Desautels student Mia Morisset wins HSBC Women in Business Leadership Award

McGill one of eight Canadian universities to receive funding from HSBC for new scholarship program

Mia Morisset, a third-year undergraduate at McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management, has been named as a recipient of an HSBC Women in Business Leadership Award – a new, $20,000 scholarship established at Desautels and designed to encourage emerging female Canadian business leaders.

In 2010, women made up 47.3% of the Canadian workforce, but held only 17.7% of senior officer positions at Financial Post 500 companies, according to the Catalyst Census; more than 30% of companies in the study had no women senior officers.

The Awards will be granted to four female students at the Desautels Faculty of Management over a five-year period beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year. Selection is based on academic achievement and leadership potential, and each recipient will receive $10,000 per year for the final two years of their degree.

The HSBC full-tuition scholarship “gives me the opportunity to focus more on my school work and volunteer projects,” said Morisset, who is studying in Hong Kong on an international exchange program for the current semester. “It’s given me a great sense of accomplishment, and has fuelled my ambition to one day be one of corporate Canada’s top leaders.”

"HSBC believes that education is a fundamental building block for communities," said Lindsay Gordon, President and Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Bank Canada.  "Our success is built on our ability to attract and develop a diverse range of talent, and we are delighted that the HSBC Women in Business Leadership Awards will recognize future business leaders, encouraging them to achieve their full potential and forge a path towards becoming some of Canada’s top executives."

Peter Todd, Dean of the Desautels Faculty of Management, noted that more than half of the Faculty’s undergraduates are women. “We are very gratified that the HSBC Women in Business Leadership Awards will support some of Canada’s most promising management students as they complete their studies and prepare to make their way in the business world.”

HSBC Bank Canada has established the HSBC Women in Business Leadership Awards at eight top universities across Canada: McGill, Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta, Queen’s University, the University of Toronto, the University of Western Ontario, and York University. Each school will receive an $80,000 donation from HSBC to fund the Awards over a five-year period.

About Desautels

Since 1906, the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University has been one of the top international business schools in the world. The faculty emphasizes the integration of teaching, research and practice, and applies a multi-disciplinary, holistic approach to identifying innovative opportunities and solving problems. Desautels’ exacting standards, innovative approach and historic reputation for excellence continue to attract the finest students, the most prominent professors and the most demanding recruiters from around the globe. Education choices at Desautels include all management disciplines, with programs at the undergraduate, masters, doctorate, and executive levels.