FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: February 15, 2008

A seven-member team of Michael G. Foster School of Business MBA students dazzled judges and company executives with its sophisticated, yet practical solution at the invitation-only Wake Forest Marketing Summit, February 9. The self-selected team of 2008 MBAs included Kevin Kirn, Lisa Meyr, Paul Kilian, Hunter Saunders, Annie Akin, Matthew Kuffel and Daniel Liska. They triumphed over peers from Brigham Young University, Duke University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wake Forest University.

Each year, eight teams of MBA students from the world's top programs are invited to solve a strategic marketing challenge faced by a high-profile company. Foster team members drew on their collaborative strengths to create a strategy that married strong business analysis with a sizzling presentation. The team recommended leveraging the company's reliable infrastructure and solid product offering by targeting a fast-growing market that did not yet have a dominant player.

"The University of Washington was able to bring an innovative yet practical solution to the table that we can now work to develop and implement," said Sarah Day, staff manager for the case competition sponsor, Alltel Wireless.

This is the third year the UW Foster School has been selected for the Wake Forest Marketing Summit and the third year it has placed. "It's clear that the University of Washington stacks up against the best in the country," emphasized team member Kevin Kirn. "Our professionalism really stood out. Many of the other teams commented on our presentation ability and asked us what special training we received."

The special training that makes the Foster MBA Program distinctive is its individualized Leadership Development program. "We customize leadership development to each person and the result is that students have access to the challenging leadership opportunities they need to truly excel" said Dan Poston, assistant dean, masters programs. "Since Judith Kalitzki started our Leadership Development program in 2004, we have won more case competitions than we participated in during the previous four years." The winning team from the Foster School was coached primarily by Mark Forehand, associate professor of marketing and Elizabeth Stearns, senior lecturer in marketing. In addition, the team received valuable advice from those that competed in 2006 and 2007.

The Wake Forest summit continues a Foster School of Business winning streak. Foster MBA students won "Best School Team" at the first-ever 2008 East-West MBA All-Star Case Challenge in Beijing, China on January 5. Another Foster MBA team took top honors at the 2008 Silicon Valley Regional Venture Capital Investment Competition, February 8.