MBA teams score big at major case and business plan competitions

Big Win At UCLA

From left, Brenna Donoghue, Ben Reynolds, Farnaz Shahed,Adam Grahn and Karim Hemani (all MBA’09s), took home first place and $25,000 at the 2nd annual Global Business Leadership Competition hosted by UCLA Anderson School of Management in April. This two-day, by-invitation case competition features MBA students from 16 top business schools from around the world, including HEC School of Management (France), London Business School (UK) and University of Chicago Booth School of Business (USA). Teams competed in three case modules focused on leadership issues in the global environment.

Victory In Boston

Team QSB, made up of Luba Protopopova (far left), Jason Vopni, Adam Gordon and Farnaz Shahed, took home top honours and the $25,000 prize at the Technology Strategy Business Case Competition hosted by Boston University School of Management in April. Teams from the world’s leading MBA programs were invited to participate. This 24-hour case competition required teams to solve a market challenge focusing on technology in business strategy and operations.

Top Spot At UWO

Also in April, Amit Bhalla (far left), Shyam Ramchandani and Ryan Son Kee captured first place and the grand prize of $25,000 at the 2009 IBK Capital/Ivey Business Plan Competition in London, ON. Their business plan for Team Epitherapeutics, producer of an anti-cancer drug, was judged best of those submitted by MBA teams from 12 Canadian universities. Other competitions this spring saw the team share second-place honours and the $8,000 prize at the University of Louisville and tie for third at the University of San Francisco, where the prize consisted of $1,000 and legal and patent advice from a San Francisco law firm valued at $5,000.