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Judges Announced for Virtual UW Ellbogen $50K Entrepreneurship Competition

 
Susan Barlow, Waldon Fenster, Spencer Garland, Stephen Hanlon and Shane Siegfried

The University of Wyoming College of Business has selected a diverse, accomplished group of judges for the 2020 John P. Ellbogen $50K Entrepreneurship Competition May 8-9.

The judges have volunteered their time and expertise to evaluate student business plans, each vying for a share of $50,000 in prize money.

“We have chosen a panel of five extraordinarily accomplished judges to serve during this year’s competition,” says Patrick Kreiser, the Rile Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship and Leadership at UW. “The panelists represent a variety of diverse backgrounds as well as experience types, and they will be able to ask excellent questions about each of our teams’ business concepts. Importantly, these judges are all extremely dedicated to the university and state, and they will serve as an invaluable asset in helping these teams develop sustainable business models to support the Wyoming economy.”

The judges are:

-- Susan Barlow is the co-founder and managing partner of Blue Moon Capital Partners LP, where she is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the business, product development and capital formation. Blue Moon is an investment management platform focused exclusively on senior housing. Barlow began her college education at UW but graduated with a degree in business from the University of Denver. Barlow is based in Boston and Newport Beach, Calif.

-- Waldon Fenster, a serial business builder, is a small-business expert and corporate consultant with expertise in facilitating brand growth for businesses and startups. As founder and president of Venture Studio, Fenster has worked with hundreds of companies and brands to expand their business models and amplify their portfolios for immediate financial benefit. He holds degrees in business marketing and management from UW. Fenster lives in Downers Grove, Ill.

-- Spencer Garland attended UW and obtained his B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering in 2011 and 2012, respectively. In 2011, he became a board member of the John P. Ellbogen Foundation and is the current vice president. Garland started his career with Basin Electric Power Cooperative at the Laramie River Power Station in Wheatland as a mechanical engineer. He currently works at Tri-State Generation and Transmission Inc. at Craig Station, specializing as a turbine engineer. He lives in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

-- Stephen Hanlon is a high-technology executive experienced in product development, operations and senior management in the medical device sector. He serves as the director of the Health and Bioscience Innovation Hub at UW. Hanlon is a 1975 electrical engineering graduate of UW; has a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University; and received an MBA from the University of Colorado. He lives in Cheyenne.

-- Shane Siegfried is a business performance coach/consultant and founder of Singularis Leadership, a small firm that provides strategic leadership consulting, from business management and sales strategy development to overall business performance efficiencies. Siegfried is a 1994 UW College of Business marketing and management graduate. He lives in Fort Collins, Colo.

The annual John P. Ellbogen $50K Entrepreneurship Competition encourages students to act on their talents, ideas and energy to produce tomorrow’s leading businesses. In response to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 situation, the competition has been modified to be a completely virtual public event, hosted by the UW College of Business via Zoom.

To register for the free event, go to www.uwyo.edu/business/entrepreneurship/.

For more information, email Josie Voight at voight@uwyo.edu.

 

 

Contact Us

Institutional Communications
Bureau of Mines Building, Room 137
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: (307) 766-2929
Email: cbaldwin@uwyo.edu


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