UO Students Score Big With Business Plan For Water Arsenic Removal
System
EUGENE, Ore.-A team of University of Oregon graduate business students gained
major yardage in the "Super Bowl" of business plan contests, the Moot
Corp Business Plan Competition held April 30-May 3 at the University of Texas
at Austin. Master of business administration (MBA) students Joseph Beck, Caroline
Palmer and Mark Wall represented the UO Charles H. Lundquist College of Business
with a plan for "Aqua
Essence," which would market a patented arsenic removal system that
allows water suppliers to meet new environmental regulations and prevent arsenic
contamination. The Aqua Essence team competed among teams drawn from 12 feeder
competitions across five continents, finishing fourth overall and beating out
groups from such institutions as Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business,
Oxford University and the University of Michigan.
"Moot Corp is widely recognized as the world's top business plan competition,"
says Randy Swangard, director of the UO Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship.
"Placing in the top four is a stunning achievement and a tribute to the
quality of our students and program." The Aqua Essence technology was developed
by researchers with Battelle Memorial Institute, which employs a worldwide staff
of engineers who develop new technologies. Battelle worked with the UO students
through the Technology Entrepreneurship Fellows Program, which brings together
graduate business and law students to assess market opportunities of patented
technologies. In early April, Aqua Essence won Best Written Plan at the New
Venture Championship, the annual UO international business plan competition-widely
considered one of the nation's "big three," along with Moot Corp and
the Venture Challenge at San Diego State University.The team also earned the
Venture Challenge's "Golden Phone" award for presenting the best-articulated
plan during a five-minute telephone conversation.
In a related accomplishment, "Entrepreneur" magazine last month ranked
the Lundquist Center first in alumni satisfaction and second in reputation among
peer school program directors in the publication's regional rankings of entrepreneurship
programs. The recent successes of the Aqua Essence team and UO's entrepreneurship
program reflect the Lundquist College's core emphasis on combining real-world
experience with business skills taught in the classroom. The results, says Swangard,
are better prepared, more confident and more skilled students.
