Westmont Magazine A Winning Plan

Four Westmont economics and business students qualified for the national semi-finals of the 2nd Annual Midwestern Enterprise Creation Competition at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, March 18-20. Westmont was the only liberal arts college — and the smallest school — among nine semi-finalists.

Marty Ozinga ’99 and his brother Karl Ozinga ’00, Jennifer Koehler ’99, and Avery Hilton ’99 presented their comprehensive start-up business plan, ‘‘Refugee Books,’’ to a panel of judges that included venture capitalists, merchant bankers, international industrialists, and successful start-up entrepreneurs.

They completed the plan during their fall 1998 course in entrepreneurship with Dr. David Newton, professor of entrepreneurial finance, who accompanied them on the trip.

Undergraduate teams from the United States, Canada, and Mexico were invited to submit original business plans for start-up companies in the international contest. Sponsors included Forsythe Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, Entrepreneur Magazine and Ernst & Young.

The University of Manitoba finished first, Loyola Marymount University came in second, and the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business took third.