Western Business Undergrad receives Wellington Financial's Award in Technology Evaluation & Analysis

Who doesn’t love it when a plan comes together?!

Tony Ma, a 3rd year HBA student at Western University’s Ivey Business School, is the second recipient of the Wellington Financial LP Award in Technology Evaluation and Analysis.

As we announced last year, in light of our deep connection to the Canadian Innovation Economy, we have endowed two University scholarships to encourage business and engineering students to learn more about the various elements that go into analyzing technology firms.  Our hope is that the better young people are at evaluating our sectors of focus, the more likely they will be to eventually join and excel in the venture space.

As I’ve said in the past:

For every 100 people who apply for an investment banking job, I’d doubt more than a single University grad considers the Canadian venture space.

Taken to its natural extension, one should hope for a better fundraising climate down the road for Canadian entrepreneurs.  No amount of government policy on capital formation will succeed without sufficient numbers of talented people in the private sector.

The criteria for the award is straightforward (from the UWO intranet):

Awarded annually to a full-time undergraduate student at the Richard Ivey School of Business, or the Faculty of Engineering, who exhibits demonstrated leadership skills, and a passion for technology evaluation and analysis. Students from Ivey will be eligible during even years and those from Engineering will be eligible during odd years. Business students must submit a one-page statement outlining their skills and interest in technology evaluation and analysis by September 30th to the HBA Program Office. The Scholarship Committee of the Richard Ivey School of Business will review and select the recipient. Engineering students must submit their one-page statement and award application on-line through the Engineering Undergraduate Services website www.eng.uwo.ca/undergraduate/award_information.html) by September 30th. The Undergraduate Awards Committee in the Faculty of Engineering will review and select the recipient. This award was established by a generous gift from Wellington Financial LP.

Tony is already showing signs of an affinity for our space.  He worked for Canadian software darling Shopify (SHOP:TSX) last summer, and has also done a stint as a summer student at one of the Canadian banks.  He says that our scholarship will help him fund a portion of his Ivey Service Learning Trip, where he and a group of HBA1 students will teach entrepreneurship and personal finance to students in Tanzania.  That fits perfectly with our own firm’s commitment to our broader community.

Congratulations Tony from the Wellington team!

MRM