A team of Executive MBA students from Waterford Institute of Technology’s (WIT) were hailed All-Ireland champions in the Strategy Case Competition at the prestigious MBA Association of Ireland Strategy Forum which took place in Dublin earlier this month.
The competition, organised by the MBA Association of Ireland, is open to all MBA programmes across Ireland and past winners include UCD, NUIG, DIT and DCU.
The winning team included Sinead Queally (Co Waterford) TSSG; Neil McGrory (Faithlegg, Co Waterford), Managing Partner at PLC Partners; Garda Inspector Paul O’Driscoll (Tramore, Co Waterford); and Aidan Clancy (Kilkenny), Company Director at Clancy Construction and Brian Swift (Tramore, Co. Waterford), Solicitor. The team was mentored by Professor Denis Harrington, Dr Ray Griffin and Dr Tom Egan from the institute’s School of Business.
The students had four hours to prepare a strategic analysis and presentation on a Harvard Business Case (Google Inc.) for a panel of judges drawn from Ireland’s Graduate Business Schools and from industry. The WIT team competed against teams from Smurfit Graduate School at UCD, UCC, DBS and DIT.
Commenting on the win Dr Tom Egan, WIT MBA Programme Director, said that “Over the past 20 years, the WIT executive MBA programme has made a huge impact in organisations across the South East of Ireland and beyond. It is great to see the standard of our students and our teaching measured through competition and this win validates what we do here in Waterford”.
“Since the competition was launched by the MBA Association of Ireland, WIT have had a remarkable record of honourable mentions and it is great for our team to bring the Waterford Crystal trophy home this year,” said Dr Denis Harrington, Head of Graduate Business WIT. “To me this is clear evidence that a WIT MBA stands up against the other MBA programmes in Ireland.”
The Waterford Glass trophy, presented by Maeve O’Connell, President of the MBA Association of Ireland, is currently on view in the MBA Office and will be moving to the School’s Trophy Cabinet to take pride of place beside the 2015 Knowledge Transfer Ireland Research2Business Collaborative Impact award.
Speaking at the award ceremony Ms O’Connell said “The Forum is a pressure cooker environment to test the mettle of any business student or practitioner. As in other years, the 2015 event was a close-run affair, with all teams presenting convincing recommendations. I believe this event always showcases the incisive analysis, strategic thinking and ability to operate collectively, which are the hallmarks of the MBA graduate.”
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