Risky Business

Daniel Shapiro, Dean of SFU’s Beedie School of Business

Controversy in the cohort

Some SFU students recently found themselves in financial distress — and we’re not talking about student debt here. A deficit of information regarding the changes to the Masters of Science (MSc) in Finance program, offered by SFU’s Beedie School of Business, has been causing significant controversy within the faculty over the past few months.

The 2013/2014 academic year brought big changes for the program, including a new academic chair with a distinct vision for the degree’s future. As rumours circulated about a shift from the current quantitative (empirical) program to a more qualitative one, the program’s administration attempted to alleviate student anxiety surrounding the changes.

However, concerns still remain following the failure to renew adjunct professor Anton Theunissen’s contract for the new year. Students in the program are arguing that the faculty has made serious and flawed allegations concerning Theunissen’s professional behaviour, including a disputed allegation by the Beedie School of Business Dean, Dan Shapiro.

“No one else has been willing to tell me what this terrible thing is that I have done.” – Anton Theunissen, former SFU adjunct professor

The controversy began last April, when the Beedie administration decided not to renew Theunissen’s contract, with associate dean Mark Wexler citing issues of locality — Theunissen was originally from Wall Street and often worked out of New York — and graduate placement. Following Theunissen’s termination, the program’s academic chair, Andrey Pavlov, decided to step down, resulting in a sudden vacancy in his position and a disruption of vision for the faculty.

“My goal with the program has always been to place people, people who graduate, [into] good jobs in finance,” Pavlov explained. “Every decision we’ve made has been driven by this.

“Anton Theunissen, he was in charge of placements,” he continued. “[He’s a] very experienced guy from New York who really has been in the financial industry for a long time, who has done great things for the companies he’s worked with. So in my view he was a key success factor.”

When it became clear to Pavlov that the department would not retain Theunissen, Pavlov announced his resignation as academic chair. “I’ve always said without Anton, I wouldn’t know how to run this program,” Pavlov said. “I can’t do it, so I asked to step down.”

Theunissen outlined his own vision for the program to The Peak in a conference call from New York. “My main vision was to put the program on the map such that when we made these initial forays into these tier one markets, that we could build on the reputation of the initial people we placed in those markets, and that we could create a reputation for the program as being one which people would take seriously.”

Theunissen said, “We were placing people in top tier financial services institutions where SFU had been completely invisible [. . .] We were on a path for putting SFU on the map.”

Theunissen has placement data for approximately 127 students from the program who have found jobs in Vancouver, Toronto, Beijing, New York, and Tehran, among other cities, since 2005.  Of the 9 students in the 2012/2013 cohort who had graduated by the end of 2013, six students are working — all  in Vancouver.

A shocking statement

On Dec. 2, concerned students met with Beedie School of Business dean Dan Shapiro to inquire as to why Theunissen was not returning to the program. Azhvan Ahmady, one of the MSc students who met with Shapiro,  reported that after approximately an hour of heated discussion, Shapiro explained that he did not renew Theunissen’s contract after hearing disturbing complaints about Theunissen from students.

When The Peak asked Theunissen about the reasons his contract was not renewed, he replied, “I don’t have access to all the information because it has been denied to me.”

According to Theunissen, he received an email from Shapiro stating that he wanted to make some structural changes to the program, and that the school would not be renewing their contract with him. Shapiro also told him that a group of students had met with Wexler and had complained about him.

“What he said to me was that they felt I was teaching only to the top 20 per cent of the class, and that I was favouring these students,” said Theunissen. In addition, Theunissen says Shapiro told him that the program was tough and did not cater to the local market.

Theunissen was therefore surprised to hear from students that Shapiro told them he had other reasons for not renewing Theunissen’s contract.

“I’ve always said without Anton, I wouldn’t know how to run this program. – Andrey Pavlov, former academic chair

“Instead of just sticking to the story he had told me [. . .] he then made statements pertaining to the fact that I had engaged in unprofessional behaviour which was so grave that he couldn’t discuss it in public, but it was in fact what precipitated my firing,” said Theunissen. “And to this day I have no idea what he is referring to, and he has not told me and no one else has been willing to tell me what this terrible thing is that I have done.”

