12-23-98

Gary Koppenhaver, College of Business, (515) 294-8119
Kevin Brown, News Service, (515) 294-8986

WINNERS ANNOUNCED IN ISU'S MBA BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION

AMES, Iowa -- Two Iowa State University MBA students captured the $8,000 first-place honors in The College of Business' 1998 Graduate Competition in New Venture Planning.

"Crypto Corporation," presented by Remus Ilies and Rainer Mues, captured the top honors. Their plan is based on an Iowa State University Research Foundation (ISURF) technology that can help firms manage the security of Internet data transfers.

Second-place winner, with a $4,000 award, went to "Innovative Medical Devices, Inc.," by Jeffrey Etringer (engineering undergraduate) and Surya Loonker, MBA student. This start-up proposal makes an automated medication dispenser suitable for persons following prescribed drug treatment regimes.

"The winning plans in this year's competition are thorough, professionally-done examples of the entrepreneurial spirit among students at Iowa State University," program leader, Gary Koppenhaver, associate professor of finance, said. "These students learned first-hand the requirements of developing, presenting and defending a viable business proposal. Iowa State University and the state of Iowa are the better for it."

The competition is the centerpiece of the program that challenges graduate students to create the best business plan for a new company. The place winnings are to be used to help bring those profiled businesses into production.

The judges for the competition were: Monica Dolezal, vice president, Norwest Bank -- Ames; Kenneth Kirkland, director of the Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer and the ISU Research Foundation; David Maahs, executive director of the Ames Chamber of Commerce; John Parks, president of the ISU Research Park Corporation; Phanos Pitiris, president and CEO of Elli Corporation; and Howard Van Auken, ISU College of Business associate professor of management.

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