Meet Ivey’s MBA Class Of 2024

GROUNDED IN THE CASE METHOD

Now, the Class of 2024 has entered into the most exciting part of the Ivey curriculum: Field Projects. Running from September-November, Field Projects enable MBAs to gain hands-on experience in a variety of industries and functions. Long a pioneer in experiential learning, Ivey MBAs have completed over 4,000 projects across 70 years. That includes more recent partnerships with firms like Accenture, Ericsson, General Motors, and IBM. Overall, students work in six-member teams and complete 600 hours of strategic consulting experience. Along the way, they build on their strengths in critical thinking, project management, data analysis, and teamwork.

Along with the Field Project, case studies rank among the signature experiences of the Ivey MBA. During the year-long program, students can expect to cover over 300 cases. That means analyzing over 300 companies facing over 300 different issues. Even more, it means tapping into the wide-ranging experiences of 150 professionals who’ve worked in a variety of organizations, functions, and cultures.

Call it a simulation, where each student plays the role of a protagonist – often a CEO. Each class, Ivey MBAs hone their abilities to size up situations, conduct research, separate the critical from the incidental, and construct holistic solutions (and defend them before classmates who often arrive at very different conclusions). In the process, students learn to operate with incomplete and unreliable data, knowing outcomes are rarely certain and tradeoffs are often necessary.

“This method puts you in the driver’s seat and allows you to test your ideas in a place without consequences for taking the “wrong” turn,” writes Arthur Bronzim. “This gives you confidence, enhances your communication skills, and pushes your problem-solving abilities to a new level. It’s like a medical student using autopsy to understand and discuss what happens to the human body in a given situation; or, in a lighter illustration, it’s like living a different career in each class with the “restart the mission” option available.”

AN INTERVIEW WITH ADAM FREMETH

What can Ivey MBAs expect in the coming year? This summer, P&Q reached out to Adam Fremeth, MBA Program Faculty Director. Here are his thoughts on the state of the Ivey MBA in an exclusive interview.

P&Q: What have been the two most important developments in your MBA program over the past year? What type of impact will they have on current and future MBAs?

Fremeth: “Ivey was one of the first MBA programs to welcome Ukrainian exchange students seeking to continue their studies that were disrupted by the war. We recently graduated 8 students from Kyiv and Lviv and welcomed more Ukrainian students into the 2024 Class. This is an example of an initiative where we are building a culture that demonstrates empathy for others and reaches out to support those whose educational journey has been disrupted and is central to Ivey’s focus on building global citizens.

The Ivey MBA Program’s capstone activities have been refreshed to develop leaders that can tackle the critical issues facing business today. The 2024 class will drill into the challenges and opportunities in commercializing cutting-edge sustainable technologies that can both combat climate change and build resilient economies in rural communities.”

P&Q: Give us your one-minute pitch for your business school. What makes you unique?

Fremeth: “As a 12-month case-based program, Ivey’s MBA is an immersive experience that allows students to turn concepts into decisions, knowledge into action, and ideas into change. The program is structured around a set of Leadership Essentials, which sharpens decision-making skills through hundreds of cases and other real-life exercises. The in-class experience is coupled with a top-ranked career management team that rapidly prepares students to re-enter the job market and positions them for long-term professional and personal success.

P&Q: Sustainability has emerged as a major attraction to prospective MBA students. How does your full-time MBA program integrate sustainability across its curriculum?

Fremeth: “As an early leader in sustainability research and responsible management education, Ivey has been at the vanguard of integrating these themes throughout our MBA program. The program’s Long-Term Prosperity course embeds sustainability in each of the 10 core classes through a novel co-teaching approach that couples our core faculty with a Sustainability Professor. This course builds on the Capstone activities, which engage students in a live business challenge that is focused on sustainability issues, such as the commercialization of sustainable energy technologies.”

P&Q: What are some key elements in your teaching of leadership? What types of options does your school offer that deepens student experience with leadership and makes them more competitive in the marketplace?

Fremeth: “For the past two decades, Ivey has been at the forefront in developing the concept of character-based leadership that moves beyond the competencies of what a manager can do to understand how character shapes what managers could do given the situation. Thought leaders at Ivey’s Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership engage with MBA students throughout the program, including a Leadership Day that immerses students in the Leader Character perspective. Such co-curricular experiences familiarize students with novel elective leadership offerings, such as Leadership Under Fire, which aims to stretch students mentally, physically, and emotionally. The course features Ivey faculty, current and former members of the Canadian Forces, and business executives.”

P&Q: Two years ago, P&Q asked you to share how you’ve integrated AI, STEM, analytics, and digital disruption into your programming. Since then, what types of enhancements have you made in these areas?

Fremeth: “The Ivey MBA program has introduced a series of new electives over the past few years that allows our students to delve into these topic areas. For instance, Technology & Humanity is an elective that asks students whether technological advances and disruptions enhance our well-being and what managers can do as they struggle with the social change that comes with digital disruption. Similarly, our suite of analytics courses, including classes like Competing with Analytics and Social Media Analytics & Digital Marketing, equips our MBA students with the cutting-edge tools needed for the demands of today’s job market.”

