UC's Carl H. Lindner College of Business Honors Entrepreneurs at Annual Awards

The University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business and the Center for Entrepreneurship Education & Research presented the 2013 Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards on Wednesday, May 8, at the Kingsgate Marriott on UC's campus.

Thomas Dalziel, the new executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, served as emcee for the 15th annual event. The annual awards were established in 1999 to honor excellence in entrepreneurship from those who have enjoyed entrepreneurial success, both in and outside the university. Special guests at the event included UC President Santa J. Ono; Carl H. Lindner III; UC Trustees Tom Humes, Ginger Warner and Steve Wilson; Entrepreneurship Center board members; and past Entrepreneurship Center award recipients.

The awardees included:

Lifetime Achievement in Entrepreneurship

Donald “Buddy” LaRosa, LaRosa’s

Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence

Candace Klein, Bad Girl Ventures and SoMoLend

Lou Lauch, KBM

Robert Hisrich, Thunderbird School of Global Management

Established Faculty Entrepreneur Achievement Award

Dr. Jason C. Heikenfeld, UC College of Engineering & Applied Science

Emerging Faculty Entrepreneur Achievement Award

Dr. Amit Bhattacharya, UC College of Medicine

Christopher J. Nawalaniec Distinguished Service Award

Chris Downie, SparkPeople

In addition to the above awards, outgoing center director professor Charles H. Matthews and his wife, Margie, were honored for 16 years of service to the center. Matthews has now returned to his full-time research and teaching duties in the Lindner College of Business.

The 2013 awards program also recognized a number of student achievements in entrepreneurship, including recognition of the student entrepreneurs participating in the Innovation Quest Elevator Pitch Competition, the Spirit of Enterprise Business Plan Competition and the Small Business Institute® Case of the Year Competition. Several scholarships were also awarded to students at the ceremony.

Student awardees included:

Outstanding Undergraduate Student of the Year in Entrepreneurship

Michael Buettner

2012 Professor Charles H. Matthews Best Field Case Study Award

First Place Undergraduate Team: Ripple

Team Members: Mike Buettner, Matt Mino, Luca Romeo, Bradley Rossi

First Place Graduate Team: MidCom-Tel

Team Members: Alan Hagerty, David Hertlein, Nick LaGuardia, Doug Klekamp

Lindner College of Business Undergraduate New Venture Plan Competition Winners and the Reality Check Cross-Town Undergraduate Business Plan Competition

Team: Cincinnatus Capital Management

Team Members: Nick Bachus, Brien Dulle, Anthony Voveris

The Sustain-A-Watt team won first place in the

Lindner College of Business Graduate New Venture Plan Competition

, the Taxi/Limo Round Winner of the

Spirit of Enterprise Graduate Business Plan Competition

, and won first place Facebook People’s Choice Award in the

Ohio Clean Energy Competition

.  The Sustain-A-Watt team members are Rod Ghavami, Andrew Nguyen, Stephen Sargent, John Schroder, Jason Van Vliet, Yichen Xu, Laksh Khurana and Shenghan Wang.

Inaugural Innovation Quest Elevator Pitch

Team: Effuelent

Team Members: Ethan Jacobs, Ronald Gillespie, Qingshi Tu

The

California Scents Scholarship in Entrepreneurship

was awarded to Morgan Brink and the

Albert W. Goering Memorial Scholarship

recipients were Raymond Burzynski, Maria Cassidy, Lane Hart, Chase Jeffries, Brittany Lewis, James Love, Nathaniel Rose, Hannah Schott, Jo Annemarie Stamper and Bryan Weis.