Jones Center News

Tepper School of Business Team Wins Again at the 2008 Global Moot Corp Competiton in Texas

For the third time in the past five years a Tepper School of Business team has won the "Super Bowl" of business plan competitons - the Global Moot Corp Competition at the University of Texas in Austin.

Tepper student Raymond Sekula and Carnegie Institute of Technology Ph.D. candidate Sasha Bakhru won the grand prize at Moot Corp with their venture NeuroBank. NeuroBank has developed (and filed for patent on proprietary technology) a method to harvest, isolate, expand and store neurologic stem cells from cerebrospinal fluid.

NeuroLife won $25,000 cash in additon to services valued at $75,000. Sekula and Bakhru also get to open the NASDAQ market in New York City on August 15, 2008.

Tepper Team Wins Life Science Track at 2008 McGinnis Venture Competition

For the second time in five years, a team from the Tepper School of Business won the grand prize in the Life Science Track of the McGinnis Venture Competition held on March 13-15, 2008. Alberto Gandini (MBA, 2009) and Salman Mukhtar (MBA, 2009) are working on a venture called Tropical Health Systems, which is looking to cure malaria through a new blood-purification medical device. As the grand-prize winner of the Life Science Track, Tropical Health Systems secured a $20,000 investment, $25,000 worth of legal and intellectual property services, and a spot in the upcoming Global Moot Corp Competition in Texas.

“We had another strong competition this year, with the most teams we have ever had,” said Arthur A. Boni (director of the Jones Center). “We also introduced a third track – the Sustainable Technology Track.”

Twenty-three teams from 21 schools took part in the 2008 McGinnis Venture Competition. Sustainable technology joined life science and technology as three separate categories (or tracks) that each offered a top prize of $20,000 and $25,000 worth of in-kind assistance. The University of Manitoba won the Technology Track’s grand prize, and Yale University took home the grand prize in the Sustainable Technology Track. Manitoba’s team is an early-stage construction technology firm, while the Yale team is focused on generating power through wind-turbine technology.

“The addition of the Sustainable Track is an exciting and timely addition to our competition,” said Boni. “Many new ventures are incorporating sustainable principles and applications into their business plans, so it was a natural move for us to develop a new track that specifically focused on ventures with an overall sustainable philosophy.”

The Manitoba team also earned a spot at the 2008 Global Moot Corp Competition with its win. The University of Louisville won the $2,000 Elevator Pitch Award.