UNC, Indian School of Business & London Business School win Top Honors

Charlottesville, VA- Saturday, November 17th, 2007--The University of North Carolina-Kenan Flagler, Indian School of Business and London Business School won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively at Idea Crossing's 5th Annual Innovation Challenge hosted by the Darden Graduate School of Business. The competition attracted over 1200 participants from

57 countries and 63 of the best MBA programs and was sponsored by Hilton, OPEN from American Express, Whirlpool, Lexmark, Harley-Davidson and Shell.

The "Most Innovative MBA Team in the World" from UNC's "Kenan Flagler Flash"team consist of Danvers Fleury (team leader), Sara Jane Sparks, Tyler Mills, Rachel Kuhn and Brian Stempeck. Fleury and Sparks participated in the 2006 Innovation Challenge and placed 2nd. A first place prize of $20,000 was awarded.

The 2nd Most Innovative MBA Team in the World from the Indian School of Business who named themselves "Innova" include Prashant Goel, Pushkar Jain, Meghna Rao, Sushant Bhansali and Nishant Pandey.  The team arrived from Hyderabad late Thursday evening presented their innovative solution several hours later for American Express then again on Saturday for Hilton Hotels Corporation. 2 of the team members had to fly back to India immediately after their presentation to take an exam on Monday. 2nd place prize of $7,500 was awarded. Third place, London Business School team, include Jeik Sohn, Gloria Chow, Kitty Lee, Emmanuel Coucke and Daniel Hanna.

The judging panel was made up of a diverse group of executives from sponsors, entrepreneurs and innovation experts, including:

• Kirk Thompson, VP, Hilton Brand Marketing
• Lisa Zemke, Director, Services and Standards at Hilton Hotels
• Jennifer Marcou, VP, Business and Product Development at OPEN from American Express
• Rosa Chen, Director, Business and Product Development at OPEN from American Express
• Randy Voss, Senior Manager, Global Strategy and Business Development, Whirlpool Corporation
• Eric McGraw, Manager, Strategy and Planning, Harley-Davidson Motor Company
• Jim Webster, Innovations Director at Shell
• Matt Mason, Author, The Pirates' Dilemma
• Lisa Bodell, Founder & CEO, futurethink
• Derrick Palmer, Principal, InnovationPoint
• Daphne Carmeli, Founder and Former CEO, Metreo
  

Polly LaBarre, CNN correspondent and co-author of "Mavericks at Work" gave an outstanding keynote address to the Challenge community at the Hilton Awards Dinner which was held at the University of Virginia's Rotunda, a World Heritage site designed by Thomas Jefferson. Following the awards ceremony contestants enjoyed an after party sponsored by Google.

About Innovation Challenge
The Innovation Challenge® is the largest competition of its kind in the world, consistently uniting hundreds of teams from the top 100 MBA programs worldwide with some of the biggest global brands in a groundbreaking experience designed to solve real-world business challenges. Idea Crossing created the Innovation Challenge in 2003.

About Idea Crossing, Inc.
Idea Crossing fuses the groundbreaking ideas of passionate individuals with the curiosity of forward-thinking organizations through the design, production, and operation of innovation competitions. Our proven web-based platform Challenge Accelerator® also facilitates the inherently complex stages of innovation competitions while simultaneously providing an optimal experience for everyone involved. Clients include Hilton Hotels, American Express, Harley-Davidson, Whirlpool, General Electric, Red Hat, as well as foundations and academic institutions. For more information please contact Anil K. Rathi at rathi[at]ideacrossing[dot]com.

About Batten Institute at Darden School of Business
The Darden School was founded as the Virginia Business School in 1954 and its first classes in entrepreneurship and small business were offered in 1961. In early 1996, Darden created the Batten Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership with a generous gift from the Batten family of Norfolk, Virginia, and its Landmark Foundation. The Batten Institute, which succeeded the Batten Center on January 1, 2000, was made possible through a subsequent gift from University of Virginia alumnus Frank Batten, Sr.