Release Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2005

UGA TERRY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS WINS FIRST PLACE IN 2005 NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION CASE COMPETITION

ATHENS, Ga. — A polished presentation prepared by a team of Terry College of Business MBA students from the University of Georgia earned first place in the National Black MBA Association-DaimlerChrysler Case Competition held October 15 in San Diego.

Redick Brown, Tracy Dunbar and Demetria Hannah, all second-year students in the Terry College's full-time MBA program, spent three weeks studying the case and outlining strategies that would help DaimlerChrysler penetrate the consumer automotive market in China.

"We spent more than 80 hours outside of our regular classes preparing. There were a lot of long nights on the third floor of Sanford Hall," Brown said. "When we got on the plane last Wednesday, we knew we were prepared and confident in the presentation. We knew our presentation backwards and forwards. We knew our numbers were solid and our assumptions were indicative of what could be expected. We just had to deliver it properly."

After two rounds of presentations and question-and-answer sessions, the panel of DaimlerChrysler executives who judged the competition decided the Terry team had delivered it properly. The Terry MBA team beat defending champions Michigan State University and 27 other MBA teams from business schools across the country, including Vanderbilt, Penn State, Brandeis and Johns Hopkins.

Brown, Dunbar and Hannah have been invited by the DaimlerChrysler executives to make their presentation to the company's board of directors in Detroit. The three students each received scholarships in the amount of $5,000.

First-year MBA student Hakeem Rufai also worked on the case and served as an alternate for the competition, which Brown said should give the Terry College some additional continuity when defending the title next year. For Brown, who was already interviewing with DaimlerChrysler in hopes of landing a job after graduation, winning the case competition was an especially big boost, professionally and personally.

"Automobiles are my passion," he said.

Brown is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Redick W. Brown Sr. of Fayetteville, Ga. He and his wife, Jennifer Mazyck-Brown, make their home in Summerville, S.C. with their 8-month-old daughter, Madison. His MBA concentrations are marketing and consulting.

Dunbar is the daughter of Linda Dunbar of Brooklyn, New York. Prior to entering Terry's MBA program, she worked for six years as a business analyst for JPMorgan Chase. Her MBA concentrations are strategic management and operations. She hopes to begin her post-MBA career as an internal consultant/strategist.

Hannah is the daughter of Lt. Col. (ret) Grady C. Hannah III and Josephine Hannah of Fayetteville, Ga. Following graduation, she is interested in pursuing a career in corporate compliance. Her MBA concentration is in risk management.

Assisting the team in preparing for the competition were marketing professor Kimberly Grantham, management professor Melenie Lankau and finance professor Jim Linck. Anne Cooper, assistant director of the MBA program, traveled with the team.

The National Black MBA Association Case Competition was conducted concurrently with the 27th annual NBMBAA Conference and Exposition, held October 11-16 in San Diego.

Established in 1992, the competition was initiated to increase student participation and interaction at the annual NBMBAA conference, as well as to give corporations an additional venue to recruit top MBA talent while helping to support the goals of the association.

The participating MBA teams are given the business case at the same time and in judged competition present their solutions as a demonstration of their problem-solving skills, analytical proficiency and presentation abilities. DaimlerChrysler Corp. has fully sponsored the annual NBMBAA Case Competition since 1995.

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