Price College's entrepreneurship program received recognition in the fall 2006 edition of BusinessWeek "Small Biz" supplement. [Top]

The article, titled "Hitting the Books: How to get your degree and start your company at the same time," lists OU's Price College among the "best known" schools offering a "specialized program at both the graduate and undergraduate levels geared toward helping students get a business off the ground."

"This is great recognition for our program," said Interim Dean Daniel A. Wren. "We feel quite honored to be mentioned in the same sentence as Babson College and the University of Arizona, since they are the #1 and #2 entrepreneurship programs in the nation."

The article also includes an interview with OU College of Engineering and Price College alumnus Danny Ferguson (MBA 2006), who was a member of the team placing second (Valens Fuels) in the Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup business plan competition. Ferguson earned his bachelor's degree in engineering from OU, and during the summer of 2003 -- his senior year in college -- started Homestead Community Development, a construction and development business, with his father. After realizing he needed some business experience, he returned to OU for his MBA, concentrating in entrepreneurship. In the article, Ferguson says the case study classes taught him how to think through challenges he now faces every day.

Currently, Ferguson's three-person, $1.1 million business is developing a 45-acre tract of land for residential construction, but the estimate of the cost of readying the land for homebuilding was much higher than he had hoped. In his pre-MBA days, Ferguson says, he would have sought deals on materials and other piecemeal ways to cut his bill. This time, he began rethinking how the entire project had been laid out. "What is really useful is being able to step back and see the whole picture," Ferguson stated in the article.

Read the full article on the Business Week website

Price College Sweeps the Graduate Division in Business Plan Competition [Top]

Price College teams swept the graduate division and placed second in the undergraduate division in the 2006 statewide Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup collegiate business plan competition. With one of the largest cash award pools in America, the competition is designed to encourage students of Oklahoma universities and colleges to act upon their ideas and talents in order to produce tomorrow's businesses.

 A total of $104,000 was distributed to students and their advisers during the April 20 awards gala held at the Coca-Cola Bricktown Event Center in Oklahoma City. First-place division winners received $20,000, with $10,000 going to second-place winning teams, and $5,000 to third-place teams. An additional $1,500 was awarded to the faculty advisers of first-place teams, and second- and third-place team advisers were awarded $1,000 each.

A panel of more than 55 judges evaluated the business plans over the course of the competition, and considered the entire business concept, including overall feasibility, significant capital gains potential, attractive investment possibilities and actual implementation.

"I can't be more pleased with our students. Price College had four student teams enter the competition, and all four teams won one of the top six prizes. It was great to see these student teams work on some really neat ideas and to see these teams work really hard on developing their ideas," said Lowell Busenitz, associate professor of management at Price College, who served as adviser to all the Price College teams.

David Williams, director of the ConocoPhillips Business Communications Center, served as a presentation coach for the teams. "David Williams did a great job of helping with and listening to each of the teams present at least once if not twice. He was a real trooper in helping the students to continue to improve the quality of their slides and their oral delivery," said Busenitz.

In addition, Jim Wheeler, Stanley White Executive Director of the Entrepreneur Center, had two of the teams in his Intellectual Property class, where they started to work on the feasibility of their business concepts. "This was the forerunner to them being prepared to start to prepare their business plans," Busenitz added.

Placing first in the graduate division was PreDent, led by James Haddock, a business administration graduate student; Isabel Chancellor, business administration and management information systems graduate student; and Mallory VanHorn, business administration graduate student. PreDent is a business concept intended to market a vaccine for small animals that will help prevent gingivitis and periodontal disease. More than 80 percent of dogs and 70 percent of cats suffer from periodontal disease which causes significant discomfort and can shorten their life span. Martin Levine, BDS, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at OU's  Health Science Center, developed and holds the patent for the vaccine. As a first-place winner, PreDent also received the Nextep HR Partnership Award.

Taking second place in the graduate division was Valens Fuels led by Danny Ferguson. Team members included Oksana Odnovol, Hayden Ryan and Jan Rynda. Valens Fuels is set to seize a unique opportunity in the alternative energy industry. Valens will create fully independent facilities for the production and distribution of biodiesel, a direct substitute for petrol-diesel. Valens' business model is unique in the use of technology to transform waste oil into the fuel.

Third-place graduate division winner was AT Technologies. Led by Andrea Bond, her other team member was Tim Stamps. AT Technologies developed a plan to market a Positioning Assistance Device (PAD) used to perfect stereotactic head frame placement prior to Gamma Knife surgery. PAD uses software to determine exact coordinates from the MRI and CT scan images. The device holds the patient's frame in the proper place as the neurosurgeon mounts it to the patient's head, eliminating human error.

Price College's undergraduate team, IRR Tire Recyclers, brought home second-place honors. Team leader Mark C. Taylor, and members Tim Thompson, George Hoch and Mahamma Salama, came up with a plan to market a new form of technology to recycle tires more efficiently. Using high temperatures in pressurized chambers to break down the tires into basic elements, this plasma arc gasification allows for the remaining product to be sold as steel, carbon black char and oil for retail purposes including cosmetics and cleaning supplies.

"One of the goals of the competition is to encourage the development and commercialization of ideas and technologies being discovered in our universities," said Greg Main, president and CEO of i2E Inc., which managed the competition. "This is our second year to conduct the competition in Oklahoma, and we are very pleased with the number of participating schools and the increased support of the business community."

But for Busenitz, the thrill of the competition lingers. "The most exciting part of this whole process is watching several of these award-winning teams consider actually starting the businesses that their business plans developed," he said.

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