[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/MCMwinners09.jpg” caption=”Heather Pullen (left) and Brittany Cadence (right) “]For the first time in its 10-year history, two Canadian master's students have taken top prizes at the International Corporate Communications Case Study competition sponsored by the New York-based A.W. Page Society and the Florida-based Institute for Public Relations.

Heather Pullen won the overall Grand Prize and Brittany Cadence won the top prize in the business school category. Both Pullen and Cadence are second year students in the McMaster-Syracuse Master of Communications Management (MCM) degree program at the DeGroote School of Business.

Pullen won the $5,000 Grand Prize for the entire competition with a case study which examined Newfoundland and Labrador's Eastern Health Region's decision not to disclose that errors had been made in one of its laboratories. Pullen's study reviews the impact on Eastern Health's reputation and highlights the communication issues raised by the organization's reluctance to release information. This latest recognition follows Pullen's second place finish in a health communications competition hosted by the Public Relations Society of America earlier this year. Ms. Pullen is Manager of Public Relations for the Hamilton Health Services Corporation.

The top prize in the business school category ($1,500) was won by Brittany Cadence for her case study on McMaster University's handling of the disclosure of the President's contract. Cadence's study looked at how McMaster and other universities in Ontario disclose salary and compensation information to their key stakeholder groups. Ms. Cadence is communications officer at Trent University in Peterborough.

The 2009 Case Study Competition in Corporate Communications is jointly sponsored by the Arthur W. Page Society of New York City and the Institute for Public Relations based in Gainsville, Florida. The competition has been running since 2001 and is open to students at accredited schools of business, communications or journalism that focus on corporate communication and the practice of public relations.

“The success of our students' work is reflective of the quality of students in the MCM program,” says Terry Flynn, assistant professor of communications management at DeGroote. “I'm very proud of their efforts and I look forward to more submissions from all MCM students in the years to come.”

Pullen and Cadence will be presented with their awards at a gala ceremony in New York City on April 2, 2009.