A team of students from J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University have recently been named winners of the National Black MBA Association Case Competition.
The National Black MBA Association, Inc. (NBMBAA) was established in 1970, and is committed to the development of partnerships to foster economic and intellectual growth within the black community. With more than 40 chapters, 9,000 members and 450 corporate partners across the United States, the NBMBAA emphasizes growth through its five channels of engagement: education, entrepreneurship, lifestyle, career and leadership. The 2015 case competition took place in Orlando, Florida on September 25.
Osekhale Osara, Wole Ralph, Robert Smith and Kakia Prasad were the Robinson College students that comprised the winning team, beating thirty-three other teams from around the United States. This is the second year in a row that a team from Robinson College has won the competition and been awarded with a $25,000 scholarship. In addition, both Prasad and Smith took individual awards for best presenter and best at question and answer, respectively. Second place in the competition was taken by a team from Auburn University, and third place to a team from MIT.
Harley E. (Chip) Ryan, the associate dean for curriculum and teaching, shared his thoughts on the Robinson College win: “We are enormously proud of Osekhale, Kakia, Wole and Robert for winning one of the most rigorous case competitions in the country,” he said. “It’s a tremendous reflection on the caliber of our students that we now have won the NBMBA Case Competition for two years straight.”
The competition was sponsored by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, who helped develop a case to challenge the teams: develop the ideal strategy for sourcing headlamps for the next Jeep Wrangler.