UW College of Business Teams among Leaders in Ethics Competitions

University of Wyoming College of Business students placed among the leaders in two recent business ethics competitions.

A team of five students from UW placed second in the Daniels Fund Ethics case competition at Denver’s Marriott City Center.

Ten teams from universities in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah were asked to solve an ethical dilemma based on a situation that might take place in a business environment. Each team presented its recommendations to a panel of judges and participated in a question-and-answer session. The students then received Part B, a crisis that puts a twist on the case. Teams had four hours to reanalyze their response and make a second presentation to the judges.

The University of New Mexico won the competition, and the third-place team was from the University of Northern Colorado’s Monfort College of Business.

Each team presented its case to a team of judges made up of business professionals from the four states, who evaluated the cases against established criteria, including principles that Daniels Fund founder Bill Daniels believed to be valuable business assets: integrity, trust, accountability, transparency, fairness, respect, rule of law and viability.

A second UW team competed against 20 teams from around the world in an international business ethics case competition in New Orleans.

Three different competitions were judged in New Orleans. They included a 25-minute presentation simulating a presentation of legal, ethical and financial concerns at a board of directors meeting, and a 10-minute presentation simulating a discussion of ethical concerns to a room of C-level executives. UW placed first in the latter and second in the former.

UW students competing in both the Denver and New Orleans events, listed by hometown and major, were:

Brighton, Colo. -- Marie Makepeace, finance.

Highlands Ranch, Colo. -- Mollie Purcell, marketing.

Participating in the Daniels Fund event were:

Fort Collins, Colo. -- Seth Marlow, accounting.

Gillette -- Mitchell Nedved, dual major in economics and finance.

Longmont, Colo. -- Rygell Hubert, accounting.

Participating in the New Orleans event were:

Cheyenne -- Danielle Fisch, business administration.

Kemmerer -- Bianca Zuniga, finance.

Walnut Creek, Calif. -- Patricia Shepherd, management.