Dalhousie Team Does It Again: Divisio Wins National IBK Capital–Ivey Business Plan Competition
April 12, 2007: Halifax, Nova ScotiaThe Dalhousie team of Reagan Davidson and R. Tayze MacKenzie won the prestigious IBK Capital–Ivey Business Plan Competition, held Saturday, March 31, at the University of Western Ontario. The competition is considered by many to be Canada's premier student business plan competition, drawing from the top graduate schools across the country.
Ten teams were invited, from the University of Toronto, Queen's, Ivey (Western Ontario), UBC, University of New Brunswick, University of Alberta, Waterloo, Saint Mary's and Dalhousie, to present to a panel of judges made up of venture capitalists, successful entrepreneurs, consultants and academics. Three teams made it through the first round and into the finals. Divisio, the Dalhousie team, walked away with the Grand Prize of $25,000 with their business plan based on commercializing a cutting edge chemical catalyst technology developed by a researcher at Dalhousie.
With this win comes the invitation to be the Canadian representative in the Global MOOT Corp Business Plan Competition, considered the most prestigious in the world. This will be held in early May at the University of Texas (Austin), where teams will vie for the grand prize of US$100,000 in equity investment to fund operations of their business plan.
"I want to express my appreciation and thanks for the opportunity provided to me by the Faculty of Management and the Department of Chemistry,” says Reagan Davidson, PhD candidate at Dalhousie. “Without their support I would not have had the wonderful experience of competing in this environment and meeting so many of Canada's business leaders.”
Professor David Roach, team coach and Director of the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship, is very proud of Divisio’s accomplishments. “They are now off to the ‘Super Bowl’ of business plan competitions in Texas,” says Roach. He adds, “the team is looking forward to the international MOOT competition in Texas next month and I have all the confidence in the world that they will contend for the grand prize.”
Dalhousie’s Faculty of Management, comprising the Schools of Business Administration, Public Administration, Information Management and Resource and Environmental Studies, offers a holistic and values-based approach to management education and research called ‘Management Without Borders’.
Media inquiries, contact: John MacDonald, Faculty of Management, tel. 902.494.2542,
john.j.macdonald@dal.ca
