The annual UBC Alumni Achievement Awards honour some of the university’s most successful alumni. This year’s recipients include UBC alumnus and community leader Paul Mitchell, Sauder Professor Peter Nemetz and BCom alumni Julia Fan Liand Nolan Watson.
Paul Mitchell will receive the Blythe Eagles Volunteer Leadership Award, Professor Nemetz, of the Strategy and Business Economics Division, will receive the Outstanding Faculty Community Service Award while Watson and Li are being awarded Outstanding Young Alumnus Awards.
The 2012 UBC Alumni Achievement Awards gala, on November 14, will draw more than 300 guests to the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver.
The ten award winners are being recognized for their work in microbiology, amateur sports, aboriginal initiatives, ethnobiology, mining, global health, law, education, social issues, commerce and academic medicine.
Paul Mitchell, BCom’78 and LLB’79, played an integral part in Kelowna’s remarkable growth over the last few decades. Mitchell’s work helped establish UBC’s Okanagan campus in 2004, and he is currently involved in the UBC’s start an evolution campaign. As a community volunteer and leader, Mitchell has been recognized with several awards over the years, most recently the 2012 Kelowna Chamber of Commerce Honorary Life Member Award.
Professor Nemetz, who got his BA in economics and political science from UBC, began teaching at Sauder in 1996. With a PhD in economics from Harvard University, Nemetz’s research interests include natural resource policy, international business and the economics of natural disasters. He has been nominated for the Commerce Undergraduate Society Teaching Excellence Award a total of nine times.
Julia Fan Li, BCom’06, is a social entrepreneur who works to use business as a tool for empowering people and improving their quality of life. Li is currently doing her PhD at the University of Cambridge, researching innovative financing for global health and entrepreneurship.
BCom’01 alumnus, and Sandstorm Gold President and CEO, Nolan Watson is as known as much for his entrepreneurial successes in the mining industry as for his philanthropy and humanitarian efforts in Africa. Watson is also on the board for ARC and collaborates with UBC on several executive training programs.
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