CLASS OF 2017: Business School graduates awarded for achievements

High-achieving students were celebrated by their lecturers in a special awards ceremony organised by the Business School at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).



Those who had excelled in modules, dissertations or impressed during their placement were invited to Leicester Castle Business School to be presented with awards, sponsored by industry names including IBM, SAGE, Oxford University Press and Thomson Reuters.

Dr Warren Manning, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law, said the faculty was proud of all the students but that the achievements of the prizewinners deserved special recognition.

He said: “I am very pleased indeed to have this opportunity to celebrate the achievements of so many of our students. The awards presented here are a recognition of our students’ ability and effort and demonstrate outstanding achievement and success.”

Awards were presided over by Emmanuel Adegbite, Head of the Department for Accounting and Finance; Julia Cook, deputy head of the Department of Strategic Management and Marketing, and Alasdair Blair, Associate Dean Academic in the Faculty of Business and Law.



Sharondeep Kaur, who was named best Human Resource Management student, has already got a job with accountancy firm Grant Thornton. During her time at DMU she has travelled to New York, China and Shanghai with #DMUglobal, completed a placement year at Siemes. She said: “It’s been amazing and I am really passionate about HR. Most people think it is outside of the normal business but it’s central. It’s about training and helping people do their work well.”

Carly Pinker, Advertising and Marketing Communications, said: “Doing the degree helps you work out which areas you’d like to specialise in and I’ve gone into marketing specifically. I’ve now got a job as marketing manager at Hinckley Leisure Centre, where I live.”



Matthew Lee, who graduated in Business Entrepreneurship and Innovation, said that for him, it was the practical element of his studies which appealed. “I was involved in Fox’s Lair in the first year and the course is very proactive, you are encouraged to try different ideas. I’ve learned a lot that I will be able to apply in my new job in London, working for BeOnline.”



Ellie Pemberton, Human Resource Management, is working for luxury brand Michael Kors as an HR Administrator. She said: “I have had an enlightening four years at DMU and made some amazing friends along the way. I am currently exploring my career with Michael Kors and enjoying this new chapter. I would recommend to anyone to do a placement year as my year with IBM grew me considerably as a professional and the placement team are amazing.”

Accounting and Finance student Christiana Chatzinikolao came to DMU from Cyprus, and speaks English as her second language. She said: “It has been a good journey. The last three years I have gained a lot of experience and made new friends. At first it was difficult but then I met new people and got used to the new culture, and now I will be sad to go.”



Jennifer Walker, Business and Marketing, said #DMUglobal’s New York visit had been a highlight. She said: “It has been amazing, we did Madison Square Gardens, the UN, and just being there together was amazing. I’ve had so many enjoyable experiences at DMU which I never expected. I’m very very happy to have been a part of it.”

BUSINESS SCHOOL PRIZES:

School of Accounting and Finance

Sadia Rahman – Best BA Joint Hons Accounting and Finance Performance
Zifan Chen, Liwei Liu, Runyu Liu and Shiqing Liu – Best Presentation on the Managerial Development and Control Module
James Molloy – Best Accounting and Economics Student
Zheng Yang – Best Accounting and Finance Student
Christiana Chatzinikolaou – the Gemma Newman Award
Karishma Radia – The Hayles Leicester Prize for Best Advanced Financial Accounting Examination
Hamza Abba – Outstanding Performance in the Workplace
Ryan Morgan – Best Final Year Finance Student (joint winner)
Royce Jacob – Best Final Year Finance Student (joint winner)

Department of Strategic Management and Marketing

Carly Pinker – Best BA (Hons) Advertising and Marketing Communications Student, and winner of Best Brand Portfolio
William Burdett-Derby – Best Marketing Dissertation
Sacha Fellows – GI Solutions Group prize for best Digital Marketing and Social Media student, and IBM Innovation Prize for Marketing Planning and Management
Sharondeep Kaur – Qdos Prize for best HRM student
Ellie Pemberton - best HRM dissertation
Mailk Ogungbo – Best International Business and Marketing student
Hannah Javid – best Marketing student and best student on the interactive marketing campaign module
Alexandra Burton – best BA (Hons) Marketing and Media student
Yihan Zhu – best student on MBA Global course
Dale Lucas – best Business and Globalisation student
Jennifer Walker – IBM Innovation Prize for Best BA (Hons) Business and Marketing student
Katie Bradford - Leicester Mercury prize for best first year Business Entrepreneurship and Innovation Student
Anika Chauhan – the NatWest/Times Business Ethics Prize for best BA (Hons) Business Management and Economics student
Simranjeet Takhar – Cengage Learning prize for best performance on a strategy and management dissertation
Natalie Jackson – Best BA (Hons) Business Management and HRM student
Jessica Lawrence – Sage prize for Best Business Studies student
Emma Brookes – best part-time student on BA Business Studies
Marie Morrison – best student performance on MSc International Business and Management
Nicholas Batty – Best BA (Hons) Economics Student
Tina Shah – Cengage Learning prize for best BA Hons Economics and Finance Student; Bloomberg prize for best performance on the Investments and Portfolio Management module
Chisom Adinde – best Economics and Politics student


Department of Politics and Public Policy

Katharine Whiting – Best Business and Management student and winner of work-based learning certificate
Emily Hall – Best performance on a strategy and management dissertation
Matthew Lee – Leicester Mercury award for most outstanding enterprise dissertation
Anna Paterson – Best Student on Housing Studies
Michael Norton – Best International Relations student
Louisa Nicholson – the Michael Cunningham Prize for Best International Relations dissertation; the best International Relations and Politics student (joint winner); Outstanding Performance in the Workplace; best overall student in Department of Politics and Public Policy
Sasha Cappelletti – Best International Relations and Politics student (joint winner)
Alexander Bailey – Chartered Institute of Housing East Midlands’ prize for Highest Master's Achievement
Luke Parker – Best BA (Hons) Politics student
Connor Jones – Oxford Uni Press prize for best first year politics student
Kayleigh Purse  – Chartered Institute of Housing East Midlands’ prize for Highest Postgraduate Certificate Achievement
William Grace – First place, work-based learning certificate

Anglo China Open Research Network (ACORN) Prizes
Awarded to students who have spent two years studying in China who then come to DMU to finish their studies.

Zheng Yang – Best Accounting and Finance student
Jin Zhnag - Best Business and Management student
Peimin Luo – Best Marketing student
Huangchu Xia – Best Accounting and Business Management student
Xin Tang – Best Business and Finance student (joint winner)
Boya Wang – Best Business and Finance student (joint winner)
Ziyun Zheng – Best Business Management and HRM student