Darden MBA Team Wins Deloitte Case Competition

A team from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business has won the second annual National Case Competition sponsored by Deloitte and the Deloitte Foundation. Darden’s team comprised of first-year MBA students Samuel He Huang, Tarun Keswani, Daniel Lee and Sarah Washabaugh, won the top prize of $20,000.

Sixteen finalist student teams from America’s top MBA programs competed in the evaluation of a complex business issue for Atlanta-based SweetWater Brewing Company. Each team was provided with business case details and a 12-hour time limit to test students’ critical thinking, strategic problem-solving and marketplace knowledge.

Shaun Budnik, president, Deloitte Foundation, said the case study competition, now in its second year, continues to focus on revealing strategy and operations challenges facing companies today to some of the country’s top MBA students. “This program is a great way for them to apply their in-classroom learnings to real world business issues while building their skills set. We are encouraged by the teams who participated this year as they are the business leaders of tomorrow,” he said.

“Because we focus daily on helping companies solve complex business problems, it’s quite invigorating to watch some of today’s top business school students do the same in a far more compressed timeframe,” commented Mike Canning, national managing director, Strategy & Operations practice, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and one of the judges for the competition.

Student teams from the following schools were also recognized for their efforts in the case study competition:

  • University of Chicago Booth School of Business, second place, $10,000
  • The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, third place, $6,000
  • Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University), fourth place, $3,000

“This year’s competition was particularly close, so a well-deserved kudos is in order for all 16 finalist teams,” said Canning.

 

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