Press Release

McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship inaugurates Emergent Entrepreneurs Award

Recipients Jeffrey Kaiserman and Stephen Ochoa, owners of Frost, A Gelato Shoppe, celebrated for their vision

TUCSON, Ariz. – April 27, 2006 – “Clearly destined for entrepreneurial greatness” is the selection criteria for the new McGuire Center Award in Entrepreneurship — the Emergent Entrepreneur’s Award. Given the extraordinary success of their first venture, certainly the 2006 recipients of the award are that.

The University of Arizona alumni Jeffrey Kaiserman ‘03 and Stephen Ochoa ‘03, creators and owners of Frost, A Gelato Shoppe in Tucson, Ariz., will be the first recipients of the Emergent Entrepreneur’s Award which will be inaugurated at the CB Richard Ellis/McGuire Entrepreneurship Business Plans Competition and Year End Celebration Friday, April 28.

“The award is designed specifically to capture and celebrate dynamic and visionary entrepreneurs on the rise,” said Sherry Hoskinson, director of the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship. “We are seeing incredible success among a number of the region’s emerging entrepreneurs, and decided that we should be celebrating their stories.”

Kaiserman and Ochoa developed the idea for a gelateria when they were traveling in Italy. The freshly minted UA graduates were thirsty travelers who landed in the Italian equivalent of an ice cream parlor. There, they discovered a different type of frozen confection and the seed for the rebirth of gelato in the U.S. was planted. (Gelato was first brought to the U.S. by Italian immigrants, but eventually evolved into ice cream.)

Kaiserman and Ochoa returned to the U.S., developed a plan, studied at Gelato University, imported the Italian equipment and ingredients needed to create an authentic product, and launched the company in May 2005. “We went to ‘Gelato University’ back East to learn the basics,” Kaiserman told a reporter from the Desert Leaf. “We researched it so we understood what it would involve.”

The business partners are now looking to expand beyond their one location. They are doing the critical research to select the next location for the retail enterprise.

The CB Richard Ellis/McGuire Entrepreneurship Business Plans Competition and Year End Celebration begins at 12:30 p.m. Friday in McClelland Hall, on The University of Arizona campus. Kaiserman and Ochoa will receive the Emergent Entrepreneurs Award during the closing ceremonies that begin about 4:00 p.m. in the Estes Atrium. The day’s events will be followed by a reception. All activities are open to the public.

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