Elevator Pitch Competition

Undergraduate Winners:

• First Place: Trevor Shepard for  Green Light Scheduling
• Second Place: Tyler Casperson and Tim Smith for Mouth Brush
• Third Place: Mariel Donoso, Kent Ownings, Lupe Gonzales, and Dustin Atkins for Instint

Graduate Winners:

• First Place: David Rush for WAW Green Ammonia
• Second Place: Kristin Bierle for Alzar School
• Third Place: Siddarth Dhanasekaran for Palmistry

Business Plan Competition

Undergraduate Winners:

• First Place: Shawn Phillips, Brittany Reed, Steven Schrader, and Alisher Siddikov for MyRoadTrip.com
• Second Place: Rachael Garner, Tyler Casperson, Ryan Underdahl, Timothy Smith, and Paul Greenfield for The Ledge
• Third Place: Jennifer Orr, Matt Jost, and Chase Lowther for BBL Built-in Bike Light

Graduate Winners:

• First Place: Michelle Sabick, Lisa Laajala, Mike Mercil, and Sara Gomez for Innovative Cardiology
• Second Place: Tim Perry, Jane Reed, Elizabeth Pearson, and Igor Zagorskiy for Accumulus
• Third Place: Andrew Smyth, Dean Hahn, Ellie Reese, and Thomas Shoeck for Scratch X

The Competitions and prizes were made possible through the generous sponsorship of Key Bank and United Heritage Insurance.

David’s team came in 3rd in the preliminary round of the 2009 Global Moot Corp Business Plan Competition losing out to a team that was a finalist in the competition. The Global Champion of the competition was Novophage Therapeutics, a team from Boston University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, that provides a novel approach to combat antibiotics-resistant infections by combining engineering bacteriophages with antibiotics. The Novophage team was made of an MD/PhD., a PhD and an MBA and took home $135,000 in prizes.

The other teams in the Benchmark Capital Challenge round included: Fluoptics has developed a patented system for intra-operative cancer imaging that simultaneously reduces the risk of remission and increases quality of life post-operation (E.M. Lyon, France), SOVAmed provides a means for assessing vascular diseases in radiological image data by means of computer-aided procedures as a distant service provider (Wissenschaftliche Hochschule fur Untemehmenffuhrung WHU, Germany) and Cee-bot allows people to interactively design robots via the internet and interactively telecontrol the actions of the robots with real-time visual feedback and other hepatic feedbacks (Chinese University of Hong Kong, China).

Thirty eight (38) teams from around the world competed in the 2009 Global Moot Corp Business Plan Competition. These included:

USA

• Boise State University
• Boston University
• Brigham Young University
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Colorado School of Mines
• Fayetteville State University
• Kennesaw State University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Northwestern University
• San Diego State University
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Texas at Dallas
• University of Arkansas
• University of California at Berkeley
• University of Chicago
• University of Louisville
• University of Michigan
• University of Oregon
• University of San Francisco
• University of Utah

Australia

• University of Adelaide (Australia)

Canada

• Queen’s University
• University of Manitoba
• University of Waterloo

China

• Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Columbia

• Pontifica Universidad Javeriana
• Universidad de los Andes

France

• E.M. Lyon

Germany

• Wissenschaftliche Hochschule fur Untemehmenffuhrung (WHU)

Great Britain

• London Business School
• University of Oxford

Mexico

• Centro de Investigacion en Materiales Avanzados

Norway

• Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Thailand

• Thammasat University

Governor Butch Otter will be the keynote speaker the induction ceremony to be held Wednesday, April 29 fro 6:00 – 7:00 p.m in the Grand B ballroom at the Student Union Building.

2009 Beta Gamma Sigma Program and list of inductees

Beta Gamma Sigma Background

Beta Gamma Sigma was established in 1913 and is the business equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa. Membership is the highest honor bestowed upon graduate and undergraduate business students.

Beta Gamma Sigma has inducted more than 605,000 outstanding students into membership since its founding in 1913. These 605,000 members have served in corporate, government, non-profit, educational, and other management positions at every level of responsibility. Members currently reside in all 50 U.S. states and more than 160 countries around the world.

The Society maintains an active database with more than 480,000 members’ mailing addresses and other information. In 2007-08, the Society inducted about 22,000 new members.

Beta Gamma Sigma has established 481 collegiate chapters in all 50 U.S. states and 18 countries and territories at schools accredited by AACSB International. Additionally, 20 alumni chapters serve the needs of alumni members in major metropolitan areas, including Hong Kong.

The eight student team consisted of: David Andrews, Sara Byrne, Jamie Chaffin, Lisa Frazier, Sarah Gridley, Kamile Ishiyama, Evan Nolevanko, and Jennifer Stemple.

The National Student Advertising Competition is the premier college advertising competition. It provides more than 3,000 college students with real-world experience by requiring a strategic advertising/marketing/media campaign for a corporate sponsor. Schools receiving first place from each district competition are selected to present their campaigns to a panel of industry executives at the American Advertising Federation National Conference.

This year’s corporate sponsor was, The Century Counsel, a group of distillers fighting drunk driving and underage drinking. This year’s mission was to create a campaign targeted towards college students to help combat the binge drinking problem that is so prevalent on college campuses today. Boise State accomplished this with the “Retool Your Reality” Campaign, which communicates a disconnect between student perceptions and reality.

Judges, who were advertising executives from around the west, were thoroughly impressed with the “Retool Your Reality” Campaign, and the difference between 1st and 2nd place (Portland State and Boise State) was within a point. Congratulations to the team and their astounding performance!

Contact Information: For more information, please contact the College of Business and Economics Marketing Department at 426-5384.

