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uOttawa professors among elite group of lecturers at first ever Olympic University
OTTAWA, December 18, 2013 — The Russian International Olympic University (RIOU) will welcome two of uOttawa’s very own experts, professors Benoit Séguin and Milena Parent, as lecturers for the Masters in Sports Administration (MSA) program. They will be among 19 other world-class experts from 10 different countries, and will be part of a module managed by Benoit Séguin entitled “The Business of Sports and the Olympics”. The ten-week module will start on January 13th, 2014, in Sochi, Russia, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
“This is a great opportunity for us to teach a new generation of sports managers from various countries,” stated Benoit Séguin, an associate professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences. “I am very much looking forward to working with my colleagues, as well as with the RIOU students, to further research the business of sports and the Olympics.”
Benoit Séguin’s expertise lies in Olympic partnerships and sponsorships and in the management of cultural diversity in sport organizations. His lectures will focus mainly on sponsorship and ambush marketing and its impact on the Olympic brand. He has extensive practical experience in sport management and is a supervising professor at the International Olympic Academy as well as a lecturer for the Executive Master’s in Olympic Sport (MEMOS) sponsored by the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity Program. He is a past president of Diving Canada and member of the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Milena Parent will lecture on sport development and management concepts. Her areas of expertise lie in sports event management, governance and decision-making as well as stakeholder and network management. She too is a MEMOS lecturer, in the project and event management module, and she coordinated protocol and language services during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Ms. Parent has also received awards from the North American Society for Sport Management and the Government of Ontario.
About RIOU
The Russian International Olympic University was founded on October 21, 2009 by the Russian Government and in cooperation with the International Olympic Committee, the Organizing Committee for Sochi 2014, and the Russian Olympic Committee. The University Board of Trustees is headed by the President of the Russian Federation and consists of several international dignitaries, including Prince Albert of Monaco and Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister. RIOU is actively oriented towards the training of highly qualified specialists in the field of sports management for the Russian and global sports markets and the Olympic and Paralympic movements.
About the University of Ottawa
The University of Ottawa is committed to research excellence and encourages an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge creation, which attracts the best academic talent from across Canada and around the world.
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