Emerging Markets Institute Team Selected as Semi-Finalists in The mai Bangkok Business Challenge @ Sasin

The Emerging Markets Institute at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University is pleased to announce a Johnson team has advanced to the semi-finals round in The mai Bangkok Business Challenge® @ Sasin business plan competition. The team of Johnson and Cornell students, comprises Lawrence Linker, Jessica Wang, and Prem Jayaram, all MBA ’12; and Oluwaseun Awotunde and  Cristian Shoemaker, graduate students in the College of Engineering. They advanced with their  proposal to convert palm biomass into energy in Malaysia. The team’s focus on sustainable innovation reflects the competition’s goal to bring sustainability to the forefront of business practices.

The mai Bangkok Business Challenge @ Sasin provides an international platform in which institutions offering graduate programs in business administration in Thailand, Asia, and the rest of the world can compete, learn, and foster strong business relationships.  Hosted by the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University, this year’s competition is pioneering a new way of evaluating participants’ business plans by judging them not only for their venture's economic soundness, but also for their abilities to address relevant social and environmental concerns.

“We are delighted that this team has been selected to present their business plan in Bangkok,” said Richard J. Coyle, executive director of the Emerging Markets Institute. “Only one other team from the United States advanced into the semi-finals in this global competition for sustainable enterprise. The Johnson team members really demonstrated their ability to identify and commercialize a new market opportunity in Malaysia.”

Team leader, Lawrence Linker, added, “As Johnson students, we are uniquely positioned to compete at the mai Bangkok Business Challenge, because of our focus on entrepreneurship, sustainability, and emerging markets.  A lot of extremely talented people have been a part of this project, and we are extraordinarily excited to present our ideas in this forum.”

As one of the top 16 teams selected from the 55 entries, the Johnson team will now compete at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok from March 1 to 3, 2012.  Winners of the competition will share a $10,000 prize, and should the Johnson team win, the Emerging Markets Institute would be recognized with a $2,000 award.

Sorce: http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/About/News-Publications/Article-Detail/ArticleId/955/Emerging-Markets-Institute-Team-Selected-as-Semi-Finalists-in-The-mai-Bangkok-Business-Challenge-Sas.aspx