In the Fall of 2009, Emily Campbell began her second year as a Baruch College Mentor for the Merrill Lynch Invitational Entrepreneurship Competition at Baruch College. Students seeking MBA’s from Baruch, as well as business school students from other institutions, including NYU, Columbia, Fordham and Pace, participate in the competition.
Ms. Campbell was invited to participate in the Executives on Campus
program after meeting Edward Rogoff, Academic Director of the Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship and Small Business at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business; he and Ms. Campbell were both judging business plans at Columbia University’s Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center. “We were both on a panel, and after hearing my comments, Ed said, ‘You should get involved with Baruch.’”
As an Executive on Campus, Ms. Campbell has also been able to attend interesting events, including a lecture by Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, CEO of Timex Group, B.V., in the Spring of 2009.
Each team that is selected to participate in the business plan competition is assigned an outside mentor drawn from the Executives on Campus, in addition to an internal mentor. Outside mentors are drawn from many areas, including business, law and finance. The first year Ms. Campbell was a mentor to a group of students who were proposing to launch an internet business involving food shopping and downloadable coupons. That team did not complete all of its milestones, but Ms. Campbell’s current team has so far completed all of its milestones; that team is planning to launch a law-related finance business. “This team has a leader with specific industry experience. If they can execute on the plan, even if they don’t win the competition, they will likely have a viable business.”
Baruch College has a well-funded and very successful Entrepreneurship Program. The Merrill Lynch Competition awards significant monetary prizes and start-up funding – currently up to $100,000. This year marks the 10th anniversary of this business plan competition at Baruch.