[img_assist|nid=818|title=|desc=Winning team: Mark Horsfall, Gordon Blair, Ray Van Iterson, Anthony Ostler, and coach Chrisopher Nelligan, of the Richard Ivey School of Business (University of Western Ontario). (photo: M.C. Péloquin & C. Fleury)|link=none|align=right|width=400|height=286]by Rachel Alkallay

It was an upset. The Richard Ivey School of Business, part of the University of Western Ontario, took first place at the 16th Concordia MBA International Case Competition, held January 14-18. It was the first time a team from Richard Ivey had even made it into the top three.

Second place went to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and third to the University of Paderborn, Germany, which was competing in the Case Competition for only the second time.
Concordia’s team comprised Donna Doherty, Sudha Dwivedi, Victor Sachs and Randy Walker, together with alternate Raemona Slodovnick. They gave a strong performance, and reached the semifinals in a hotly-contested three-way presentation.

Last year’s winner, Memorial University of Newfoundland, made it to the semi-finals this year. The University of Otago, New Zealand, and the University of Calgary, which placed second and third respectively at last year’s competition, didn’t make it to die semi-finals this year. All three teams had placed in the top third for most of the previous five years.

The Case Competition is a popular student-organized event, in which teams of Master’s of Business Administration students go head-to-head to solve real business problems before judges from the business world. Twenty-eight teams from four continents competed this year in the intense battle of wits, which took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.