Spears School teams earn awards in Governor's Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

By Lauren Williams, Spears School communications specialist

(April 26, 2010 Stillwater, OK) – Oklahoma State University MBA students Samantha Collingsworth and Kip Kelley earned third place in the graduate division of the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition, held last week in Oklahoma City. Collingsworth and Kelley’s proposed business “Novel Water Softening,” has created a ground-breaking, reusable chemical sponge technology that removes magnesium and calcium ions that cause hard water, without depositing salt into the groundwater.

In addition, MBA students Niccole Gimaldi and Megan Horton earned the Al Tuttle Business Incubation award for their business plan for “HÄLSA, Inc.,” who has developed the Securite Stability Frame that assists in improving the balance and stability of users. It is intended for physical therapy use, rehabilitation and exercise.

The students represented two of four teams from OSU’s Spears School of Business to advance to the finals of the statewide contest. Other business plans advancing to the finals included “Clean Hands, LLC,” by MBA students Harlan Ross and Matt Fedick and XYZ major classification Alex Templeton, and “Secure Analytics, LLC,” by MBA students Blaine Rider and Annie Nguyen.

“We are very proud of these students,” said Michael H. Morris, professor and head of the OSU School of Entrepreneurship. “All are part of our Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Scholars Program at OSU, and they represent the shining lights among our MBA students. They are helping to commercialize some of the many exciting technologies at OSU.”

The Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition encourages students to take their entrepreneurial ideas beyond the classroom and implement them into the real world. The event has helped establish more than 10 innovative companies. The Novel Water Softening team earned $5,000, which they plan to use to help develop their business. As the first recipient of the Al Tuttle Business Incubation award, HÄLSA, Inc., team members Grimaldi and Horton will a year of office space and business services from the business incubator at the Business Development Center on the Meridian Technology Center campus in Stillwater.

“HALSA is just the type of business idea that will likely develop into a successful Oklahoma-based business,” said Bruce Barringer, professor and Pope chair of entrepreneurship and team advisor. “A year in the Meridian Technology Center incubator will give Dr. Bert Jacobson, HALSA’s inventor, and his team space to fine tune the HALSA device and prepare to take it to market.” More than 800 Oklahoma college students from more than 26 campuses have participated in the first six years of the Governor’s Cup competition, outlining 220 innovative ideas and competing for almost $900,000 in cash awards, $30,000 in scholarships, $80,000 in paid fellowships and $250,000 of in-kind services.