(From left to right) David Andrews, Sarah Gridley, Jamie Chaffin, Jay Longwell, Kamile Ishiyama, Evan Nolevanko, Sara Byrne, Lisa Frazier, and Jen Stemple

Boise State Center for Entrepreneurship held the first annual Elevator Pitch Competition and the results were impressive. The ideas generated by Boise State graduate and undergraduate students impressed the panel of judges with both their innovation and viability. Over $3,500 was awarded for graduate and undergraduate categories in best technology, most green, most viable and best presentation.  Before the event, entrepreneur and Boise State alumnus Clay Young, co-founder of Inovus Solar and ProClarity, discussed challenges for entrepreneurs.

For the complete Elevator Pitch Competition results click on: Boise State Elevator Pitch Competition 2009 Results

To view the Idaho Statesman article on the Elevator Pitch Competition click here.

Photo Gallery

This year’s honorees are:

Boise – Denise Buske, Human Resource Management; Amanda Clausen, Accountancy Taxation; Jon Daley, Masters of Business Administration; Maria Shimel, Management; Daniel Simenc, Management; Erin Taylor, Information Technology; Steve Wargo, Accountancy; Mark Woychick, Masters of Business Administration

Bonners Ferry – Johanna Farrell, International Business

Meridian – Melissa Warwick, Finance

Idaho Falls – Jake Davis, Entrepreneurship; and Jason Davis, Supply Chain Management

Payette – Jennifer Stemple, Marketing

Twin Falls – Jeff Woods, Masters of Science in Accountancy

For more information about Boise State’s College of Business and Economics and its programs, call (208) 426-4950 or visit http://cobe.boisestate.edu.

Contact: Sherry Squires, University Communications, (208) 426-1563, ssquires@boisestate.edu

Vietnam MBA Alumni Chapter - Center Prof. Napier

Boise State’s first international alumni chapter has been formed in Vietnam.

The Vietnam alums are graduates of an English language MBA program that Boise State ran in Vietnam from 1990-99, the first ever internationally accredited MBA program conducted in Vietnam. There were 84 graduates of the program, many of who now run their own successful companies or hold leadership positions in the private or public sector in Vietnam.

“Its great to see and feel ourselves part of the alma mater,” said Ha Nguyen, a 1997 graduate who has helped lead the chartering process and is serving as president for the alumni chapter.

The Vietnam alums have maintained ties with Boise State through former professors, including Nancy Napier, a professor of international business who headed up the Vietnam MBA program and still teaches courses in Hanoi once a year. She just visited this month and took the newly formed chapter members Boise State pompoms, luggage tags and other alumni association membership items.

“This is our first international chapter, so it’s very new for Boise State,” said Jennifer Wheeler, senior associate director for alumni relations at Boise State. “We have set up a Web page to help them communicate with us and each other.”

The purpose of the Boise State Alumni Vietnam Chapter is to provide closer contact between the university and the Vietnam alums. But the formation of the chapter could have other positive results.

The Boise State alums also met with Sabine Klahr, director of international programs at Boise State, and colleague Chalimar Swain, when they visited Hanoi prior to joining an Idaho trade mission to Asia in Ho Chi Minh City, led by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter in October.

The purpose of the trip was to promote the trade, business and education exchange between Vietnam and Idaho. Klahr said that current alums in Hanoi were very helpful in setting up meetings with educational consultants in Hanoi and plans are in the works to bring Vietnamese students to Boise State’s intensive English program (and into the university after completing their intensive English studies.) While Klahr met with the Boise alums, she encouraged them to develop a Vietnam alumni chapter. The Boise State alums also hope to serve as a bridge for business between Idaho and Vietnam.

An international chapter is unusual given that it takes at least 750 Boise State alums in one location to create a formal geographic chapter. But Boise State Alumni Association Executive Director Mark Arstein said the alumni association was so impressed with the Vietnam alums’ energy, commitment, and the fact that many of them have become dues-paying members, that the association waived the requirement to bring the group of dedicated alumni into the Bronco network.

For more information about the Vietnam alumni chapter, visit http://alumni.boisestate.edu/groups/vietnam.asp

(source Boise State Communications & Marketing)

Associate Dean of Graduate studies, Kirk Smith, was publicly acknowledged by MBA graduate, Andrew Artis. Artis won an Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award and is highlighted in our Alumni Spotlight.  According to Artis, “Students in the College of Business and Economics should not take for granted the quality of instruction they receive. The professors at Boise State are among the finest and most dedicated I have ever worked with. In fact, Dr. Kirk Smith gave me my first job as a college professor and still mentors me to this very day.”

Andrew Artis, MBA '87

Andrew Artis of the University of South Florida Polytechnic has received one of 12 Universitywide 2007-2008 Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Awards. The USF system includes nearly 3,000 faculty members across four campuses. An assistant professor of marketing in the Division of Business, Artis received an MBA from Boise State in 1987.

“When you win an award like this you realize that you didn’t earn it by yourself,” says Artis. “I am truly grateful to the great teachers in Boise State’s MBA program who instilled in me their passion for learning. It was that enthusiasm that propelled me to earn my Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee and on to the University of South Florida as an assistant professor.”

According to Artis, “Students in the College of Business and Economics should not take for granted the quality of instruction they receive. The professors at Boise State are among the finest and most dedicated I have ever worked with. In fact, Dr. Kirk Smith gave me my first job as a college professor and still mentors me to this very day.”

“I did not realize just how competent and capable the students at Boise State were until I left Boise,” he continued. “The world knows about the blue turf and the Fiesta Bowl victory, but it needs to know that there is just as much talent in the classroom as on the football field.”