ALBA consistently among the finalists in the last 8 Years at the EBPY

The ALBA Exelixis Team, consisting of students of the Full-Time MBA Program, won the 2nd Runner-up Award at the EUROPEAN BUSINESS PLAN OF THE YEAR COMPETITION 2008, among teams from top European Business Schools. It is noteworthy that ALBA had also won the 1st Prize at the European Business Plan of the Year Competition 2003 and 2005. Only ALBA and LBS are consistently among the finalists in the last eight years.

The Competition took place on May 30-31 2008 at the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School (Ghent, Belgium). The European Business Plan of the Year Competition was jointly created by INSEAD and London Business School in 1993 to encourage the teaching of entrepreneurship and the creation of new ventures. Now it has become an independent Foundation jointly 'owned' by the participating schools.

The Exelixis Team consisting of  students of the full-time MBA Christos Kalogris, Dimitris Damaskos, Iosifina Armaou, Ivica Lazevski and Stefanos Kourouthanasis, and supervised by Dr. Vasilis Theoharakis, Associate Professor of Marketing & Entrepreneurship, and Associate Dean of Academic Programs, made an outstanding impression at the competition by presenting a solid and innovative business plan. Their plan suggests the development of an innovative product Fireguard that puts out fire at its early stages of initiation, by using an award winning technology; when activated releases non-toxic gases that extinguish fire by acting at the molecular level and thus interrupting the chain chemical reaction of the combustion. Moreover, Fireguard leaves no residuals and has no corrosive effect on materials. The process is environmental friendly and thus complies with the strict existing environmental regulations.  In addition, the elevator pitch of the team delivered by Stefanos Kourouthanasis was ranked by the eight judges as the BEST elevator pitch in the Competition!

The following business schools participated in the 2008 competition (alphabetical order): ALBA Graduate Business School, Catolica/Nova, Cranfield School of Management, EM Lyon Business School, IESE, London Business School, Rotterdam School of Management, SDA Bocconi, Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship, Tanaka Business School, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School and WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management.

In this year's Competition, the 1st Prize was awarded to the Brighter - Diabetes Selfcare Solutions team from Stockholm School of Management, whose mission was to improve the daily lives of diabetics by commercializing Brighter One, a discreet, portable and user friendly solution that makes diabetes treatment convenient for all parties involved.

The ALBA Faculty and staff wish to congratulate the Exelixis team for their hard work, enthusiasm and commitment.

For more information on the European Business Plan of the Year Competition you may contact Ms. Lida Komninou, tel.: 210-8964531, e-mail: [email protected].