April 22, 2008
MEDIA CONTACT: Michelle Sherrard
(202) 994-1423; mcs1@gwu.edu
GW STUDENT COMPETITION TO REWARD ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ENTERPRISE
Parents of GW Alumna Create the Annette and Richard Scott Business Plan Competition
WASHINGTON - Healthcare entrepreneur Richard Scott and Annette Scott have provided a $300,000 gift to fund the Annette and Richard Scott Business Plan Competition at The George Washington University. The purpose of the program is to encourage creative enterprise and the development of marketable ventures among GW students looking to create a business or develop a new initiative. The first competition will be held during the 2008-2009 academic year and will be managed by the university's Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence. Awards will include $20,000 to help fund the winning business plan.
"Speaking from experience, I know how difficult it can be to finance a start-up company," said Richard Scott, founder, chairman, and CEO of Richard L. Scott Investments, LLC, and co-founder and chairman of Solantic, LLC, an operator of urgent care centers in Florida. "Ann and I are pleased to have the opportunity, through this competition, to award critical seed money to jumpstart new business ventures."
The Scotts, along with their daughter, Allison Marie Guimard -- who earned her B.B.A. in marketing from GW's School of Business in 2005 -- will help judge the inaugural competition. Guimard is the founder and president of Alijor, an online healthcare community based in California. "We're a family of innovators," said Richard Scott. "We understand that the spirit of philanthropy is just as important as the spirit of originality."
The two-round competition will include the submission of a written business plan and a presentation to a panel of judges comprising investors and business executives. Participants in the competition, which will be open to all GW undergraduate and graduate students, will be given the opportunity to network with and learn from the judges. Awards will be based on the written and oral presentations, as well the viability of the proposed company.
John Rollins, professor of entrepreneurship at the GW School of Business, will direct the competition. A serial entrepreneur for more than 30 years before making the leap to academia in 2000, Rollins is looking forward to encouraging the creative talents of the university?s budding student entrepreneurs.
"The award package that Ann and Rick Scott are providing is a wonderful incentive, particularly for those whose financial means would make it difficult to start and build a business," said Rollins. "Rick, whose father was a truck driver and whose mother ironed clothes to help make ends meet, knows full well how challenging and fulfilling entrepreneurship can be, and we appreciate what he and Ann are doing for our students."
Richard Scott was recognized as one of "America's 25 Most Influential People" in 1995 by TIME magazine and, during that same year, one of "America's Top 25 Performers" by U.S. News and World Report, and CEO of the Year by Financial World. In 2007, he was honored with the inaugural GW Award for Distinguished Entrepreneurial Achievement from the GW Entrepreneurs Roundtable. Scott founded the Columbia Hospital Corporation in 1987 (later renamed HCA, Inc.) and by the time he left his role as chairman and CEO in 1997, Columbia/HCA had become the world's largest healthcare company with more than 340 hospitals, 130 surgery centers, and 550 home health locations in 38 states and three foreign countries.
GW's School of Business prepares students for professional management careers. The school is a recognized education leader, the result of a strategy to improve its high academic standards while providing practical experiences that leverage the unique advantages of its Washington, D.C., location. The depth and variety of its academic and professional offerings provide rich opportunities for students in the school?s undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs.
Located four blocks from the White House, The George Washington University was created by an Act of Congress in 1821. Today, GW is the largest institution of higher education in the nation?s capital. The university offers comprehensive programs of undergraduate and graduate liberal arts study as well as degree programs in medicine, public health, law, engineering, education, business, and international affairs. Each year, GW enrolls a diverse population of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and more than 130 countries.
For more information about the Scott Business Plan Competition,
e-mail John Rollins at jrollins@gwu.edu.
To learn more about GW's School of Business, visit www.business.gwu.edu.
For more news about GW, visit the GW News Center at www.gwnewscenter.org.
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