Hough students take third place in international competition

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A team of four students from the Hough Graduate School of Business finished in third place at the International Graduate Competition on April 27-May 3 at HEC Montreal Business School.

The team, consisting of Rachel Chang (MAIB ’13), Mark Supinski (MAIB ’14), Christian Vazquez (MAIB ’13) and Mier Zhou (MSM ’13), was one of only two U.S. representatives in the eight-team field.

University College Cork won the competition and the University of Rochester’s Simon Graduate School of Business finished second.

Teams were tasked as consultants to help a company find an optimal solution to multifaceted problems involving international entrepreneurship, marketing, human resource management and finance. Teams had 48 hours to work through four interrelated cases where they identified key priorities, weighed benefits and addressed risks. Then, each team made a 15-minute presentation disclosing their findings and providing solutions. The top two teams advanced to the final round.

“The International Graduate Competition was an amazing opportunity for me and my team to participate in,” Chang said. “We were able to use all of our MAIB knowledge inside and outside of the classroom and apply them to a real-world business situation as any consultant would. This competition was definitely one of the top highlights of my MAIB career.”

The field also included the Aalto University School of Business (Finland), John Molson School of Business at Concordia University (Canada), Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), HEC Lausanne (Switzerland) and HEC Montreal (Canada.