Tariffs drive up prices for businesses, but some companies are finding a creative loophole to avoid some US tariffs. When a company imports a tariffed good, it pays a tariff. But it doesn’t pay a tariff if the goods are only passing through on the way to a final destination. This creates an incentive for US companies to store inventory in Canada. They can park products here until they sell them, and only pay tariffs on goods that are actually bound for the US market.

Thanks to a generous donation from Montreal finance leader J. Sebastian Van Berkom, students in the Honours in Investment Management (HIM) program at McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management will now manage a newly launched small-cap fund through Desautels Capital Management (DCM)—Canada’s first university-owned registered investment firm.

Even the most successful family businesses often don’t withstand the march of time. Just because one generation had what the right skills and temperament to run a business doesn’t mean their grandchildren will. But the Vancouver-based chocolate maker Purdys Chocolate bucks the trend, with a third-generation leader poised to take the helm.

For Renaud Thomassin, being a francophone at McGill unlocked a new way of being Quebecois--one in which you can navigate easily between cultures.

“Beyond the knowledge and skills that I gained, I also discovered the art of networking--and it’s already opened doors for me,” says Thomassin, a MBA graduate. He encourages others who have only studied at francophone schools to consider McGill. “The university offered me an incredible experience and unique opportunities.”

Hamid Etemad has been named a 2024 Top Scholar by Scholar GPS. Over a long and distinguished career, the Associate Professor of Marketing has been recognized for his excellence in teaching and research, Scholar GPS recognized Etemad as being in the top 0.5% of scholars in his field. Etemad’s research has probed the role of technology in business and its impact in emerging market economies.

This year, ten valedictorians from across the university shared their reflections and insights with McGill’s Class of 2025--with an eye cast toward the future. Desautels Grace Singer will be among them. The graduating Bachelor of Commerce student hopes to make a difference by advocating for decarbonization from within the business world. “In the long-term I hope to work directly with the adoption and acceleration of sustainable solutions, such as what I did within the cleantech company I interned at during my degree,” Singer says.

Congratulations to Harley Belfer (BCom’23), Isabelle Erb (BCom’24), Veronica Hall (BCom'24), Raphael Lafleur (BCom’24), Andrea Peck (BCom’24), and Dylan Winick (BCom’24) who were awarded the Lionel Pelham Kent Scholarship by the Graduate Certificate in Professional Accounting (GCPA) program.