Media Releases

First recipient of the Risa Goldberg Memorial Scholarship for Women in Capital Markets announced at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management

March 20, 2013

TORONTO, ON – The first Risa Gold­berg Memo­r­i­al Schol­ar­ship for Women in Cap­i­tal Mar­kets has been award­ed to Jes­si­ca Schwarz, a first-year stu­dent in the full-time MBA pro­gram at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment.

Jes­si­ca began her MBA stud­ies at Rot­man after start­ing her career in wealth man­age­ment in Lima, Peru. She holds a Bach­e­lor of Com­merce from Con­cor­dia University’s John Mol­son School of Busi­ness and is cur­rent­ly a mem­ber of Women in Cap­i­tal Mar­kets.

Risa Gold­berg, a Rot­man MBA class of 2008 grad­u­ate, trag­i­cal­ly passed away in June 2012. The Risa Gold­berg Memo­r­i­al Schol­ar­ship for Women in Cap­i­tal Mar­kets was estab­lished at the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment by her fam­i­ly as a last­ing lega­cy in her mem­o­ry and a per­ma­nent expres­sion of their love for Risa. The schol­ar­ship is a fit­ting trib­ute to her life that will give back to women of sim­i­lar dri­ve, ambi­tion and integri­ty.

The schol­ar­ship will be award­ed annu­al­ly to a female stu­dent in the sec­ond semes­ter of her first year of the Rot­man full-time MBA pro­gram who intends to pur­sue a career in cap­i­tal mar­kets. The recip­i­ent will embody Risa’s “work-hard, play-hard” atti­tude, her ambi­tion to rise to the top and her con­fi­dence in her tal­ents and abil­i­ty to meet new chal­lenges. The schol­ar­ship includes a pre­ferred inter­view process for paid sum­mer intern­ships with Des­jardins Secu­ri­ties and CIBC.

Risa began her career in the finance indus­try as a sum­mer stu­dent at Des­jardins Secu­ri­ties while pur­su­ing an Hon­ours Bach­e­lors of Sci­ence degree at Queen’s Uni­ver­si­ty. As an under­grad­u­ate, she also passed the Cana­di­an Secu­ri­ties Course. Fol­low­ing grad­u­a­tion from Queen’s, Risa worked as an ana­lyst with Mil­len­ni­um Research Group. She was drawn to pur­sue a career deep­er in the field of finance and cap­i­tal mar­kets, which led her to apply to the MBA pro­gram at the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment. Her aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ments were wide­ly rec­og­nized. She received an entrance schol­ar­ship and was on the Dean’s List for both pro­gram years. She was also a Breg­man Schol­ar and a recip­i­ent of the Andrew Alexan­der King­horn Fel­low­ship and the pres­ti­gious Heather L. Main Memo­r­i­al Schol­ar­ship, which includ­ed an intern­ship with Scotiabank’s Invest­ment Bank­ing team.

While Risa found suc­cess in the class­room, she was also very active in stu­dent life dur­ing her two years at Rot­man, serv­ing as VP Finance for the Women in Man­age­ment Asso­ci­a­tion; Direc­tor of the Rot­man Finance Asso­ci­a­tion; a Rot­man Stu­dent Ambas­sador, Events & Plan­ning Lead; and as a mem­ber of the Health Care and Biotech­nol­o­gy Asso­ci­a­tion and Rot­man Out­reach. In 2008, Risa received her CFA des­ig­na­tion. After grad­u­at­ing from Rot­man, she achieved pro­gres­sive­ly senior posi­tions at Clair­vest and RBC Finan­cial Group. At the time of her pass­ing, Risa was the Direc­tor of Strat­e­gy and Busi­ness Devel­op­ment at CIBC Wealth Man­age­ment.

For more infor­ma­tion about the Risa Gold­berg Memo­r­i­al Schol­ar­ship, vis­it http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/Connect/SupportRotman/VisionFund.aspx.

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is redesign­ing busi­ness edu­ca­tion for the 21st cen­tu­ry with a cur­ricu­lum based on Inte­gra­tive Think­ing. Locat­ed in the world’s most diverse city, the Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables the design of cre­ative busi­ness solu­tions.  The School is cur­rent­ly rais­ing $200 mil­lion to ensure Cana­da has the world-class busi­ness school it deserves. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion:

Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er, Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Voice 416.946.3818
E‑mail mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca
Fol­low Rot­man on Twit­ter @rotmanschool
Watch Rot­man on You Tube www.youtube.com/rotmanschool