A team of second-year Western students fittingly named “Husk” won the 2023 Business 2257 Feasibility Study Competition for their business idea focused on sustainable drinking straws made from corn husks.
Team Husk; consisting of Sara Dahan, Sophie Fiala, Thomas Masson, Kaelan Purdie, Blake Shavchook, Adam Whale, and Hannah Yao; were awarded the Robert G. Siskind Entrepreneurial Award at the competition at Ivey on March 23. Each student on the team took home a plaque and a monetary award, which were presented by Robert G. Siskind’s family. The team was among three finalists selected from 250 entries to compete before a panel of judges after a preliminary round and a semi-final round.
The annual competition, which is hosted by Ivey’s Business Foundations department, is part of the Business 2257 course’s curriculum. The course requires the students, working in groups of six to eight, to prepare a new venture feasibility study that includes both a written report and an oral presentation. The activity challenges the students to forge business development skills through applying academic knowledge to real-life experience. Numerous successful businesses; such as College Pro Painters, Eco-Shred Limited, and Creative Copy Centre (now a division of Canon); were initiated through the Business 2257 Feasibility Study Competition.
In addition to Husk, the other two finalist teams included:
- DeepDive – Sydney Evans, Theo Kalff, Alex Kirker, Kate McCallum, Anthony Pham, Naomi Walch, Patrick Westdal; and,
- Gaia – Parnika Aima, Aditi Basdeo, Jeffrey Li, Emily Liu, Reddington Liu, Emily Zhang, Grace Zhou.
Thank you to the judges
The judging panel included:
- Marsha Bradley, Co-Founder & CEO of EGI Inc.;
- Jessica Kelly, HBA ’09, lecturer of Managerial Accounting and Control at Ivey; and,
- Brian Langen, HBA ’12, MBA ’17, Senior Manager, Corporate Strategy at Rice Group.
The Robert G. Siskind Entrepreneurial Award was established in 1990 to commemorate Robert G. Siskind’s contributions to Western University.
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