Lancaster MBA students win place at world's richest and largest business planning competition
Published 19 March 2010
A team of Lancaster MBA students has won entry to the Rice University Business Plan Competition. This competition is the most prestigious of its kind in the world, and entry to this final stage is extremely tough, with only 10% of entrants from leading business schools around the world being selected.
Teams compete for more than $800,000 in cash and prizes. The competition is judged by venture capital managers, angel investors and other members of the entrepreneurial community. More important than the winners' cash prize of $325,000 is the opportunity to network and receive mentoring from successful entrepreneurs.
The plan put forward by the Lancaster team is to create a company 'Gaea Naturals Limited' that uses an innovative approach to industrial waste water recycling that reduces energy consumption and helps industries meet sustainability targets, meet regulatory obligations, save costs and reduce their carbon footprint. The Lancaster team combines the entrepreneurial vision and abilities of three members of the Full-time MBA class, Manoj Krishnapillai, Sonu Bubna and Juan C Reyes, with environmental knowledge from the Lancaster Environment Centre, brought by PhD student Shams Qamar Usmani.
This represents a fantastic opportunity for the Lancaster students to gain knowledge and funding that will help them get this business off the ground. Chris Saunders, Director of the full-time MBA at Lancaster University Management School, said: “This is one of the most difficult business planning competitions to gain entry to and we are very proud of Manoj, Sonu and Juan for getting to the finals in Houston. Their business idea is a fantastic one for driving sustainable business practice in the industry. We fully support the team and wish them every success in the final.”
Professor Sue Cox, Dean of Lancaster University Management School, said: “I am delighted to offer my support to the Lancaster University Management School team. This is the most prestigious business planning competition in the world and I am tremendously proud that our MBA students have reached the final in two out of three years. Their achievement is great accolade both to them personally and to the quality of our MBA programme. We wish them all the very best.”
The final takes place in at Rice University in Houston, USA on 15–17 April 2010. The team have also been supported by an International Travel Award towards the expenses of participation generously provided by AAI Global Equity, one of the competition’s major sponsors.
For more information please contact Chris Saunders on +44 (0)1524 593473 or c.j.saunders@lancaster.ac.uk
Left to right: Manoj Krishnapillai, Shams Qamar Usmani, Sonu Bubna, Dr Frank Cave and Juan C. Reyes.
