RU team bound for Governor’s Business Plan Challenge

Four students in the College of Business and Economics (COBE) will represent Radford University in May at the Governor's Business Plan Challenge in Richmond.

Each higher education institution in Virginia was invited to send a business plan to be presented by an individual or group. Alitalia Adams of Alexandria, Charles Chlanda of Ashburn, Miles Ghorbanian of South Riding and Logan Moore of Mathews have been selected as the Radford University team. All are management majors.

The RU team was chosen based on a business plan presentation the four gave in a videoconference with a group of students at Blaise Pascal University in France on April 10. The presentation was part of a mock-business plan pitch exercise in Instructor Tom Lachowicz's management class. Five teams made presentations to Blaise Pascal as part of the exercise.

Lachowicz, COBE Associate Dean George Santopietro and Department of Management Chair Dale Henderson selected the team based on a scoring rubric from the presentations and comments from students and a professor at Blaise Pascal.

The RU team's business plan is centered on purchasing and operating an existing marina in Mathews. Moore has worked various jobs at the marina for five years.

Adams, speaking for the team, said, "I am very honored to participate in a program where I can represent my school, class and team to the best of my ability. I look forward to hearing the judge's feedback on our business plan."

Established by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, the business plan challenge will be on May 2. Participants will compete to win up to $10,000 to be used to further develop their business model in the Commonwealth.

"We are sending these particular students to the Governor's Business Plan Challenge because they eagerly volunteered to pitch their plan to the Blaise Pascal students in hopes that they would get a favorable review, which they did," Lachowicz said. "It is refreshing to me as a facilitator of learning that students want to do their best when offered a challenge to show off what they can do."

Learn more about Radford University at www.radford.edu.