NASCO Plan Wins Kravis Competition

CMC students Daniel Cahir, John Niles, and Graham Tharp, all Class of 2005, have won this year's 15th annual Henry R. Kravis Business Plan Competition. Their submission, NASCO: National Association of Student Clubs and Organizations Business Plan, beat out five other entries. The top three plans were evaluated on Friday, Dec. 3 by a committee of practitioners in entrepreneurial ventures and venture capital.
"The competition was quite a success," says Brian Dennis, assistant director of the Financial Economics Institute at CMC, and associate director of CMC's Robert A. Day 4 + 1 BA/MBA Program. "The business plans were very creative and the judges provided excellent feedback. It was great to see the entrepreneurial spirit of CMC students who enjoyed a valuable learning experience by interacting with the judges."
(Pictured above, from left: panelist Jon Kirchner '89, president and CEO of Digital Theater Systems, Inc.; Daniel Cahir, Graham Tharp, John Niles, and panelist Augie Nieto '80 P'08, Life Fitness president and CEO, and national Alumni Fund chairman.)
"It was a lot of fun, a lot of hard work, and it's going to continue to be a lot of hard work, but we're looking forward to every minute of it," Niles said of Friday's win.
Sponsored by the Venture Finance Institute at the Drucker School of Management and the Robert A. Day 4 + 1 BA/MBA Program at CMC, the competition provides winners with a cash award. In conjunction, the winning NASCO entry will be used as the basis for the Robert A. Day Venture Capital Competition in the spring, requiring competitors to submit a proposal outlining funding of the NASCO plan.