Team from Tepper Takes ELC's Prize

A Carnegie Mellon quintet of MBAs faced challenging competition from teams from USC and Michigan, but managed to emerge as the winner of the Executive Leadership Council's (ELC) annual business-case competition in Alexandria, Va. in May.  (See http://www.elcinfo.com/.) The USC and Michigan teams followed in second and third place, respectively.

Exxon Mobil and ELC sponsored the annual competition. ELC has presided over the competition since 2002. This year the topic was energy and the reduction of greenhouse gases. Students from top business schools were asked to present a detailed business strategy outlining America's transition to lower greenhouse gas by 2030 in the most cost-effective way.

Carnegie Mellon's winning team from the Tepper School earned over $35,000 in scholarships.  The team from Tepper, a Consortium school, included recent Consortium graduate Jacob Garcia.  Other team members included Jesse Alleyne, Ian Buggs, Felix Amoruwa, and Richard Burgess. (USC and Michigan are also Consortium schools.)

Team captain Amoruwa told ELC organizers his group sometimes worked until 3 a.m. to work on the project and had follow-up meetings the next morning at 8 a.m. He said the group's effort "truly paid off for us."

The project was expansive. Teams had to outline plans for the nation to meet energy goals without incurring excessive costs. They had to identify areas of public and private investment and job growth.  And they were required to specify ways to recruit more African Americans and other under-represented minorities to work in energy.  Over 50 teams from business schools across the country participated.

The Carnegie Mellon team will be honored at the ELC's annual gala dinner in Washington, D.C., in October.  The team will also participate in leadership activities in New York in the fall.

Consortium student Garcia graduated from Tepper in May, where he concentrated in marketing, strategy and quantitative analysis. Tepper student Alleyne, a rising second-year student, was also a winning participant in case competitions sponsored by McKinsey and Deloitte. Buggs, a recent Tepper graduate, was president of the school's graduate business association. 

Tracy Williams