Florida International University’s College of Business Administration
(CBA) and the College of Engineering have partnered to launch
the Howard J. Leonhardt New Venture Challenge: An International
Business Plan Competition. This joint venture highlights the importance
of combining technological innovation with the business acumen
required to bring that innovation to market.
The Howard J. Leonhardt New Venture Challenge evolved from the
CBA’s Net-Biz Challenge Business Plan Competition, which
was launched in 2000 and grew out of the College’s long
tradition of sponsoring an annual business plan competition to
support its educational emphasis on entrepreneurship.
“Nurturing innovative ideas and entrepreneurship in our
students is critical to accomplishing our educational mission,”
said CBA Executive Dean Joyce J. Elam. “The College’s
business plan competition has gained significant support and,
through our new partnership with the College of Engineering, we’re
hoping to encourage the formation of interdisciplinary student
teams comprised of engineering, computer science and business
students—with each bringing their own areas of expertise
to the venture and learning from each other in the process.”
The New Venture Challenge is named for and made possible by a
generous contribution from Howard J. Leonhardt, founder, chairman
and CEO of Bioheart, a company focused on the discovery, development,
and commercialization of cellular-based products for the treatment
of cardiovascular diseases. An inventor as well as an entrepreneur,
Leonhardt has seven issued U.S. patents in the cardiovascular
sciences and other patents pending worldwide.
“Mr. Leonhardt is recognized for his vision, entrepreneurial
drive, and business expertise.” Elam said. “It’s
exactly these qualities we look for among students participating
in the Challenge – therefore, we felt his involvement was
a perfect fit.”
Additionally, this year’s Challenge is supported by a grant
from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of its Partnerships
for Innovation Program. Through this program, NSF seeks to stimulate
and capitalize on innovation by catalyzing partnerships among
colleges and universities, state and local governments, the private
sector and other relevant organizations.
“We’re working with the NSF through its Partnerships
for Innovation Program and are striving to increase the technology
enterprise in the U.S. by helping universities transfer their
focus on technology to the marketplace,” said Richard Schoephoerster,
professor and director of the Biomedical Engineering Institute
at FIU’s College of Engineering. “FIU is expanding
its biomedical programs significantly, which is exciting to us
as South Florida has the potential to be a leader in the biotech
industry.”
Applications for the Challenge, which is open to all full and
part-time students (upper-division undergraduate and graduate)
enrolled (2002-03 academic year) in an accredited four-year college
or university in the state of Florida, the Caribbean or Latin
America, are now being accepted. Each team, which may have from
one to five members, must have a faculty sponsor/advisor and also
may elect to enlist the help of a coach from the business community.
The business plan must be for an original seed, start-up venture
and address the complete business concept, including its implementation.
The completed application form must be received in the Challenge
office no later than Nov. 22, 2002. All business plans and submission
forms are due by Jan. 24, 2003. Up to five semi-finalist teams
will be selected to give oral presentations of their plans to
a panel of judges on March 28, 2003.
To date, the CBA has awarded more than $47,000 to winning student
teams from participants hailing from throughout Florida and Latin
America. Winning student teams have represented FIU, the University
of Miami, Barry University and the University of Central Florida.
For more information about the New Venture Challenge, or to sign
up to be a sponsor or request a Challenge information and application
kit, call (305) 348-4227 or visit the College’s website
at www.fiu.edu/~nvc.
Florida International University’s College of Business Administration
(CBA), South Florida’s business education leader with unique
expertise in international business and information technology
(IT), is the second largest of FIU’s professional schools,
enrolling approximately 3,800 undergraduate and more than 900
graduate students each year. It also is South Florida’s
top-rated business research school and one of only 424 business
schools in the world accredited by the AACSB International—The
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The College’s
Alvah H. Chapman, Jr., Graduate School of Business offers the
8th- largest part-time MBA program among this group, and its IT
faculty has been ranked among the top 20 (11th) in the U.S. in
terms of research productivity. Its Executive MBA and full-time
International MBA programs were ranked at or near the top in recent
Executive MBA Council and AACSB International benchmarking studies
respectively. U.S. News and World Report (October 15, 2001) ranked
its Global Executive MBA program among the top 25 best online
MBA programs. The September 13, 2001, issue of America Economía,
a premier Pan-regional business journal published by Dow Jones,
listed the CBA among the top 50 business schools from around the
world for Latin American business students. Hispanic Business
(March 2002) ranked the CBA among the top five business schools
for Hispanics. It also is one of only 28 business schools to have
received a Department of Education grant to establish and support
an international business center.
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