A University of St. Thomas Full-time UST MBA team received four of the six highest awards presented at the first invitational Loyola Marymount University and Ethics & Compliance Officer Association (LMU/ECOA) Intercollegiate Business Ethics Case Competition, held Sept. 23-25 in Chicago.
The team – including Kate Grudkovska, Erin Liddy, Grant Seipkes and Brian Slattery – gave their winning presentation about the challenges organizations face when marketing credit cards to college students. In the Chicago competition, the team won:
- Highest overall score from the judges in its 30-minute presentation from last April at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles
- Highest overall score from the judges in its 30-minute presentation in Chicago
- Highest score from the judges for the ethical analysis portion of its 30-minute presentation in Chicago
- Runner-up for its 10-minute presentation in the final round in Chicago.
The same team previously had tied for first place in the graduate division with a team from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, April 16-18, at the 11th annual LMU/ECOA Intercollegiate Business Ethics Case Competition in Los Angeles. During the competitions, teams give presentations in which they analyze a business problem’s legal, financial and ethical dimensions, then recommend a solution that must pass muster on all three counts. The competition helps students see that it is possible to do business ethically as well as profitably.
The Full-time UST MBA team was selected in February 2009 at the local Ethics Case Competition sponsored by the Center for Ethical Business Cultures, St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business and UnitedHealth Group. Its mentor was Dr. Kenneth Goodpaster, who holds the Koch Endowed Chair in Business Ethics at St. Thomas.
“They distinguished themselves throughout the competition,” remarked Goodpaster, “and they also received numerous kudos from corporate ethics officers attending the conference.”
