Press Release

The University of Arizona students take top competition honors

McGuire Entrepreneurship at the Eller College is crème de la crème in producing top business plan competitors

TUCSON, Ariz. – MARCH 14, 2006 – Late nights, early mornings, team disputes, foreign travel, pride, and achievement — this is one student’s summation of an intense semester culminating in the birth of a plan for an entrepreneurial venture and the realization of a dream.

Two student teams from the nationally ranked McGuire Entrepreneurship Program at the Eller College of Management took 1st place and 2nd place in separate intercollegiate business plans competitions in the same weekend. McGuire undergraduate team Original Theory received top honors at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, triumphing over a field of more than 50 competitors from business schools throughout the U.S. and Canada. The multidisciplinary graduate team MSDx, LLC — with students from biology, medicine, and business — placed second at the prestigious Spirit of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (SEED) business plan competition sponsored by Westmont College, Santa Barbara, Calif. The SEED competition included more than 80 teams.

Capitalizing on the art background of art history and entrepreneurship major Michael Farkas, team Original Theory developed a business plan for an online service to promote, publish, and sell student art. Team members Farkas, Jonathan Pucciarelli, Stephen Tanenbaum, and Greg Rosborough, all seniors, received an award of $15,000 which they plan to use toward the launch of their company.

“It was like one of those big checks you see pro golfers take home from tournaments,” laughed Rosborough, senior marketing and entrepreneurship major. “It was funny carrying it through the airport because it drew a lot of attention. We go to the Enterprise Creation Competition, hosted by Indiana, Ball State, and Syracuse Universities in a couple of weeks, and if we win that we will have almost enough money to really make some things happen with this venture.”

MSDx, LLC continued a McGuire tradition of earning a spot among the top eight teams in the SEED competition, and achieved the program’s best finish yet. Team members Stephen Basset, Allan Conger, Simran Nirh, and Marie Wesselhoft developed a business plan for a patented blood test to detect Multiple Sclerosis. Bassett brought his biology expertise from the College of Science to the table to facilitate the project conception.

“We are proud of the accomplishments of these students. Both awards show that good things happen when students with very different backgrounds are exposed to a curriculum that mimics the integrated way in which real-world business problems are solved. The success of Team MSDx, LLC highlights the real value of integrating science and business management,” said Paul Portney, dean of the Eller College of Management.

SEED Competition Finalists

• Allied Polymer, Inc., Duke University
• Berz Perspective Designs, Inc., Washington State University
• Bosna Sauna, LLC, Syracuse University
• Internet Security Company, Inc., University of Georgia
• Just Kidding, LLC, University of Houston
• MSDx, LLC, The University of Arizona
• Polaris Athletic Training Systems, LLC, Westmont College
• Safe and Happy Foods, Inc., Columbia Business School, NY
• Waste Wide Technologies, Inc., Rice University

The McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, established in 1984, is a pioneer in university entrepreneurship.  The capstone program, the McGuire Entrepreneurship Program, offers degree and/or associate programs to graduate and undergraduate students from all UA fields of study. The McGuire Center has been consistently ranked in the top 5% of all programs since its inception, including #2 by Entrepreneur / The Princeton Review and #6 globally by Financial Times.

The Eller College of Management at The University of Arizona is internationally recognized for pioneering research, innovative curriculum, distinguished faculty, excellence in entrepreneurship, and social responsibility. U.S.News & World Report ranks the Eller undergraduate program #12 among public business schools and five of its departments are among the top 25 — Entrepreneurship, MIS, Marketing, Management and Organizations, and Accounting. The MPA program in the School of Public Administration and Policy ranks in the top 50. Financial Times ranks the Eller MBA full-time program #27 in the U.S. and #57 in the world, and Forbes ranks the program among the top 50 nationwide. The College leads the nation’s business schools in generating grant funds for research. In addition to a full-time MBA program, the Eller College offers an evening MBA program, and the Eller Executive MBA. The Eller College of Management supports more than 5,100 undergraduate and 600 graduate students on the UA campus in beautiful Tucson, Arizona.

Press Contact:
Liz Warren-Pederson, Eller College of Management
520.626.9547, news@eller.arizona.edu