OCNews

Although it may be their first time competing together, a pair of business students and up-and-coming HR professionals at Okanagan College have their sights set on bringing home the hardware at a prestigious international case competition.

The College’s School of Business will send three teams to compete in the 2020 Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (I.C.B.C.). at Queen’s University next week.

One of those teams is the HR duo of Madison Freisen and Alivia Leibbrand, coached by OC Business Professor Roger Wheeler.

“We’re looking forward to the pressure of competing and to speaking in front of such an esteemed panel of industry leaders. If we pull out all the stops and deliver a great presentation, hopefully we’ll find ourselves standing on the podium at the end of the weekend,” said Leibbrand, who is currently completing her Bachelor of Business Administration degree at the Kelowna campus.

Takiya Bradshaw and Matthew Davidson make up the Accounting team. They will be coached by Adrian Fontenla and Mary Ann Knoll.

Braeden Rahn and Justin Rantucci form the Debate team, coached by Devin Rubadeau.

They follow in the footsteps of Mitchell Folk and Derek Monsen, last year’s OC debate dynamic duo (also coached by Rubadeau) who notched a second-place showing in what was the first ever appearance by an OC debate team at I.C.B.C. Also on the podium last year were Rowan Nevard and Mark Fellhauer (coached by Adrian Fontenla & Mary Ann Knoll) took first place in Accounting, along with Ryan Buchanan and Jason Greaves (coached by Dr. Barry McGillivray) who took second place in Ethics.

I.C.B.C, held this year from Jan. 16-18, is Canada’s largest, oldest, and most esteemed undergraduate case competition.

Okanagan College boasts a strong track record in the annual event.

“The results over the years have demonstrated consistently that students from the Okanagan School of Business can compete with those from the very top business schools across the country and around world,” notes Dr. Barry McGillivray, Associate Dean. “Our students receive a first-class – and indeed world-class – business education at Okanagan College and competitions like these help to illustrate just how prepared our graduates are to make an impact in their chosen fields.”

For more than 42 years, the top business schools from across Canada and across the world have attended the competition held over two days at Queen’s. This year there were over 120 teams in the qualifying round that competed to attend the event. The top six in each category were chosen to attend and present to a panel of expert and corporate executives who will choose the top three teams.

Full results will be posted to the College’s news blog okanagan.bc.ca/news following the competition. More information about I.C.B.C. is available at icbcqueens.com.