About

Last modified: April 5, 2010

IAABC History

The Ivey alumni clubs were initiated, both in Canada and internationally, by Jack Wettlaufer, who for forty years played a leading role in shaping and developing the Richard Ivey School of Business. During his tenure as Dean (1968 – 1978), he saw the 50th anniversary of the founding of the school as an opportunity, in 1973, to introduce the concept of clubs comprised of graduates. In his published recollections of the birthday parties celebrated in various cities, he wrote:
“We began to look to our alumni as another source of ideas and financial aid… We saw networks as key not only to a strong business school, but also to a healthy post-school professional life as well.”

The first club was organized in Toronto with Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver quick to follow.

“The list of people who breathed life into these alumni programs is too long to recite but, they know who they are and I am forever grateful,” Jack wrote. 

He, and they, have left a legacy of flourishing Ivey clubs around the world. Now, after 75 years of developing leaders who occupy influential positions globally, the network of diverse graduates, culturally, and career-wise, is literally an international “Who’s Who” of business. 

As a reflection of the times, an early meeting of the BC Club was held at a club where women were not really welcome and had to enter through the service door. At the end of the meeting as the group was standing at the top of the main stairway, a distraught staff member instructed Carina Ayriss that she would have to leave by the service entrance. Dean Wettlaufer responded “good then we will all leave that way” and the whole group exited via the service entrance. 

The BC Club, like the school, evolved quite dramatically over the years. Our members are located throughout BC, although the majority reside in the lower mainland. Positioned as Canada’s gateway to the Pacific Rim, BC and the Club are well suited to assist the school in its expansion into the Far East – the export of the Ivey intellectual capital.



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