UF MBA wins Katz Case Competition third year in a row

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A team of four students from the University of Florida’s Full-Time MBA program won the 2018 Katz Invitational Case Competition at the University of Pittsburgh for the third consecutive year.

This is UF MBA’s fourth win in the past five years at the Katz Invitational Case Competition.

Jordan Schulz, Zack Kandel, Megan Barnes and Taylor Ball took home the $10,000 grand prize, beating 16 teams from universities across the nation, including Carnegie Mellon, Penn State and Ohio State University.

The team also took home the Best Presenter award in the last round of the Katz Case Competition, as well as Best Presenter and Best Q&A in the preliminary round.

Baylor University came in second and won $5,000. Carnegie Mellon came in third and was awarded $3,000.

The event was sponsored by Crane’s Payment Innovations business segment, which provides currency validation services for vending, financial services, gaming, retail and transportation markets. Teams were tasked with figuring out how Crane could expand its technology-related services to clients. The UF MBA team developed the winning plan that included new service offerings, a pricing model, an organizational redesign, and detailed models for financing and execution.

UF MBA will be competing in three case competitions the weekend of February 23-25 including the KeyBank Case Competition at Ohio State University, the Race and Case Competition at the University of Denver and the Florida Intercollegiate Case Competition at the University of South Florida. UF MBA will later compete in the ACG Cup Case Competition and the SEC MBA Case Competition.