Points of Progress

• For the second year in a row, in 2008 the University Sales Education Foundation (www.saleseducationfoundation.org) named the College of Business sales program one of the Top University Sales Programs in the U.S.  Only 25 other schools made the list.

• The Partum Group, a medical technology company founded by entrepreneurship MBA students, won the NASDAQ Stock Market Challenge at the 2008 Global Moot Corp Business Plan Competition.  The company also won the Outstanding Product award in its Moot Corp division, which included the team that won the overall competition.  In total, The Partum Group collected more than $90,000 in awards, prizes and honors during the 2007-08 school year.

• At Kentucky's first-ever Idea State U. Business Plan Competition, teams from the College of Business collected four of the eight awards possible, including the top two awards for business plans. In all, the college's two graduate teams, two undergraduate teams and their advisors received more than $60,000 of the $100,000 in available awards. The competition was hosted by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development and was open to all public universities in the state. 

• In April 2008, the AACSB--the gold standard in business education excellence--renewed the college's dual accreditation for another six years, making UofL the only business college in the Louisville area with separate accreditations in both business and accountancy programs. 

• In its inaugural international listing of the top 1000 business schools in 151 countries, France-based EDUNIVERSAL named the College of Business one of the most important business schools in the world for 2008.

• In its 2008 survey, Business Week named the college one of the top undergraduate business programs in the U.S. The magazine ranked the college #11 among public universities in the south, #16 among all universities in the south and #49 among all public universities in the U.S. Out of 1200 programs nationwide, the college ranked in the top 7 percent.

• For the second consecutive year, in February 2008 the UofL Cyber Defense team won the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. The team is comprised of students from the college's Computer Information Systems department and the Speed School of Engineering.

• In February 2008, at the college's inaugural Brown-Forman Cardinal Challenge Business Plan Competition, judges awarded first place and $15,000 to HeartSounds, Inc., a team of MBA students from the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Partum Group, an IMBA team from UofL, tied for second place in the Fast Pitch competition. 

• We're ranked #1 among regional business colleges by EntrePoint  in number of business plans accepted into competitions froom 2002 to 2007. 

• The College of Business ranked in the top 7% of all business programs in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report for 2006, 2007 and 2008.

• Our graduate program was honored by Fortune Small Business magazine as one of "America’s Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs" in its July 2007 issue, joining programs at MIT, Harvard, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, Wake Forest, Stanford, Cornell, Indiana University and 16 other schools.

• Our undergraduate entrepreneurship program was ranked #19 in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report for 2007, and # 17 for 2008.

• Our graduate entrepreneurship program was ranked #10 in the U.S by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine for 2007.

• We were named to The Princeton Review's Best Business Schools list for 2007.
• In 2007, our European MBA received accreditation from the Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation (FIBAA), the gold standard for European academic accreditation.
• Our Panama MBA program is rated among the top 20 in Latin America and one of the top two MBA programs in Central America by Latin Trade magazine, the largest business magazine in Latin America.
• RJS, LLC, a U of L IMBA business plan competition team, earned the runner-up award in the Murphree Venture Partners Challenge at the 2007 Moot Corp Global Business Plan Competition, and finished 11th out of 35 teams from the finest MBA programs in the world.
• In 2007, for the second time in three years, our Capstone Finance Team won the $50,000 Sterne-Agee Student Investment Fund Competition.  The competition includes schools from the Southeastern US, including Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn and Georgia.   (They posted a 26.91% return on their $50,000 investment, and got to keep 50% of the profits for use in scholarships.)
• Brown-Forman Professor of Marketing Raymond “Buddy” LaForge won the 2007 USCA Distinguished Sales Educator Award.  The USCA is the University Sales Center Alliance, a national organization of universities with sales center entities.
• In 2007, the College was invited to host a regional competition for the Moot Corp Global Business Plan Competition, often called the “Super Bowl” of business plan competitions.  The new Cardinal Challenge will be held in Louisville February 22-23, 2008.
• In the first-ever annual report on the Top University Sales Education Programs, the U of L College of Business joined Ball State, DePaul University, Ohio University, Indiana University and 22 other high-performing schools in being named one of the nation's top programs for 2007 by the University Sales Education Foundation (USEF). The list appeared in the industry's leading trade journal, Selling Power Magazine, in June 2007.  
• In 2003, the  U of L College of Business was recognized as a Top Tier Entrepreneurial College by Entrepreneur Magazine, ranking 13th in the U.S.
• In 2005, management Prof. Bruce Kemelgor was the SBI's "Homer L. Saunders Mentor Award" winner.