Campus News

UK, Gatton Students in Major Entrepreneurial Competitions

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 8, 2015)  Students from the University of Kentucky’s MBA and undergraduate programs will be competing in several major intercollegiate entrepreneurial and business plan competitions over the next few weeks.

·         A team of Gatton College MBA students is traveling to the University of South Carolina for the 2015 SEC MBA Case Competition taking place April 9-11.

·         Another team of Gatton MBA students is competing in the third annual Alltech Innovation Competition April 11 at the Newtown Campus of Bluegrass Community and Technical College.

·         Four graduate and undergraduate student teams will represent UK in the statewide Idea State U Competition April 25 at the Lexington Center.

·         A UK MBA team has been invited to compete in the Global Venture Labs Investment Competition May 8-9 at the University of Texas in Austin. This premier worldwide competition is often referred to as the Super Bowl of Investment Competitions.

About the Student Teams

UK’s “SEC Team” — James Davey, Jordan McMurtrey, Luke Williams and Lauren Scanlon  will compete against teams from each of the 14 Southeastern Conference universities. Each team will analyze information about a current, real-world problem facing a company and present their strategy for addressing it before a panel of judges. This year’s case will tackle a strategic sustainability issue facing a global mining company.

The “Red Natural” team of four MBA students — Joanna Foresman, Andrew Wachs, Jeremy Madigan, and Qianwen Zhao  developed a business plan for a natural source of red food dye based on research by Seth DeBolt in UK’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. This team recently competed in the Georgia Bowl business plan competition hosted by Georgia Tech and was recognized for having the best long-term business potential. “Red Natural” will be competing in the Alltech, Idea State U, and Global Venture Labs competitions.

The “AIRboost” team of three MBA students — William Walker, Kyle Hogue, and Bryan O’Neill  developed a business plan for a mining safety product based on research by Andrzej Wala and Todor Petrov in UK’s College of Engineering. This team recently competed in the Cardinal Challenge business plan competition and placed second in the fast-pitch competition. “AIRboost” will be competing in the statewide Idea State U competition.

UK College of Design graduate student Mark Manzcyk has developed a business model for “re.3” which will produce sustainable consumer accessories, like sunglasses, with an end of use program, which offers customers incentives to recycle old products. “re.3” won UK’s internal student Venture Challenge competition and will be competing at Idea State U.

The “FinanceU” team of two Gatton undergraduate students — Michael Lewis and T.J. Barnett  created an innovative, community-based platform that empowers students to build their own scholarship through crowdfunding. This team recently placed third in both the UK Venture Challenge and the statewide regional competitions. “FinanceU” will be competing at Idea State U.

About the Gatton Programs

The Gatton College of Business and Economics provides academic and experiential learning opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students interested in entrepreneurship. Three of the teams participated in a new MBA elective focused on technology commercialization where student teams developed business plans based on UK intellectual property or business concepts from program sponsors.

“We are really looking forward to the SEC competition and feel like our students are ready for the challenge,” said Harvie Wilkinson, director of Gatton's MBA Programs.

“We are very proud of these students,” said Dean Harvey, executive director of the Von Allmen Center for Entrepreneurship within the Gatton College. “They have taken their business ideas beyond the classroom and are gaining invaluable experience in these competitions.”

Advisors to the UK students include Wilkinson; Gordon Holbein, Gatton senior lecturer; Harvey; Mariam Gorjian, commercialization specialist, in the Von Allmen Center; Deb Weis, director of the Innovation Network for Entrepreneurial Thinking (iNET) in the College of Communication and Information; and, Warren Nash of the Lexington Office of the Kentucky Innovation Network, also part of the Gatton College.

 

 

MEDIA CONTACTS: Carl Nathe, 859-257-3200/carl.nathe@uky.edu; Ann Mary Quarandillo, 859-257-0750/annmary.q@uky.edu.