Members of Atkinson Accounting Club took on the best of the big business schools, including York’s, and finished in the money at a competition held Jan. 15 in Toronto by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.
The team of students in the Accounting Program at the School of Administrative Studies, Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies, competed against 24 teams from 17 Ontario universities in a branding campaign case study, finishing tied for fourth but placing ahead of multiple contenders from York’s Schulich School of Business and the University of Toronto, as well as teams from Western, Laurier and Windsor.
Right: From left, team members Marzena Brzyszcz and Michael Bot with Ramin Rezaeinia, club president, and Maziar Babazadeh, club vice-president, information technology
Team members Marzena Brzyszcz, Michael Bot and Jayant Charnalia each received $100 for cracking the top six, finishing behind teams from Waterloo, McMaster and Queen’s. The judges included a recruiter from each of the four largest chartered accountancy firms, several of whom indicated that they would revise their recruiting plans to include more Atkinson students in future.
“Our team’s performance is a testament to Atkinson students’ abilities and proof that our accounting program is among the best available for those pursuing careers in the profession,” said Ramin Rezaeinia, club president. Rezaeinia said the team’s success was due in large part to the efforts of fellow club executive members Maziar Babazadeh and Rosaline Papissian who help select and coach the winning participants.
The judges for this year’s competition represented eight different firms including Alliance Atlantis; CIBC; Deloitte, Ernst & Young; Fuller Landau; ICAO; KPMG; Jefferson Partners; and PricewaterhouseCoopers.