Ahmady told The Peak that when they asked Shapiro why he had chosen to make the faculty changes, “he said something happened that was kind of, horrible, [so] he couldn’t resist doing the changes. At the time I right away asked him if he knew whether the concerns [about Theunissen] were correct and accurate, and he said to a degree, yes.”

He later elaborated, saying, “His exact words were ‘the nature and the form of the complaints was initiating the changes, and what they [students who made the complaints] were saying was disturbing.’”

When Theunissen confronted Shapiro, he received a very different response. “He said, ‘I said nothing of the kind. I didn’t say anything to impugn your reputation or your character,’” reported Theunissen. “And then I said ‘Danny, the students recorded a great part of this meeting . . .’ He stopped, he paused, and he said, ‘Oh, well I was being bullied at the meeting and I may have said things I didn’t mean to say.’”

Theunissen then asked Shapiro to send a retraction of the statement to the students who were at the meeting, which he agreed to. “To this date, he has not done so,” said Theunissen.

Shapiro declined to comment when contacted by The Peak, saying that Wexler and Jan Simon, the interim academic chair, had already “fully represented [his] views.”

In that capacity, Wexler explained that the non-renewal of Theunissen’s contract was purely a strategic decision. “This change was due to the fact that we were and are still interested in increasing the key components of the course to as much internal faculty as possible,” said Wexler. “There was nothing particularly worrisome about his portfolio.”

He explained that a key issue in the department had involved placement numbers, which he says were not high. “Anton should be proud. When he did get individuals jobs, they got substantially good pay,” Wexler explained. “My difficulty was not, let’s get rid of that — my difficulty was, how can we run this program where a small number of players get good jobs, while the rest get [fewer jobs]?”

The future of the program

Questions remain unanswered surrounding the failure to renew Theunissen’s contract. However, student concerns over program changes seem to have been addressed for the time being.

After Pavlov announced his resignation, Wexler took over as acting academic chair until Simon began his term as interim chair on Feb. 1. As the 2013/2014 academic year saw a new captain at the program’s helm, the change in administration began to create anxiety within the MSc in Finance program.

“We are not subtracting anything [from the program]. We will be adding some material.” – Mark Wexler, associate dean, graduate programs, Beedie School of Business

Many of the students in the program are international, a majority of whom come from China. These students, who face fees significantly higher than those of domestic students, became concerned that a change in the program’s direction would leave them with a different degree than what they had paid for.

“To me, it’s a good idea having more programs,” said Ahmady. “But let’s make it for people in a program where it is suitable [. . .] [These changes suit] something in the MBa category, and they should fit there. We just have to pay for all of the costs.”

Laleh Samii, a fellow student, added: “At this point, it’s a matter of trust. You may hear something from them, but they act differently. Even if they say that they want to add something to this program, they haven’t acted the way they should have. They didn’t have any plan. Plan first, then act.”

Wexler assured The Peak that this was not the case.

“We are not subtracting anything. We will be adding some material,” he explained. “Essentially, the early perception and anxiety that arose around [the change] was because when you add certain things, people assume that you are obviously going to dilute, simultaneously, and that was never it.”

Wexler and Simon are planning to add a third stream to the program, which already allows students to focus on either investments or risk management. The new stream, corporate finance, would have more qualitative options for students.

After explaining the changes to students in an announcement on Jan. 5, Wexler said, “the complaints have diminished a great deal.”

Contrary to what Theunissen claims Shapiro told him, Wexler said, “We don’t think [the previous program] was a failure, but we think that we’re going to move with what they gave us in a new and different direction, using their past momentum.”

“I hope to have a more global, diversified, engaged program.” — Jean Simon, senior lecturer in Finance, Beedie School of Business

That different direction will involve plugging the program into SFU’s career placement, continuing to organize placement trips to Toronto and New York, and inviting professionals from Asia. The program will also attempt to target their largely international cohort with programs on  intercultural relations, resume writing, and interview skills — opportunities that previously did not exist.

Simon explained, “I hope to have a more global, diversified, engaged program. A program where people 10, 15 years down the road still talk about it. They’re still in contact with people, and they feel that it has made an impact in their lives professionally but also in the person they are.”

He concluded, “They will be proud to have earned that program because that program has given them a lot of options, but also influenced the person they want to be. I think that’s what makes a great business school different from just getting a diploma.”

This story is ongoing. If you have further information on this issue, please contact the editor here.