Supported by Silicon Valley CEO Ray Zinn, the first ZinnStarter Pitch Competition, hosted by the LaunchLab, gave aspiring collegiate entrepreneurs an opportunity to win cash to build their ideas into the next groundbreaking product or business. Winners included: First place ($2,500): Emma Adams, WVU animal and nutritional sciences major, and her business idea PetRecord, which provides universal medical records for pets in emergency situations; second place ($1,500): Cameron Keefe, global supply chain management major, and her idea ThermoRoller, which combines physical massage with temperature control to relieve sore muscle pain; and third place ($1,000) to the team of Austin Davis, Anne Byer and Emily Thomas, from the University of Charleston, and their idea Second Chance, a program that helps give active control back to people with quadriplegia and paraplegia.
“The future is unpredictable so I focus on the ‘how’ and not the ‘what.'’”
Each year, West Virginia Executive magazine publishes a “Young Guns” list recognizing young professionals in the business community who drive our Mountain State forward. We're proud to share that Tara St. Clair, program director of our Encova Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, made West Virginia Executive magazine's Young Guns Class of 2023! As one of 10 West Virginia professionals, St. Clair was honored to be chosen for this year’s class.
Lana Latif has already met her goal of securing a job with a Big Four accounting firm -- and she’s still in grad school. Latif will earn her master’s in accountancy in 2021 before heading to Pittsburgh to be an assurance associate at Ernst & Young. According to her mentor, Gary LeDonne, this is a great success story for Latif who came to WVU after living with her family in Palestine.
In times of looking for that special gift, lean on Julian Givi for sound advice. Givi, assistant professor of marketing, is an expert on gifting.
