For the Milnes, gaining knowledge at Ivey Business School is a family affair.
Zoë Milne, a first-year honours business administration (HBA1) student, joined Ivey in September.
She had some inspiration at home. Her father, Dr. Ken Milne, is in Ivey’s executive MBA program. Her brother, Ethan Milne, HBA’20, is now pursuing a PhD. Both deeply immersed in their own programs, their Ivey experiences piqued Zoë’s interest. She recalls being intrigued by Ivey’s case-method learning after participating in a sibling case class at Ethan’s HBA1 Family Weekend (then called Parents’ Day). Witnessing Ethan’s and Ken’s experiences since then only cemented the deal for her.
“Having my family here has 100 per cent added to the experience,” she said.
“Talking to my dad about what the professors are like has helped me feel more comfortable, so on day one I was already speaking up. And my brother helped me to understand the expectations at Ivey and whether this was the place I want to be.” – Zoë Milne, first-year honours business administration student
While Ethan was the first of the Milne trio at Ivey, he’s not the first in the family. His great uncle, Michael Lubell, graduated from the HBA program in 1961.
Research assistant, editor, co-founder
Ethan transferred into the HBA program after two years at the University of Waterloo and had great success at Ivey.
In addition to being a research assistant, writer and editor for Ivey Business Review and co-founder of medical device startup Marlow while in the HBA program, he received the gold medal for academic excellence in the program. Interested in business-related research after doing some medical research with his dad, Ethan began a PhD in marketing, working with Miranda Goode and Kirk Kristofferson, and is expected to complete the program in 2025. If so, both father and son will graduate together at Western’s spring convocation. Ethan will then have the title “Dr. Milne,” just like his father.
“There will be extra, extra confusion,” he said. “My parents told me when I went to university that I should be a doctor, lawyer or accountant. I chose doctor, but a different kind of doctor than my dad.”
From medicine to business
After working as a physician for 30 years, doing medical research for 40 years and teaching at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Ken was contemplating the next chapter of his career. Hearing about Ethan’s research pursuits inspired him to do an executive MBA (EMBA) to apply his experience as a clinician and medical researcher to another area and learn how business can apply to emergency medicine. Ken joked about another motive for studying business – he wants to move beyond just nodding politely when his wife, Barb Lubell – president of Vintage Investment Properties Ltd. – talks shop at the dinner table.
“Barb is very involved in the business world and has done well, I want to share that with her and understand it just like she tries to understand what I do as a physician,” he said.
“I also want to explore things that are outside of my comfort zone and will provide me with a lot of growth and networking – to individuals and ideas – that I’m not exposed to in the silo of medicine.” – Dr. Ken Milne, pursuing his executive MBA at Ivey
Ken is now in his last EMBA term and will complete the program in January 2025.
Like father, like daughter
With an interest in finance, Zoë is following in the footsteps of her mother, father and brother. She recently completed Ivey’s Women in Asset Management (WAM) program and a summer internship at RBC Global Asset Management before starting her HBA. She recalled hiding family photos in the background when interviewing for the WAM program, so professor Steve Foerster, HBA’81, wouldn’t see pictures of Ken, who was being taught by Foerster at that time.
“I did disown him (Ken) at the time and then afterwards (once accepted), I had a nice conversation with Steve (Foerster) about it and learned we are his first-ever father-daughter teaching combination,” she said.
After being exposed to capital markets through WAM, Zoë is now interested in pursuing a career in that area.
The ties that bind
There has been no shortage of overlap for Ken, Ethan, and Zoë during their journeys at Ivey. They’ve had the same professors. Ethan has tutored Ken. Both Ethan and Ken highlighted their joint work on a pediatric resuscitation device in their Ivey applications. Ethan also shared his research papers with both his father and sister – Ken cited one in his class. As a research assistant with the Ivey Behavioural Lab, directed by Kristofferson, Zoë often executes research studies that Ethan designed.
“We have all these weird interconnections between the faculty and the three of us,” said Ethan.
Zoë said she’s even hoping Ethan will get a chance to teach one of her classes before he embarks on a career as a marketing professor.
“I’d love to have him as a guest lecturer because I know he’d do a fantastic job,” she said. “But I draw the line at calling him ‘Professor,’ or ‘Sir,’ or ‘Dr. Milne.’ He’ll always be ‘Chicken’ (family nickname) to me.”
The only missing sibling is Ken’s other daughter, Sage Milne, who is doing a master’s of science at the University of Guelph.
“We will need to recruit Sage to join the Ivey ‘family’ Business School,” he said.
The Milne family joked that together they’ve built up a library of business books and so much Ivey clothing they have matching wardrobes.
“When we’re doing the laundry, it’s like, ‘Whose shirt is this? It just says Ivey on it,’” Ken said with a laugh.
Investing in the future
Although it’s an investment to have three family members at Ivey at once, Ken said he’s confident it will pay off long term.
“You can look at it as a cost, or you can look at it as an investment. Certainly, the dollar figure may be high but the reward or return on investment is even higher,” he said.
And although their paths are crossing at Ivey, they each have different destinations.
“We’re all doing very different things. I’m sure Zoë will have a successful business career, he (Ken) will still be a doctor and I’m going to be a professor,” said Ethan. “Ivey has been able to help us with each of those things.”
