesting a Canadian ruling on the issue. Boivie was so impressed by their proposal that she arranged for the group to present their findings at the event.

The audience was moved by the comprehensiveness and strong rationale of the group’s research findings, with the presentation sparking some intriguing questions from the assembled industry professionals and committee members during the Q&A session that followed.

“Working with CIOs from companies like Mountain Equipment Co-op, Powerex, Habanero, Ainsworth and Sauder Industries, the students were finding solutions to real life business problems,” said Boivie. “The quality of the paper presented was amazing and a number of students were hired by the organizations for which they did projects. Overall, the students produced excellent work on their class project.”

For more information on The CIO Association of Canada, visit: www.ciocan.ca