University of Georgia Wins University of Oregon New Venture Championship®, $50,000 Prize

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A team of graduate students from the University of Georgia has won the 16th annual New Venture Championship® (NVC) international business plan competition presented by the University of Oregon’s Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship. The team’s first place award includes $50,000 plus automatic entries into the 2007 MOOT CORP competition at the University of Texas at Austin and the 2007 Fortune Small Business Competition. In addition, the Mullis Enterprises team from the University of Georgia will also receive an automatic berth in the 2008 New Venture Championship®.

“I am so pleased with the level of competition represented by the superior work of the University of Georgia team at this year’s New Venture Championship®”

Mullis Enterprises competed with an original business plan to produce, market and sell environmentally friendly products to control pests and alleviate pollution threats posed by harmful household insecticides. The students presented their plan to a group of judges that included investors, business executives and entrepreneurs drawn from across the nation.

“I am so pleased with the level of competition represented by the superior work of the University of Georgia team at this year’s New Venture Championship®,” said Randy Swangard, managing director of the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship. “The level of preparation and sophistication reflected in all the business plans continue to increase each year.”

The Intel Capital Final Round consisted of five new venture teams delivering formal presentations of their business plans, which were then followed by intense questioning from the five finalist judges. The overall goal of the round was for each team to convince the judges that its venture represented the most viable, fundable enterprise.

Ron Adams, dean of the College of Engineering at Oregon State University; Kirby Dyess, a principal in Austin Capital Management LLC; Robert Jesenik, CEO of Aequitas Capital Management; Luis Machuca, president and CEO of Kryptiq Corporation, and George St. Laurent, owner of a diverse portfolio of investments and the director of the St. Laurent Institute were this year's final round judges.

Other Intel Capital Final Round competitors were second-place University of Manitoba, third-place Thammasat University, and runners-up University of California at Berkeley and University of New Mexico.

The 15 teams participating in the NVC that did not advance to the Intel Capital Final Round competed in the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network Lightning Round, where Sasin Graduate Institute of Chulalongkorn University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the University of Michigan, the University of Oregon, and the University of Texas at Dallas each won a $1,500 prize.

More information about the New Venture Championship® is available at www.venturechampionship.com.