Young business scholars from around the world will be in St. John's solving global business problems and vying for the top spot in an international competition. The students will be participating in the championship round of the Network of International Business Schools (NIBS) case competition to be held at Memorial from Feb. 22-27.

Memorial's team is comprised of bachelor of commerce (co-operative) students Tom Dunne, Jennifer Gambin, and Christopher Roberts all of St. John's and Kristopher Slaney of St. Lawrence. They will be competing against students from Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand; BI-Norwegian School of Management, Norway; Bishop's University, Canada; Groupe ESC Rennes, France; Helsinki School of Economics, Finland; Concordia, Canada; and University of Northern Iowa, USA. Memorial won the NIBS championship last year and earned the privilege to host this year's competition.

“It'll be great to defend our title on home turf and have the support of our classmates and the local community,” said Tom Dunne a member of Memorial's team. “I am also looking forward to meeting business students from around the world. NIBS is about the cultural experience as much as it is the competition.”

Two teams will be given the same business case and will have four hours to prepare their analysis and make recommendations. Each team will present to a panel of judges, made up of local business people. The teams will compete in a round robin format and the four teams with the highest scores will advance to the semi-finals on Friday, Feb.27 with the final match beginning at 5:20 p.m. Media and the public are invited to attend the competitions. For a schedule of competition times and daily standings visit www.busi.mun.ca/nibs04

NIBS was established in 1993 to bring together business schools from around the world who believe the globalization of the economy is essential to the evolution of managerial practices. The goal of the competition is to promote cross-cultural awareness and give students an opportunity to explore international business issues. Memorial has participated in the competition since 1996 and our teams have won four times: 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2003.

More than 100 people from the local business community are involved in the competition as organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and judges.