UF MBA begins case competition season with win in Pittsburgh
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A team of four students from UF MBA at the Hough Graduate of Business’s Full-Time Program won the 2017 Katz Invitational Case Competition on Jan. 27-28 at the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business.
The result marked UF MBA’s third win in this event in the past four years.
Lilly Leas, Ryan O’Farrell, Kate O’Hara, and Jonathan Siragusa bested a field of 14 teams from the U.S., Canada, and Germany, and won the $10,000 grand prize. Leas was named “Best Presenter,” and O’Hara was honored for “Best Response.”
Penn State University finished second and earned $5,000. The University of Buffalo was third and were awarded $3,000.
The event, sponsored by Direct Energy, focuses on a current interdisciplinary issue within the energy industry. Teams were tasked to develop a sales channel—targeted at small- and medium-sized businesses— and product strategy for a fictional retail energy company.
The competition’s other participants were the University of Alberta (Canada), University of Augsburg (Germany), Baylor, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, LSU, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Texas A&M, and West Virginia.
UF MBA will next compete in a case competition on Feb. 24-25 when it will send teams to the Race & Case Competition at the University of Denver and the Florida Intercollegiate Case Competition at the University of South Florida.
