Haskayne School of Business welcomes Gina Grandy as new dean

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Growing up in Newfoundland, Gina Grandy always knew she was going on to university. Her parents — father a teacher and mother a registered nurse — were the first generation of their rural islander family to get post-secondary education, and instilled in her the benefits of hard work and study.

That inspiration has worked well for Grandy, who is settling in as the new dean of the Haskayne School of Business.

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After attending Memorial University of Newfoundland for her bachelor of commerce and masters of business administration, she left her home province to teach at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. She says she liked teaching but also fell in love with research, and decided she needed a PhD and left to study at Northumbria University in Newcastle, England, where she earned her PhD in management and also gained an advanced diploma in leadership and performance coaching, before returning to Mount Allison.

Grandy needs the smell of the sea, but feeling the need to be associated with a bigger school, moved well away from the ocean in accepting a position as professor and associate dean of research and graduate studies at the University of Regina. She was appointed as dean of the Hill and Levene School of Business in 2018. A full professor with expertise in strategy and leadership, she also served as the Royal Bank of Canada Women in Leadership Research Scholar.

Outside of her 10 years on the prairies, Grandy has taught at other universities across Canada and participated in numerous international teaching and research stints, including in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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She enjoys life and sees travel as a huge benefit to her life experiences, even treating airline journeys and delays as a gift of time to reflect.

Her five-year term was renewed at Regina but, when she heard that colleague Jim Dewald had completed his 10-year term as dean here, she put her name in the hat, mindful of the opportunities offered by being his successor.

“Haskayne is one of the top business schools in this country, and the institution has been recognized as one of the top-five research universities,” she says. “World-class researchers, trans-disciplinary collaborative opportunities across campus and a highly engaged business community all stood out for me. To be part of building the future for a school and institution of this calibre is indeed exciting.”

Grandy’s appointment as the new dean began Sept. 1, and in the past six weeks she has been busy introducing herself to Haskayne faculty and staff, as well as to Calgary’s business community.

“It’s very early days for me and I intend to listen a lot over my first couple of months to students, colleagues here and across campus, as well as the business community to better understand where they see opportunities.”

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In her efforts as a catalyst to support and create meaningful change, she says it is important not to jump without listening intently first.

Expect her to be seen in attendance at events off campus, building relationships with the community, which she calls Friends of Haskayne.

“I fully appreciate how business schools need to be relevant,” says Grandy. “My style is one of collaboration, and I already can see that inside and outside the University of Calgary people are eager to collaborate with Haskayne. I am eager and excited to become part of the Calgary community.”

She’s still a long way from the sea, but Grandy is enjoying her new adventure and is passionate about helping others. “Education changes lives” is what she learned from her parents, and the sacrifices they made for her to succeed continues to be a driving force in her life.

Notes:

Calgary-based Qube Technologies, a pre-eminent provider of low-cost, cutting-edge continuous emissions monitoring technology, has secured Series B funding from Riverbend Energy Group, based in Houston, Texas. Qube CEO Alex MacGregor says continued growth, particularly in demand for product in the U.S. but working with 80 clients globally, has meant the need to invest in further development technology, expand commercial presence internationally, and to address other industries such as landfill, mining and gas collection. Development, manufacturing and assembly in Calgary now employs 50 people here.

David Parker appears regularly in the Herald. Read his columns online at calgaryherald.com/business. He can be reached at 403-830-4622 or by email at [email protected]

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