Media Releases

Rotman MBA Graduates Named as Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs

May 17, 2016

Toron­to, ON – Two grad­u­ates of MBA pro­grams at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment have been named among to the PROFIT/Chatelaine W100 rank­ing of Canada’s top female entre­pre­neurs with a third named as a ris­ing entre­pre­neur to watch. A fourth com­pa­ny co-found­ed by a Rot­man MBA grad­u­ate placed 1st in the rank­ing.

Tonia Jahshan, Pres­i­dent & founder of Steeped Tea, which sells tea and acces­sories via 9,000 direct sell­ers, was named as Canada’s top female entre­pre­neur in the rank­ing. Hatem Jahshan, a grad­u­ate of the Rot­man Evening MBA pro­gram in 2010, is the company’s CEO and founder. Both are reg­u­lar speak­ers in MBA class­es at the Rot­man School.

Kim Shan­non, Pres­i­dent & Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer of Sion­na Invest­ment Man­agers, a val­ue invest­ing firm, placed 33rd in this year’s rank­ing. She grad­u­at­ed from the Rot­man Evening MBA pro­gram in 1993.

Ann Kaplan, Pres­i­dent & CEO of iFi­nance Cana­da, which pro­vides small tick­et con­sumer loans, placed 46th. She grad­u­at­ed from the Rot­man Exec­u­tive MBA pro­gram in 2005.

Both Shan­non and Kaplan have appeared numer­ous times on the rank­ing.

Lena Koke, Pres­i­dent of Axess Law, was named as a W100 Ris­ing Star to Watch. She grad­u­at­ed from the JD/MBA pro­gram in 2008.

“It has been a priv­i­lege to watch Ann and Kim grow their busi­ness­es. We great­ly appre­ci­ate that they con­tin­ue to share their sto­ry, exper­tise and advice with fel­low alum­ni, cur­rent stu­dents and the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty at large. Fur­ther­more, we are excit­ed to see Lena be named as a ris­ing star in the Profit/Chatelaine W100,” says Jen­nifer Hilde­brandt, Direc­tor Alum­ni Rela­tions at the Rot­man School.

The PROFIT/Chate­laine W100 rank­ing and awards pro­gram is Canada’s largest cel­e­bra­tion of entre­pre­neur­ial achieve­ment by women. The PROFIT/Chatelaine W100 ranks female entre­pre­neurs by a com­pos­ite score that con­sid­ers the size, growth rate and prof­itabil­i­ty of the com­pa­nies they own and man­age. Win­ners are hon­oured in the June 2016 issue of Cana­di­an Busi­ness mag­a­zine, as well as year-round at Chatelaine.com and at PROFITguide.com.

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment is locat­ed in the heart of Canada’s com­mer­cial and cul­tur­al cap­i­tal and is part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, one of the world’s top 20 research uni­ver­si­ties. The Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables our grad­u­ates to tack­le today’s glob­al busi­ness and soci­etal chal­lenges.  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
Tele: 416.946.3818
E‑mail: mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca

Fol­low Rot­man on Twit­ter @rotmanschool
Watch Rot­man on You Tube www.youtube.com/rotmanschool