by Barbara Black

Two professors from the John Molson School of Business were honoured at a reception recently, when A. Bakr Ibrahim was awarded the CIBC Distinguished Professorship in Family Business, and Michel Laroche was given the Royal Bank Distinguished Professorship in Marketing.

Bakr Ibrahim is Professor of Management and Associate Dean, Administrative Affairs and Human Resources, in the Molson School of Business. He was unanimously selected by a committee of his peers for the research endowment, which was created last year through a generous $500,000 endowment from the CIBC. The appointment is for a five-year period.

Under Dr. Ibrahim’s direction, the endowment will be used to fund research in the field, and finance an annual Research Forum that will bring together participants from industry and academia. Dr. Ibrahim also has research interests in strategic management, small business and entrepreneurship. He is a Fellow of the Family Enterprise Institute and has authored several books and articles.

The award won by Professor of Marketing Michel Laroche —the latest of many — was established last year by a $550,000 donation from the Royal Bank. The appointment, for a five-year period, will allow Dr. Laroche to intensify scholarly activity in his department.

It will finance the Royal Bank Research Seminar, which will be held in September, and will focus on the influence culture and cultural change have on consumerism and the marketing of services. The Distinguished Professorship will also help fund the Royal Bank Distinguished Visiting Speakers series; the first event will be held in April and will be open to the public.

Dr. Laroche’s main research interests are in communication, consumer behaviour modelling, cross-cultural marketing and research methodology. Earlier this year, he was named a Concordia University Research Fellow Award for 2000. He received the Jacques-Rousseau Prize in 2000 for being the best multidisciplinary researcher in Canada, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the American Psychological Association.

Congratulations to them both.