$40,000 Awarded in the 2003 Syracuse Business Plan Competition

The School of Management Program in Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises and the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship are proud to announce the winners of the 2003 Syracuse Business Plan Competition, held April 11th and 12th. Sixteen finalists from both the graduate and undergraduate level competed in the final round of competition with winners representing five different schools at Syracuse University.

1st Place ($25,000): Tanglewood Gardens (Don Stanton)

2nd Place ($10,000): ScapeWiz (Jamie Keefer, Brian Robey, Toniel Speidel, and Bill Gabrielli)

3rd Place ($5,000) Science Academy Schools (Bulent Cetinkaya, Metin Oguzmert, and Huseyin Polat)

Creative Excellence Award: TVReruns.com (Liz Rippetoe, Leslie Coe, and Corey Marsh)

Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award: Cookie Creations (Sandra Palestine and Maria Costanzo)

Dreamer and Doers Award: DefenShield Inc. (Collins White and Theresa Brigandi)

Dr. Michael Morris, Witting Chair in Entrepreneurship, notes, "We believe the Syracuse Business Plan Competition is beginning to emerge as one of the premium such competitions in the country. With almost 70 entries from literally every part of the campus, and a rigorous four month process, what emerges are some great concepts that should become highly successful ventures".

The Syracuse Business Plan Competition was made possible by a generous gift of $1 million dollars from Mr. Henry A. Panasci, Jr. Mr. Panasci is currently the chairman of Cygnus Management Group, a Syracuse-based venture capital and management consulting firm. Teams have been hard at work since December when they submitted their initial concept summaries. The final round of judging was based on the comprehensiveness of their written plan as well as an oral presentation in front of a distinguished panel of independent judges.

Dr. Morris, adds, "We are very proud of all of our teams, the sixteen finalists, and
especially the top three placing teams. These students are "dreamers and doers",
and they epitomize what our program is about and why we are here".