UVA's Darden School wins Deloitte's 6th annual National Case Competition

The Deloitte Foundation announced on Wednesday that a team from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia won the sixth annual National Case Competition held at Deloitte University's campus near Dallas, Texas. The school's winning team of Maeve McGilloway, James Morris, Chris Nelson, and Claire Williams earned the top scholarship award of $20,000.

Fifteen finalist student teams from top MBA programs across the country were tasked to analyze a business issue for New Profit, a Boston-based nonprofit venture philanthropy fund focused on large-scale, systemic impact. Each team was provided an eleven-hour time limit to develop a growth strategy that addresses New Profit's various fund structures and positioning to attract future investments. Teams presented their strategies and recommendations to a panel of judges that included leaders from Deloitte and the social impact community.

"This was an exceptionally strong field of competitors, and Darden and the rest of the finalists should be proud of their achievements," stated Amy Feirn, national managing director for Deloitte Consulting's Strategy & Operations practice and a competition judge. "Given the complexity of the case and the nuances of the social impact sector, I was impressed by the students' ability to develop creative, insight-driven solutions. I have no doubt they will play key roles in shaping the future of business."

Student teams from the following schools were also recognized:

• Dartmouth College – Tuck School of Business - $10,000
• University of Chicago – Booth School of Business - $6,000
• University of North Carolina – Kenan-Flagler Business School - $3,000

The panel of judges consisted of:

• Justus Kilian, investment manager, Acumen
• Mallory Brown, brand ambassador, CrowdRise          
• Vilas Dhar, founder and CEO, Dhar Law - Next Mile Project
• Dana Ledyard, managing director, GirlsWhoCode
• Jon Imerman, founder and chief mission officer, Imerman Angels
• Vanessa Kirsch, founder and CEO, New Profit
• Bob Searle, managing partner, New Profit
• Sam Hiersteiner, managing partner, New Profit
• Tulaine Marshall, managing partner, New Profit         
• Jeffrey Watts, advisor, Omaze.com
• Dorothy Gorman, senior vice president, Project Lead The Way
• Zach Friedman, partnerships, Raise.Me          
• Alex Khachatryan, CEO, Reasoning Minds
• Victoria Wolodzko, vice president of research and community health program operations, Susan G. Komen
• Shawn Magill, vice president of strategy and operations, The Charity Network          
• Young Rhee, chief of staff, Uncommon Schools
• Jo Scharmann, CFO, United Way (Mile High)

"The national case competition is one of many real-life experiences that the Deloitte Foundation provides to supplement in-classroom learning and sharpen future talent," said Carol Lindstrom, principal, Deloitte Consulting and president of the Deloitte Foundation, in a statement. "We're thrilled to once again sponsor this competition. All of the competing teams should be pleased with their hard work."

In addition to the winners, this year's finalists included teams of students from the following MBA programs:

• Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
• Columbia Business School
• Cornell University (Johnson)
• Duke University (Fuqua)
• Emory University (Goizueta)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
• New York University (Stern)
• Northwestern University (Kellogg)
• The University of Texas at Austin (McCombs)
• University of California, Los Angeles (Anderson)
• University of Michigan (Ross)      

 For more on the Deloitte Foundation, head to their site here.