A team of St. Thomas undergraduates earned top honors at the International Business Ethics Case Competition (IBECC) for tackling one of today's most pressing business issues: how femtech companies handle sensitive user data. These Tommies delivered the strongest performance by a St. Thomas team in the competition’s history.
St. Thomas undergraduate students Claire Weiss ’27, Natalie Shapira ‘25, Katie Iverson’ 26, Grant Clark ’27 and Reese Gustafson ’27 won two of three categories at IBECC and brought home a total of four awards. They competed against student teams from across the country and around the world.
IBECC, founded in 1996, is the oldest and most distinguished business ethics case competition of its kind. The competition answers an industry need for innovation and talent while providing students with the opportunity to challenge themselves.
The team’s case focused on the ethical and legal issues surrounding femtech tracking apps. These apps collect sensitive health information but are not subject to the same regulation as medical providers. This data can be sold to third parties.
“These apps deal with deeply personal reproductive health data, and in a post-Roe (v. Wade) society, the stakes are higher than ever,” said Shapira, a Schulze Innovation Scholar who is double majoring in entrepreneurship and business law and compliance.
“With recent Supreme Court decisions, evolving data privacy laws, and the role of AI in cycle-tracking apps, we saw femtech as a timely and meaningful issue to research,” said Clark, a GHR Fellow majoring in accounting and finance. “These overlapping issues made it a perfect fit for the competition, and it was great to research a meaningful issue.”
Proposing that femtech companies should not resell their data created a challenge for the team. Daring to hold their moral ground, while finding the economic incentives needed to spur a change, required academic rigor.
“Selling data is an easy revenue stream, and avoiding it meant we had to rethink traditional business models,” said Clark. “Our team addressed this by providing alternative revenue strategies and emphasizing that our privacy-first brand would position the company as a long-term industry leader.”
The project began in BETH 340: Integrative Approaches to Business Problems, a course at the Opus College of Business that teaches students to apply ethics and critical thinking to real-world challenges.
“It was wonderful working with such a creative and collaborative group,” said Dr. Jason Skirry who teaches the course. “Watching them grow as researchers, communicators and professionals was a highlight of my year. I could not be prouder of their success at IBECC.”
Beyond the awards, the students made lasting connections with professionals in business law and compliance. The competition judges included senior executives and ethics leaders, many of whom stayed after the presentations to offer feedback. Reese Gustafson, majoring in business leadership and management, was surprised by how eager they were to connect.
“Receiving their praise and hearing their genuine interest in our project was extremely rewarding,” said Reese Gustafson.
The experience also strengthened the bond between the team members. To Katie Iverson, a GHR Fellow majoring in accounting, that sense of community became the highlight of her experience.
“During our presentations, it was awesome to see everyone execute their roles so well. I really learned the value of teamwork through this process, as we really all got to help each other get to the final versions of our presentations,” she said.
For assistant professor Susan Supina, who coached the team, the takeaway was clear: "This is what ethics education is all about. These students took a current issue, challenged a business practice, and stood to their values while building a strategic case for change.”
