Booth Students Shine in Case Competition
Throughout the academic year, students from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business teamed up to take home several top prizes in case competitions around the country. Here’s a run down of this year’s winners and award recipients:
Kellogg Real Estate Venture Competition
A team of Chicago Booth students won a $100,000 first-place prize at the Kellogg Real Estate Venture Competition for their proposal to to build a data center under Chicago’s Loop. The team was made up of Weekend MBA student Rob Joyce, Evening MBA student Matt Olsen, and Full-Time MBA students Jan de Kuyper and Scott Ebbott.
Clean Energy Challenge
The Clean Energy Challenge’s Pritzker Prize of $100,000 went to NETenergy, an energy-storage provider whose COO is Weekend MBA student Mike Pintar. NETenergy also has made it to Phase II of Booth’s New Venture Challenge, one of the nation’s top startup programs.
Global Venture Capital Investment Competition
Full-Time MBA students Brian Blamey, Kara Davey, Jennifer Fried, and Josh Rogers teamed with Weekend MBA student Miguel Arcinas to finish third in the Global Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), beating out more than 60 competing business school teams.
Kellogg Biotech & Healthcare Case Competition
Booth’s Team Evidence won the Kellogg Biotech & Healthcare Case Competition at Northwestern University. Judges selected the team’s launch plan that included pricing and forecasting for Amgen’s medication Evolocumab, a newer cholesterol drug under FDA consideration. Dr. Jonas de Souza (an Evening MBA Program student and assistant professor of medicine at University of Chicago Medicine), Lindsay Davis, Jason Lipes, and Barry Sandall shared the $5,000 first-place prize.
“We strongly believe that the education we are getting at Booth helped us,” said Dr. Jonas de Souza.
December Ross Investment Competition
Full-Time MBA students Andy Toussaint, Ahsen Amir-Ali, Cheng Zhu and Hadi Harake took home the $4,000 first prize at the December Ross Investment Competition in Michigan, where a jury of investment professionals acted as potential investors as they listened to each team’s pitch. Teams presented fundamentals supporting their picks, and the winner was chosen based on its analyses over two rounds of pitches.
“We’re really happy about it and also happy to be another Booth team that has achieved success,” Toussaint said.
About the Author
Max Pulcini
Max Pulcini is a Philadelphia-based writer and reporter. He has an affinity for Philly sports teams, Super Smash Bros. and cured meats and cheeses. Max has written for Philadelphia-based publications such as Spirit News, Philadelphia City Paper, and Billy Penn, as well as national news outlets like The Daily Beast.
