Two teams of MBA students earn prizes in national case competitions held in San Diego, Washington D.C.

Two teams of master of business administration students in the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management recently won first- and second-place prizes in national competitions that challenged them to find solutions to complicated business cases.

Winning a $6,000 first-place prize during the 2005 Howard University Minority Supply Chain Management Case Competition held in Washington, D.C. were Max Estes of Greentown, Ind.; Jenease Thrasher of Southfield, Mich; and Natalya Leahy and Sourish Sarkar, both of East Lansing, Mich. The students were coached by David Closs, the John H. McConnell Chair in Marketing and Supply Chain Management, and associate professors Glenn Omura and Morgan Swink.

Winning a second-place prize of $12,000 during the National Black MBA Case Competition held in San Diego, Calif. were Dara Hickman of Waterloo, Iowa; Carlos Johnson of Detroit, Mich.; Marcus Jones of Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Shigei Gebremedhin of Ithaca, N.Y. They were coached by Robert Wiseman, associate professor of management; Glenn Omura, associate professor of marketing and supply chain management; Chris White, assistant professor of marketing and supply chain management; Tamer Cavusgil, the John William Byington Endowed Chair in Global Marketing; and management professors Kent Miller and William Roering.

The Howard University competition involved a real-life consulting project - a virtual contact center for the Defense Logistic Agency (DLA) - for competition sponsor LMI Consulting. The students were charged with determining the most feasible, customer-oriented, low-risk, cost-efficient center, utilizing logistics, information technology, marketing, operations and human resource competencies.

CitiGroup and United Technologies Corp. sponsored the competition with LMI Consulting.

The National Black MBA Competition, which focused on competition-sponsor DaimlerChrysler's planned 2006 entry into China, involved developing a unique strategy that would position DaimlerChrysler for profitable entry into an extremely competitive and dynamic market.

The National Black MBA Association, which represents more than 100,000 MBA graduates, sponsors the case competition and conference - the largest minority recruiting and networking event in the country.

Winners of the National Black MBA Case Competition were (from left) Shigei Gebremedhin of Ithaca, N.Y.; Dara Hickman of Waterloo, Iowa; Coach Robert Wiseman, associate professor of management; Carlos Johnson of Detroit, Mich.; and Marcus Jones of Ann Arbor, Mich.

Winners of the 2005 Howard University Minority Supply Chain Management Case Competition were (from left) Max Estes of Greentown, Ind.; Sourish Sarkar of East Lansing, Mich.; Natalya Leahy of East Lansing, Mich.; and Jenease Thrasher of Southfield, Mich. They are joined by Jeffery P. Bennet, vice president of logistics management at LMI Consulting (right).

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