Robert H. Smith School of Business - University of Maryland, College Park

Smith MBAs Prepare to Compete in the Final Round of Thunderbird School of Management Sustainable Innovation Summit

A team from the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business was named a finalist for the 2007 Thunderbird School of Management Sustainable Innovation Summit. The team will travel to Thunderbirds Campus in Glendale, AZ this coming weekend, November 8 -10, 2007, to compete in the finals against nine other teams. The finalists come from masters programs from across the country. The schools that Maryland will be competing with are the University of California Davis, Purdue University, Johns Hopkins, Duke University, the University of Rochester, and SUNY Buffalo.

The Smith Schools team, called the SustainabiliTerps made the top 10 with a business concept for a solar public art project/decentralized power plant. The plan beat out nearly 100 teams from more than 50 schools across the globe. The team is led by second-year Smith MBA candidate William Grayson. Other team members include Smith MBA candidates Volkan Bayram, Brian Mok and Valencia Lawrence. Arizona Public Service, a major power provider in the Arizona region, sponsored the University of Maryland team. Competing in the final round of the competition is a great opportunity for them to represent the Smith School, as well as network with representatives from the sponsors and the judges.

Each competing team was responsible for building a business plan designed for sustainability. The contest defines sustainable innovation as innovative solutions to current, real-world, business challenges that reflect a commitment to economically, environmentally and socially sound business practices. All of the business plans were submitted for an initial round of online judging, then the top 10 submissions were invited to compete in the final round. The finalists will give live presentations to a panel of judges based on two new challenge questions posed by the competitions platinum sponsors, Johnson & Johnson and Arizona Public Service. Top prize in this years contest is $20,000, with the second- and third-place teams winning $5,000 and $3,000 respectively.

▓ Adam Weiner, MBA Candidate 2009, Smith Media Group