Winners Named in Verney Case Competition

By Jacqueline Molik Ghosen

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A team of six MBA students from the University at Buffalo School of Management will share a $3,000 prize as winners of the school’s fifth annual Steven C. Verney MBA Case Competition.

Placing first in the event were Turner Gutman, Petsy Lim, Ryan Plante, Sairam Ramakrishnan, Olivia Tylutki and David Zimmer.

All first-year MBAs in the school’s full-time program took part in the competition. Each team was assigned a separate case focusing on a distressed company facing serious operational and financial issues. Participants had to formulate a plan to turn around the troubled company and improve its long-term prospects for survival.

Eighteen teams presented their cases to six panels of judges over the course of four days in April. The award winners were announced on April 27.

The competition was created exclusively for first-year MBA students at the UB School of Management through a donation from Steven C. Verney, a vice president of Allstate Insurance Company in Chicago, who received his bachelor’s degree from UB in 1980 and his MBA in 1981.

Judges for the competition included Thomas M. Barney Jr., vice president, finance, parks and resorts, Delaware North Companies; Richard Floersch, executive vice president and chief human resources officer, McDonald’s Corp.; Aimee Gomlak, vice president, women’s service line, Catholic Health System Inc.; Robert G. Gross, president and CEO, Monro Muffler Brake Inc.; Timothy C. Minneci, executive vice president, Paramax Corp.; Kevin T. Murray, managing director, Churchill Financial; and James D. Rodriguez, national sales director, Focus.

In addition, there were several judges from the University at Buffalo: Arjang Assad, dean of the School of Management, Laura Barnum, senior assistant vice president for resource planning and information management, John Ho, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor of physics, vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School, Joseph Brennan, associate vice president for university communications, Michael LeVine, associate vice president and controller, Muriel Anderson, assistant professor of accounting, and Courtney Walsh, assistant dean for executive education in the School of Management.

Members of the second-place team each received prizes of $250.

The UB School of Management is recognized for its emphasis on real-world learning, community and economic impact, and the global perspective of its faculty, students and alumni. The school has been ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek, the Financial Times, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report and The Wall Street Journal for the quality of its programs and the return on investment it provides its graduates. For more information about the UB School of Management, visit mgt.buffalo.edu.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB’s more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.