Field narrowed for 23rd annual Purdue Business Plan Competition
January 28, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The list of undergraduate and graduate student business plans has been narrowed to 33 semifinalists ahead of Purdue University's $100,000 Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition on Feb. 23.Twelve undergraduate and 21 graduate student teams have been asked to submit 30-page business plans for the 23rd annual event. From those, the final five teams in each category will be announced Feb. 10. Those teams will formally present to a panel of judges during the Feb. 23 competition in Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Room 121.
Teams composed of undergraduate students compete in the Black Division, while teams of faculty, staff, graduate students, alumni and area business people are in the Gold Division. The top prize in the Black Division is $20,000, while the winner of the Gold Division will receive $30,000.
"This may go down as one of the most competitive years in the event’s history," said Richard Cosier, co-director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and dean of Purdue’s Krannert School of Management. "This year's event, which is open to all Purdue students, drew 82 initial registrants, and 67 student-led teams submitted formal executive summaries -- 28 at the undergraduate level and 39 graduate submissions."
Competition sponsors are the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and Krannert School of Management at Purdue. Indianapolis-based law firm Ice Miller LLP, which has provided scholarship funding for Purdue's Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, also is offering in-kind services to the competition's top finishers.
New this year, one student on the top finishing team in each category will become eligible for a $5,000 annual Krannert scholarship to its full-time MBA program. The student must apply within five years and meet admissions requirements. In addition, winners from each category are eligible for one seat in Krannert's two-week Applied Management Principles program, commonly known as a mini-MBA, offered each May.
For information, contact Jackie Lanter at 765-494-1335, bdmcenter@purdue.edu, or visit https://www.purdue.edu/entrepreneurship
The late Burton D. Morgan was a Purdue alumnus who started 50 companies, six of which have become major corporations, including Morgan Adhesives, one of the world's largest makers of pressure-sensitive adhesives. He also was president of Basic Search Co., an idea-development firm, and wrote several books on entrepreneurism.
Morgan established the entrepreneurship competition in 1987 with an endowment gift to Purdue. The Burton D. Morgan Foundation funded the $7 million, 31,000-square-foot Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, the first building to open in Discovery Park in 2004.
The Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship also leads Purdue's Kauffman Campuses Initiative, which is focused on making entrepreneurship education available across the university's main and regional campuses, enabling any student, regardless of field of study, access to entrepreneurial training.
Writer: Phillip Fiorini, 765-496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu
Sources: Richard Cosier, 765-494-4366, rcosier@purdue.edu
Candiss Vibbert, 765-494-9404, vibbert@purdue.edu