Entrepreneurship Excellence

Jeff Livingston and Michael Stricker

Dalhousie teams won both first and second place in the MBA stream at the CIBC Business Plan Competition held recently at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.

The winning team was Halifax Art House represented by two recent MBA graduates Jeff Livingston and Michael Stricker. They walked away with a $5,000 prize for their business plan about starting an independent movie theater in Halifax.

Second place in the MBA stream went to Quick Cup represented by three current MBA students Todd Shaver, Jim Gray and Kevin Buchan. They shared a $250 prize for their business plan about using an embedded payment chip in a coffee mug to reduce lineups in coffee shops.

Other teams also did extremely well such as DALGAARD represented by William Granleese, David Andrew Van Dyck and Able Tai. DALGAARD created a plan for starting a microbrewery in Vancouver to compete in the lucrative premium imported beer segment. Vestrax, represented by Muhammad Khan, Ksenia Pychko and Vladimir Chen created a business plan to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary of a local technology company in the marine security area.

The focus of the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship is to engage in research, teaching and outreach with Faculty across Dalhousie and from other universities. Centre activities include theoretical and applied research, student internships, seminars, workshops and conferences. Faculty and students from across the University have the opportunity to become involved in the Centre and participate in its multidisciplinary activities.