2004 EBPY Competition successfully organized and hosted by ALBA

ALBA successfully hosted and organized, for the first time in Greece, the 2004 European Business Plan of the Year Competition! A team of MBA students from the EM Lyon (France), called Lucyf' Hair, won the 1^st Prize; teams from Imperial College (UK) and IESE Business School (Spain) were 1^st and 2^nd runner-up respectively, whereas the innovation award was received by INSEAD (France).

The competition took place on June 17-18, 2004 in Athens with the participation of top European business schools (in alphabetical order):

ALBA (Greece)
SDA BOCCONI (Italy3)
Cranfield School of Management (UK)
EM Lyon (France)
Helsinki University of Technology (Finland)
IESE Business School (Spain)
Imperial College (UK3)
INSEAD (France)
London Business School (UK)
Rotterdam School of Management (Netherlands)
Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (Sweden)
WHU Koblenz (Germany)

All the teams were very well prepared and presented their business plans to a panel of judges, consisting of Dimitris G. Mavros (PRC Group S.A. &3; SPOT THOMPSON S.A.), David Kaye (Kaye Enterprises Limited), Jaap Wertheim (Reitsma Wertheim Partners), Konstantinos Lambrinopoulos (PRC Group S.A.), Leonidas Kassoumis (ALPHA Bank), Philippe Deville (Technicom S.A.), Richard Sudek (angel investor), Spyros Ghikas (METAXA International S.A.), and Ulysses Kyriacopoulos (Federation of Greek Industries Organization & S&B Industrial Minerals S.A.).

The 6 teams that made it to the finals of the competition were (in alphabetical order):

ALBA (Greece)
EM Lyon (France)
Helsinki University of Technology (Finland)
IESE 3Business School (Spain)
Imperial College (UK)
London Business School (UK)

It is noteworthy that ALBA, Imperial College and London Business School are the only schools that have made it to the competition's final stage for the last four consecutive years.

Judges and participants congratulated the winning team of Sylvain Tillon, Jean-Baptiste Pain, Sandrine Caillat and Vincent Leroux, who have created a company, Lucyf' Hair, that has already launched in the market patented hair accessories. Everybody agreed that the EM Lyon business plan was a complete and viable business plan proposal.

The ALBA faculty and staff wish to congratulate all participating teams, and especially the winning team, for their hard work, enthusiasm and commitment.

We would also like to thank:

• Metaxa International S.A. (Grand Sponsor)
• The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation (Sponsor)
• ALPHA Bank S.A. (Sponsor)
• Novo Nordisk A/S (Supporter), and
• Wall Street Journal Europe (Communications Sponsor)

for their support to the 2004 European Business Plan of the Year Competition.