A group of URI business students did it again. For the second year in a row, they took first place at the annual Minority Business Conference Case Competition sponsored by the Boston Metropolitan Chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants. Not only that, another team of URI students placed third in the competition. And if that’s not impressive enough, last year was the first time a URI team even participated in the competition, which until then had been dominated by Boston-area business schools. That made URI’s second consecutive win even sweeter.
The five winning team members are Kelechi Agwunobi, Richmond Sam, Jazmin Tangui, Brayan Daje and Lukman Busari. The third place winners are Raven Sannon, Anthony Markey, Cassie Jacob, Mark Torres and Ogo Igwe. Their task in the competition was to develop a creative and effective plan to help a Paris-based company penetrate the African market through its subsidiary company. The teams spent weeks developing plans to guide the company’s expansion plans, considering everything from cultural differences to information technology, cost accounting to supply chain realities.
“I’m really thrilled and tremendously proud of our whole team,” said Kelechi, who serves as president of URI’s chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants. “All of our members did a phenomenal job preparing for this case study competition. Participating in events like these let us showcase the new top business talents that are being developed here at URI.”
Kelechi attributed the win to the team’s hard work and preparation, as well as to the tremendous support from Interim Dean Kathryn Jervis, Professor Chet Hickox and Professor Alex Hazera. The group spent the weeks leading up to the competition working non-stop on their presentation.
Among the colleges URI beat were many of the top business schools in New England, including Bentley, Babson, Bryant, Suffolk, UConn, UMass, Salem State and Bridgewater State.
Many URI students are members of Boston’s chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants, which helps to expand the influence of minority professionals in the fields of accounting and finance. It’s a place where URI business students can – and do — make a name for themselves.
