A team of University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Haslam College of Business graduate students overcame a highly competitive field to earn second place in the 2022 KeyBank Foundation Minority MBA/Graduate Business Case Competition, held online by The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.
A team from the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University edged out the win in the competition.
Lynn Kiragu, who is working on her MS in Supply Chain Management – Tri-Continent, and MBA candidates Noah Dandridge and Lauren McNamara represented Haslam in the case competition, finishing ahead of 23 other teams from across the nation. In recognition of their achievement, the trio will receive a plaque and a $7,500 prize.
The competition’s challenge this year was to develop proposals for ways KeyBank can boost its environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. The Haslam team’s coach, Randy V. Bradley, associate professor of information systems and supply chain management, said the judges praised the creativity, boldness, diversity and innovativeness of the team’s recommendations to advance KeyBank’s ESG efforts.
“Lauren, Lynn and Noah’s preparation, dedication, resourcefulness and competitive spirit were on full display at this event, competing with many of the brightest minds coming up in business today,” Bradley said.
Mary Goss, executive director of Haslam’s graduate business programs, said the trio strongly represented Haslam in the competition. “I could not be prouder of their performance,” she said.
Now in its eighteenth year, the KeyBank Foundation Minority MBA/Graduate Business Case Competition is directed and administered by the Office of Access and Community Connections and Corporate and Community Outreach at Fisher. It presents first-year graduate student teams with a contemporary and never-before-used case topic addressing business issues with multifold ramifications. Working on the business problem provides teams with the opportunity to develop critical professional skills like analyzing complex business issues and quickly devising potential solutions. Participants also sharpen their communication and team-building skills while learning from the expertise of the business executives who serve as judges and moderators.
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CONTACT:
Scott McNutt, business writer/publicist, rmcnutt4@utk.edu
