UST Business Students Win 6 Awards at International Business Ethics Case Competition

Graduate and undergraduate teams from the Opus College of Business won six awards at the International Business Ethics Case Competition (IBECC) in Tucson, Arizona held May 6-9, 2014. This year, IBECC had 17 teams from Canada, France, Hungary, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States compete with separate divisions for undergraduates and graduates.

Each team selected a topic from any area of business ethics and described both the problem and a proposed solution. The competition required teams to deliver their case in three formats, all of which were judged by practicing ethics and compliance professionals:

  • 30-minute presentation with all team members, to illuminate the financial, legal and ethical dimensions of the problem and to recommend a solution, followed by Q&A
  • 10-minute presentation on the ethical implications of the topic with two team members
  • 90-second ethics presentation by one team member

Both the undergraduate and graduate teams won Division Runner-up awards in the 30-minute, 10-minute and 90-second competitions.

The undergraduate team, consisting of Michaela Anderson, Emily Goehring, Alex Smith and Ben Smytka, delivered a presentation on the topic of “Data Mining: Business, Legal and Ethical Considerations” from the perspective of a retail store chain based in Minnesota with operations in the upper Midwest region.

The UST MBA team, which included Sean Higgins, Andrew Johnson, Chau Le and Preeti Sam, gave a presentation on “Data Mining: Business, Legal and Ethical Considerations” from the standpoint of a multinational company based in the United States.

Members of the winning teams were selected this spring through the CEBC Ethics Case Competition hosted by the Center for Ethical Business Cultures (CEBC), University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business and St. Jude Medical.

Undergraduate team faculty sponsors were Dawn Swink, J.D. – associate professor in the Business Ethics and Law Department, and Rosemarie Monge West, Ph.D. – assistant professor in the Business Ethics and Law Department. Dr. Kenneth Goodpaster, Koch Endowed Chair in Business Ethics, served as faculty sponsor of the UST MBA team. Jim Arnold, clinical professor of communications, served as communications coach for both teams.

IBECC, recognized as the premier competition of its kind, was held in conjunction with the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association’s Sponsoring Partner Forum. It was hosted by Loyola Marymount University, the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association (ECOA) and the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business. More details are available on the IBECC website.