UB MBA Program Announces CASE Competition Winners

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Four teams of full-time MBA students from the University at Buffalo School of Management recently completed the final round of the school's annual MBA Case Competition, sponsored by Columbus McKinnon Corp. and Ernst & Young.

The first-place team, which won a cash prize of $1,500, consisted of Ashish Punjabi, Archana Shenoy, Abhishek Tiwari and Hitesh Wadhawan. The team was mentored by Marianne M. Kelly, tax manager with Columbus McKinnon Corp.

Winning a cash of prize of $500 was the second-place team, consisting of Gaurav Pantakar, Murali Thoota, Hemant Padmanabhan and Vikram Kapoor. They were mentored by Jeffrey Thiele, manager of the Assurance and Advisory Services Group at Ernst & Young.

The Case Competition gives MBA students the opportunity to develop and test skills that are vital to career success, such as analytical skills, presentation abilities and team problem-solving talents. Teams of students competed against one another by analyzing a complex case study of an actual company, then presenting their recommendations to a panel of executive judges who served as a fictitious company board of directors.

The remaining teams consisted of Monica Wong, Akshay Rathi, Naresh Bhavnani and Umesh Babaria; and Kara Rankin, Meredith Christman, Quatrina Amirullah and Emir Amirullah. Members of these teams each received a $50 gift certificate to the UB campus bookstore.