News
SFU Beedie alumnus turned cookie entrepreneur saw sweet opportunity in pandemic
Aug 9, 2022
When Jessica Nguyen graduated from SFU Beedie in 2020, she had a marketing job lined up at a tech start-up and was ready to join the workforce. But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Like many others, Nguyen lost her job offer—companies were no longer hiring. As it turns out, the pandemic may have been the best thing to happen to Nguyen and her brother, Andy. The two of them are now co-founders of a wildly more »More...
Stepping stones: SFU’s Indigenous Business Leadership EMBA brings Indigenous ways of learning into the business world
Aug 2, 2022
The importance of having Indigenous role models—both for herself and her daughter—is what drew Joanne Stone-Campbell to SFU Beedie’s Indigenous Business Leadership Executive MBA (IBL EMBA) program. Having had negative experiences throughout her school years, she never thought she would have the positive experience that she did in SFU Beedie’s IBL EMBA program—let alone learn from actual Indigenous professors. Stone-Campbell, who is Anishinaabe, grew up on in an isolated First Nations community in northern Ontario more »More...
Industrial waste solutions company founded by SFU Beedie alumni named 2022 Canada’s Sustainability Changemaker
Jul 28, 2022
The planet’s dwindling freshwater supply is a major global 21st century problem—and it’s little surprise, considering it takes 2,700 litres of water just to make one T-shirt. That’s enough water for one person to drink for almost three years. And that’s not considering the environmental impact of processing the wastewater resulting from these industrial productions. In 2015, $9 billion dollars were spent trucking polluted water to holes and pumping it down, a process both costly more »More...
SFU Beedie professor Judith Zaichkowsky honoured among SFU’s 2022 Distinguished Professors
Jul 26, 2022
Judith Zaichkowsky, a professor of marketing at SFU’s Beedie School of Business, has been recognized as a 2022 SFU Distinguished Professor, an honour bestowed on less than four per cent of the SFU professoriate. This year, Zaichkowsky is among only nine exceptional scholars being awarded this designation. As a joint initiative of SFU’s Vice-President, Academic and Provost and the Vice-President, Research and International, the Distinguished SFU Professor program recognizes SFU research faculty members of distinction who have more »More...
SFU Beedie founded Invention to Innovation (i2I) program developing scientist innovators for major international collaboration on spinal cord research
Jul 18, 2022
The quest to repair severed spinal cords has brought together the brightest minds from across institutions and disciplines in a spinal cord injury research program, Mend the Gap, that was recently awarded $24 million in government funding from Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF). SFU Beedie’s Invention to Innovation (i2I) program played a key part in landing this funding for Mend the Gap because the training advances research as well as broadening researcher career more »More...
SFU Beedie alumnus empowers high-school students through educational non-profit
Jul 13, 2022
Growing up, Claire Connop recognized that society places a taboo on many topics around female physical and mental health. We typically don’t talk openly about these topics and our school systems tend to provide little education for girls and young women going through pivotal life changes. She decided to do something about it. Together with co-founders she met in her BUS 477 course at SFU Beedie, Connop co-founded the Glow Within Foundation, a Vancouver-based non-profit more »More...
SFU Beedie alumni Charles Chang and Denise Williams honoured with 2022 Outstanding Alumni Awards
Jul 5, 2022
Simon Fraser University is recognizing two inspiring SFU Beedie alumni, among four SFU alumni, with the 2022 Outstanding Alumni Award: world-class entrepreneur and business mentor, Charles Chang, and trailblazing digital equity advocate for Indigenous peoples, Denise Williams. Our remarkable alumni are making positive impact around the world in fields such as business and philanthropy as well as technological development and community service, and contributing to a brighter, more equitable future for all. Read more about more »More...
SFU Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship and Coast Capital Venture Connection alumnus Kaito Cunningham raises $23m to fund crypto start-up
Jun 22, 2022
Decentralized autonomous organizations, otherwise known as DAOs, are a type of blockchain-based organization without leadership or management that allows for decision-making purely by shareholder voting—think of it like a digital co-operative. But just how does a company that decentralizes a majority of their operations handle payroll, accounting and other basic back office tasks? 23-year-old former SFU Beedie student and SFU Charles Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship alumnus Kaito Cunningham has co-founded a cryptocurrency start-up, Utopia Labs, more »More...
SFU remains Canada’s top university for innovation, rises to number one worldwide for entrepreneurial spirit in global ranking
Jun 17, 2022
Simon Fraser University has ranked once more as Canada’s number one university for innovation and has moved up to number one in the world for entrepreneurial spirit, according to the World’s Universities with Real Impact (WURI) 2022 rankings. The WURI rankings measure how universities contribute to society and highlight creative and innovative approaches to university research and education by evaluating university programs for innovativeness, implementability and impact. “I am so proud of the creativity and more »More...
SFU Beedie professors awarded SSHRC Insight Grant
Jun 16, 2022
SFU Beedie professors Rekha Krishnan, Rajiv Kozhikode have been selected to receive an Insight grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSRHC). The Insight program aims to support and foster excellence in social sciences and humanities research intended to deepen, widen and increase our collective understanding of individuals and societies, as well as to inform the search for solutions to societal challenges. In start-up accelerators, women are not only evaluated alongside men but more »More...