Names in the News

Michel Magnan , (Accountancy) wrote a full-page article for La Presse on Oct. 4 about how industry leaders, administrators and analysts have misled Nortel shareholders. In September, he was quoted on corporate governance in a thoughtful article in the magazine Commerce.

Actor Joe Cobden is a recent Theatre graduate. He got a rave review from The Gazette’s Gaetan Charlebois for his performance in The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios. It’s not the first time Cobden has turned critics’ heads. In 2001, he won an award for best male actor from the Montreal English Critics Circle Association (MECCA), and the same year, he became the first anglophone to win a trophy at La Soirée des Masques.

Lea Katsanis (Marketing) was quoted in a Gazette feature last week about the new TV makeover show, Sexy Girl. There’s a strong whiff of voyeurism here, Katsanis observed, and in the case of makeovers, “We can say, I don’t look as bad as they do.”

Pierre Gauthier (Geography) was on a panel on Global television in early October, talking about a section of Griffintown, in southwest Montreal, that is under dispute.

A study at the University of Buffalo in which William Bukowski (Psychology) collaborated got considerable attention from the media. It suggested that shortness in children does not seem to hold them back. In fact, the study of students in Grades 6 to 12 in western New York state challenges the rationale for giving such children the artificial growth hormone.

Jordan LeBel (Marketing) was on Global’s This Morning Live on Sept. 13, talking about the trend towards eating more convenience in foods. While people seem to spend less and less time preparing meals, cookbooks and cooking magazines have never sold better. LeBel said advertisers now target children, knowing they are often responsible for their own food preparation. He cited McCain Pizza pockets as an example. There was a feature on LeBel, an expert cook with a kitchen “to die for,” in The Gazette on Sept. 13.

Guy Lachapelle (Political Science), pollster Jean-Marc Léger and John Parisella (BCP Communications, Board of Governors) wrote an essay in Le Devoir on Sept. 2 under the title “Les conventions américaines sont-ells pertinentes?” They looked carefully at the conventions as reflected through the media, and said that despite imperfections in their electoral system, U.S. leaders are chosen in a democratic manner.

Martin Racine (Design Art) and collaborator Philippe Lalande (Université de Montréal) comprise a company called PRéco. PR is short for prototypage rapide, and éco suggests their concern for the environment. They have developed a way to replace worn-out or broken components of household appliances so that the owner can continue to use them instead of replacing them (see CTR, Jan 15, 2004). The novel concept was a feature on the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet, an Internet production.

Annamma Joy (Marketing) was interviewed on CBC Newsworld about Canadian businesses that want to get involved in helping China get ready for the next Olympics, taking place in Beijing in 2008.

André Gagnon, who co-ordinates the excellent Career Placement Service in Counselling and Development, was interviewed for Les Affaires about employment practices. He said that employers expect too much of young graduates, and their impatience is counterproductive.