Left to Right: Weixuan Xue, Adam Prokop, Carter Smith, Lekan Akindele
TORONTO – 14 June 2017 – With trust in the financial markets at an all-time low, now is the time to start building a better financial industry through the next generation. Canadian university students, and champions of the inaugural Canadian Ethics Challenge from Queen’s University Smith School of Business are up to the task!
“It is a great honour to be associated with the efforts of CFA Institute towards promoting the highest standards of ethical practice and professional excellence. It is particularly exciting and fulfilling to have accomplished this as flag-bearers of the Queen’s University Smith School of Business, which has been at the forefront of promoting business innovation with an ethical culture in Canada.” said Queen’s University Smith School of Business team member, Lekan Akindele.
On 1 June 2017, three finalist student teams from Canadian universities competed in the first Canadian Ethics Challenge Finals in Toronto. The champion team from Queen’s University Smith School of Business included esteemed students: Lekan Akindele, Adam Prokop, Carter Smith and Weixuan Xue. Each student on the winning team was awarded a one thousand-dollar prize in acknowledgement of their achievement.
“The Canadian Ethics Challenge is a great way to showcase the importance of ethics in the investment profession to the next generation of investment and finance professionals. All three teams gave excellent presentations that exemplified their understanding of the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice in a real-world scenario that included identifying issues with investment suitability, which is very topical today. All teams were very well prepared and gave detailed explanations of the violations of the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards, which gave judges the difficult task of choosing a winner. Congratulations to the team from the Smith School of Business on a well-deserved win and to all teams for their presentations and success in their respective local challenges.” said Clayton Gall, CFA, Chair, CFA Societies Canada.
The Canadian Ethics Challenge is designed to increase future financial leaders' awareness of the ethical dilemmas they may encounter as investment management practitioners. Student teams are given a realistic and challenging ethics case to study and evaluate. The competition gives students an opportunity to navigate through ethical dilemmas developing the next generation of ethical leaders in support of building a stronger Future of Finance. To qualify, students competed in local competitions hosted by local CFA® Societies across Canada from January to March 2017. This year’s competing schools who advanced to the finals included: University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, University of Saskatchewan’s Edwards School of Business, and Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business.
For more information visit the Canadian Ethics Challenge.
Media Contact:
Jonathan Mai
CFA Society Toronto
416.366.5755 X 235
media@cfatoronto.ca
About CFA Societies Canada
CFA Societies Canada is an alliance of the 12 Canadian member societies of CFA Institute, with over 16,000 combined members in Canada. CFA Institute is the global body that administers the Chartered Financial Analyst® exam and sets voluntary, ethics-based performance-reporting standards for the investment industry. CFA Institute is a global, non-profit professional association of more than 146,000 investment practitioners and educators in 148 member societies. CFA Institute and its member societies work together to achieve a common vision - to advance ethical decision making and rigorous educational standards throughout the investment profession, along with protecting and promoting the CFA designation. For more information, please refer to www.cfasociety.org/canada
CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are trademarks owned by CFA Institute.
About Queen’s University Smith School of Business
Smith School of Business is one of the world’s premier business schools – renowned for exceptional programs, outstanding faculty and research, and the quality of its graduates. Canadian executives regard Smith as Canada’s most innovative business school, offering students’ academic excellence and a superior overall experience. Smith School of Business — where Canada’s first Commerce program was launched in 1919 — is located at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. The School also delivers programs at locations across Canada, as well in the U.S., the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and China.