P&Q: How many courses outside the business school can MBAs take during your program? To what extent has your business school embraced coursework from other schools and departments at your university? Are students from other schools and departments at the university allowed to take MBA electives?

Fremeth: “Western University is a large, comprehensive university and our MBA students are able to request to take graduate courses across campus. The nature of the program, however, can make it a challenge given the one-year program. No students from other schools, other than approved exchange students, are permitted to take MBA courses.”

P&Q: What is your biggest student-run event of the year and what does it reflect about your school?

Fremeth: “Ivey Social Impact Day is a real highlight of the year, where students take a pause from their studies to work with charitable organizations and give back to our local community. This student-led initiative that pairs students with social and environmental organizations is closely tied to Ivey’s purpose: Inspiring leaders for a sustainable and prosperous world. The experience gained through Social Impact Day lets students learn first-hand how they can make a difference within their communities and around the world.”

5 REASONS TO CHOOSE IVEY

1) One Year MBA: “In my case, being a one-year program was extremely important. I understand the pros of the two-year option and the more intense approach of the one-year. However, having the option of “stopping” my career for one year ended up being better for me financially – since I could cut by half my cost-of-living expenditures, particularly since I had already spent two years in the MsC.”
Arthur Bronzim (’24)

2) Reputation: “What truly influenced my decision to choose Ivey Business School was its remarkable legacy. Over the past 100 years, Ivey has consistently produced world-class business leaders across diverse industries. This legacy of nurturing successful professionals and empowering them to make a significant impact in the business world was of utmost importance to me. I wanted to be part of a community that values excellence, fosters leadership, and provides a platform to shape a successful and impactful career.”
Prateek Bindal (’24)

3) Case Method: “The case method has been an incredibly enriching experience that has exceeded my expectations. It provides us with real-life examples of various challenges faced by businesses across different industries, allowing us to make decisions in a safe learning environment. In the real world, a wrong decision could be detrimental to a business. In the classroom, we have the freedom to explore different solutions and learn from our mistakes, which equips us to handle similar problems in the future more effectively. Additionally, the case method encourages engaging class discussions. I am continually amazed by the breadth of experiences and knowledge my classmates bring to the table. Listening to their perspectives and opinions on the cases that we study has been an invaluable part of the learning process.”
Josée Morell (’24)

4) Social Impact Days: “One of the most memorable traditions we have at Ivey is our Social Impact Days. Here, students in the MBA cohort step away from the rigors of business school in order to volunteer with local non-profit organizations and give back to the London community. Immersing ourselves in these non-profits, we as business students are reminded of the immense privilege we have, as well as the duty we owe as future business leaders to continue to aid society.

In our latest full day, a number of us had the opportunity to volunteer with local non-profit 519Pursuit, an organization that aims to support and reintegrate community members facing poverty and homelessness through a friendship-based approach. On that stormy winter day, we delivered warm meals, blankets, and clothes and chatted with some of these community members – an experience that was eye opening and incredibly humbling; a day I hope to never forget.”
Ramsey Andary (’23)

5) Community: “My first level of contact with the recruiting team was highly engaging and totally interesting because of the empathetic human feelings that I received from the recruiting team and the alumni network. When I was applying, I was heavily pregnant and so preoccupied with lots of other stuff that I abandoned my application mid-way due to the accumulated stress from the GMAT, the essays, and the interview preparations. Aimee Froude reached out to me after seeing from the back end that my application had no traction for a while, which gave me the boost and motivation I needed to complete the application. She gave me options and linked me up with alumni who were once in my shoes; I was encouraged and had people I could count on during the process. I felt a sense of community to which I would be proud to belong, and this was a big deal to me.”
Eniola Makanjuola (’24)

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergraduate Alma Mater	Last Employer
Faizan Ahmad	Ranchi, India	Hult International Business School	TISX Capital Advisors
Prateek Bindal	Chandigarh, India	Panjab University	CIBC Bank
Arthur Bronzim	Sao Paulo, Brazil	University of St. Andre Foundation	National Association of the Tire Industry (ANIP)
Ronald Edward	Mississauga, Ontario	University of Toronto	Loblaw Companies
Giuliana Fonseca	Lima, Peru	Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru	Agemet
Christian Grande	Mississauga, Ontario	University of Toronto	BMO Nesbitt Burns
James Ma	West Bloomfield, MI	University of Michigan	North American Lighting
Eniola Makanjuola	Abuja, Nigeria	University of Ilorin, Kwara State	Deloitte
Josée Morell	Antigonish, Nova Scotia	Dalhousie University	Nova Scotia Health Authority
Apourv Pandey	Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India	Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines)	Coal India Limited
Yesha Shah	Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India	Nirma University of Technology	Salesforce
Jonathan Soriano	Vaughan, Ontario	Western Ontario University	Trento Kia