Algonquin College Bachelor of Commerce program hosts inaugural Sales Case Competition with Fastenal Canada Sponsorship
Posted on Monday, December 15th, 2025
From left to right, first-place winners Claire McLeman and Erin McNish are pictured with Emma Carrique, Regional Recruiter, Fastenal Canada, and Patrick Charlton, Professor, School of Business and Hospitality.
On Wednesday, Nov. 26, the DARE Incubator space in C278 was standing room only and abuzz with nerves and excitement, as six third-year Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) (Honours) learners presented their sales case pitches to a panel of external judges from Fastenal Canada and Invest Ottawa.
Fastenal Canada’s generous sponsorship provided students with a hands-on learning experience with a realistic business-to-business (B2B) sales case.
The six-week program saw over eight School of Business and Hospitality alumni return to coach current students and give back to the next generation of competitors during their training process.
Patrick Charlton, Professor with the School of Business and Hospitality, coordinated this initiative with colleagues and leadership support from Dr. Mark Dottori, Professor and Coordinator; Dr. Ahmad Teymouri, Acting Chair, Heidi Upson Ferris, Chair and Cory Haskins, Dean, School of Business and Hospitality. “I can confidently express on behalf of the coaches and College leadership that the students’ dedication, discipline and willingness to push yourselves beyond your comfort zones did not go unnoticed. Watching them grow, refine their presentations and embrace the role of true sales professionals, respecting the Fastenal Canada case scenario, is inspiring,” said Charlton.
Haskins shared Charlton’s sentiments about the value of extra-curriculars like this — “To me, this is what education is all about. Algonquin does this really well. It is bringing together our industry partners to help us, that collaboration piece with our alumni and mentors, to help our students learn and grow and get ready to go out into the industry,” said Haskins.
Preparation for this competition included a rehearsal ‘Mock Night’ presentation a week prior, as well as mentoring and coaching from Brent Windsor, Professor, Business Administration and two School of Business and Hospitality alumni, Brendan McBride and Jamie Miller. “Every time I come back and work with students, I learn something new through teaching and explaining, whether it be about presentation skills, the products themselves and working with clients in a possible sales call. I always have insights that I didn’t have the first time while doing it, so coming back as an alumna has been an invaluable experience,” said Miller.
The pitches were created and rehearsed over six intensive weeks, extra-curricular to their regular class schedules. Each group presented a 20-minute pitch proposing a Fastenal Canada – FastVend product to the “client” played by the guest judges, a vending machine to distribute Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in an efficient way, adding real-time data tracking such as inventory and breaking down the savings cost and communicating the overall unique value proposition.
After a very tense judging debrief by guest judges Ella Wiggins of Invest Ottawa and James Heer, Pat Logan, Josh Hariski and Matthew Pennett of Fastenal Canada, teams were announced by the Judge Marshall – Stephen Gagne, Entrepreneurship Officer, with first, second and third place. The first-place winners, Claire McLeman and Erin McNish, won a custom trophy made in-house in the Makerspace at the Ottawa Campus. All teams were provided certificates, swag items and gift cards from Fastenal Canada, presented by Emma Carrique. Competitors displayed their skills to the Fastenal Canada panel of guest judges and a special additional guest judge from Invest Ottawa.
“It can be really scary, stepping out of your comfort zone; any opportunity that you get to do so can lead to really great friendships that you wouldn’t have expected. One of my highlights was working with partner Claire. It sets you up for skills you may not get in your day-to-day, so just go for it,” shared McNish.
McLeman shared McNish’s sentiments about the experience, “I agree, one of the biggest challenges was the initial saying ‘yes’ to doing this whole competition. It’s been an amazing experience over the past 6 weeks. It’s been such a learning curve, adding all of the things that we’ve learned in our theory classes into an actual presentation, building the script, building a friendship; it’s been such a fun experience. Overall, I’m so glad I said yes. If you get the opportunity – do it! It opens so many doors for the future, it’s an amazing experience,”.
Congratulations to all competitors and learners of the Bachelor of Commerce program (Marketing) (Honours), Karmanya Kaushik, Clay Dimara, Nicholas Paquette, Austin Nemchin, Claire McLeman and Erin McNish.
To learn more about the College’s business programs, visit the School of Business and Hospitality website.
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Media contact
Meg Fraser
Communications Officer
Algonquin College
613-302-0138
fraserm2@algonquincollege.com