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Business Innovation Hub to join zone-learning ecosystem

TRSM partners with CIBC Mellon to develop innovative solutions to business problems
January 19, 2017
From left: Aliyah Dawood, fourth-year business technology management student; Arzan Bharucha, manager of advisory councils at TRSM and strategic lead at Business Innovation Hub; and Preyesh Karsan, senior content specialist, Business Development Communications at CIBC Mellon.   Photo by Clifton Li.

Photo: From left: Aliyah Dawood, fourth-year business technology management student; Arzan Bharucha, manager of advisory councils at TRSM and strategic lead at Business Innovation Hub; and Preyesh Karsan, senior content specialist, Business Development Communications at CIBC Mellon.
Photo by Clifton Li.

Ted Rogers School of Management (opens in new window)  (TRSM) and CIBC Mellon (external link, opens in new window)  are collaborating to launch the Business Innovation Hub (BIH)—and transforming the business education experience for university students.

Located at CIBC Mellon, the hub will bring together five Ryerson students (from accounting to environmental biology) and five CIBC Mellon employees. Over the next four months, the team will bring their talents, experiences and enthusiasm to identify key challenges that the financial institution is facing and come up with out-of-the-box, innovative solutions – as equal partners. Along the way, students and employees will hone critical skills needed to achieve career success including problem solving, presentation and relationship-building. These paid positions are a part of the students’ work placements.

“Thanks to the leadership and vision of CIBC Mellon and Senior Vice President Richard Anton, the hub will enable our students to bridge the critical skills gap in today’s work force,” said Steven Murphy, dean of TRSM. “This is a game-changing approach to co-op, and I’m proud of the guidance and dedication that Richard and all of our advisory council members—more than 160 strong—demonstrate to our students and alumni.”

“The Business Innovation Hub will give me a unique opportunity to work with my peers from different programs and with talented business professionals in a creative, fun and collaborative work environment,” said Brendan Corney, a third-year environmental biology co-op student selected by a hiring committee comprising TRSM and CIBC Mellon senior staff. “I firmly believe multi-disciplinary collaboration will become increasingly important in the future – not just in business, but in all sectors.”

“We are discovering ways to innovate in a controlled manner as we seek to further enhance accuracy, operational efficiency and leverage fresh ideas for doing business, in order to unlock great potential and advance our client experience,” said Anton, a member of TRSM’s School of Accounting and Finance advisory council board. “I am excited for the launch of the Business Innovation Hub, which brings together a talented and diverse group of employees and students. I am excited to think about our business in new ways.”

The hub will be a part of the university’s zone-learning (opens in new window)  ecosystem, a unique form of experiential learning at Ryerson. Zone learning enables students to work as part of multi-disciplinary teams to gain first-hand, practical experience to create social change, contribute to a big idea or launch a startup.

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