The MBA Student Association Inc. (MBAA) at the Richard Ivey School of Business will announce the launch of Ivey Builds - a voluntary, student-led Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative tomorrow at a special Groundbreaking ceremony. Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco, Dianne Cunningham, and Dean Carol Stephenson will also be in attendance. The ceremony will coincide with a visit by whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand - who exposed corporate deceit and wrongdoing in a large tobacco company and whose story was told in the movie The Insider.

One of Ivey's missions is to develop business leaders who contribute to the societies in which they operate. Ivey MBA students have put that mission into practice by creating Ivey Builds and partnering with Habitat for Humanity London, Inc. to build a wheel-chair accessible home in South London. The house build will be the centerpiece of Ivey Builds, where students will be involved in all facets of the initiative - from fundraising and planning, to design and building.

Ivey Builds will be a year-long endeavour. Ivey Builds will start with an awareness phase within the school, followed by an action stage - the house build, a reflection period in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility conference wrapped around the final weekend of the house build, and finally a celebration with all those involved at a dedication barbeque at the build site on the final weekend.

"We are excited to be the first student group in Canada to fully fund, design and build an entire house! Ivey Builds presents not only opportunities for student volunteerism and leadership, but also tremendous opportunities for London businesses and individuals to become more involved with MBA students on a very meaningful project," says Prakash David, President, MBA Student Association Inc.

The Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario (www.ivey.uwo.ca) offers full-time undergraduate (HBA) and graduate degree programs (MBA and PhD), and Executive MBA programs in addition to non-degree programs in Entrepreneurship and Executive Development. Ivey has campuses in London (Ontario), Mississauga, Toronto, and Hong Kong, where it was the first North American business school to establish a campus in Asia.

Richard Ivey School of Business

Richard Ivey School of Business

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