LMU was one of the top performing schools at the 2013 International Business Ethics Case Competition (IBECC) held from May 8-10 in San Diego. The annual event was organized by the Center for Ethics and Business at Loyola Marymount University, the Opus College of Business of the University of St. Thomas (MN), and the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association (ECOA), and was held in conjunction with the ECOA’s Sponsoring Partner Forum. IBECC is the oldest and most-recognized business ethics competition of its kind.
The LMU MBA team – which included Olivia Bias, Kirstin Harper-Smith, Nancy Pena and Jason Safa – chose to work on the ethical issues connected with monetizing a dating website. The LMU undergraduate team – which included Joe Dzida [senior, marketing], Juan Margitic [junior, economics], Jonathan Moises Rojas [senior, business management] and Amy Sims [sophomore, finance/economics]) – chose the controversy surrounding the 5 Hour energy drink.
The LMU undergraduate team won their division in all three competitions – Full Presentation/Q&A, 90-Second Presentation and 10-Minute Presentation. They were they only team to do so from the field of 25, which included graduate and undergraduate teams from schools representing England, Denmark, France, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, Vietnam, Canada and the U.S. The LMU MBA team was runner-up in its division in the 10-Minute Presentation.
“This was by far the most competitive and most international event we’ve had so far,” said Thomas White, director of LMU’s Center for Ethics and Business. “Our students did excellent work and reinforced LMU’s continuous commitment to producing ethical leaders.”
Teams of 3-5 students participated in a variety of competitions (20-to-30 minute presentation followed by Q&A; 10-minute presentation; 90-second presentation), all of which were judged by practicing ethics and compliance professionals. Each team selected a topic from any area of business ethics and described both the problem and a proposed solution. Approximately $12,000 in prize money was awarded to winners and runners-up. Students also had the opportunity to learn about organizational ethics by attending ECOA conference sessions and by interacting informally with the world’s leading ethics and compliance officers.
If you’re interested in participating in next year’s competition, please contact Kirsten Nordblom (knordblom@lmu.edu or 310.338.2321) or Thomas White (twhite@lmu.edu or 310.338.4523) for more information.
