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(August 9, 2001, Gazette)

Testing free enterprise

The ACE Memorial team during some time off at the Tower of London. (L-R) Katie MacGee, Aaron Natsheh, Meghan Drover, Renee Tulk, Gordon Barnes, Patrick Foran, Sarah Bowes and Nick Crosbie.

By J. Gordon Barnes
Special to the Gazette

As the national winner of the ACE-Canada Campus Enterprise Challenge in February, Memorial University’s ACE (Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs) represented Canada internationally at the inaugural Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) World Cup. The SIFE World Cup was held at the London Hilton, London, England, July 11-13, 2001.

This event ended up to be a fantastic opportunity to meet with other students from around the world, meet with global CEO’s and most importantly represent Memorial University as Team Canada. Much was learned from this experience and the goal now for the team is to take these experiences and make the ACE Chapter at Memorial even stronger, to repeat as National Champions next year, with the opportunity to compete again in the 2002 SIFE World Cup.

The Memorial University team was made up of six students, Gordon Barnes, Patrick Foran, Nicholas Crosbie, Meghan Drover, Aaron Natsheh and Renee Tulk; along with Dr. Dennis Hanlon, the team’s faculty advisor. All played instrumental roles in getting to the competition and it was the hard work of Dr. Hanlon that kept the team focused through last 48 hours. The end result was an impressive presentation that made an impression on judges as well as two Memorial University business faculty who were able to attend, Dean Bill Blake and Dr. Jim Barnes.

Although the MUN team did not make the finals, they were very proud of their accomplishments. In fact two judges approached Gordon and Nick afterwards to complement them on the projects and overall program ACE Memorial had run throughout the year. One comment included, “It was a common agreement amongst the judges that if we had to hire one team for our company, it would have been the Canadians.” Another compliment, from a Malaysian Judge as he handed out his business card, was, “Next time you are in Malaysia, give me a call.” The team attributed these comments not only to the projects that have run this year but also to the different approach that was taken in the presentation. Contrasting other teams, Memorial took a more personable, non-scripted approach.

Many thanks go to the ACE-Canada head office and board who secured major funding from TD Financial Group, as well as the important local support we received from Aliant Inc., ACOA, The Genesis Centre, MUN’s Department of Student Affairs and MUNSU. It is also very important to note the help we received from the Faculty of Business and the ACE Memorial Advisory Board in our preparation, which included practice judging as well as the work of Dr. Hanlon to bring in local business leaders to help in our practices.

About Students In Free Enterprise Global Founded in 1975, SIFE is one of the world’s fastest growing non-profit, economic educational organizations. Currently more than 1000 SIFE Teams are active in twenty countries. For more information, contact SIFE World Headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, USA, at 417-831-9505, e-mail sifehq@sife.org or visit www.SIFE.org.

About ACE-Canada ACE-Canada is a national not- for-profit organization dedicated to helping young entrepreneurial Canadian’s succeed. With over 40 chapters on university and college campuses across the country, ACE-Canada supports a chapter-based student network committed to the development of entrepreneurial skills and values. ACE-Canada is funded privately through various individual and corporate contributions, including National Partners the Fair Enterprise Institute and the John Dobson Foundation. For more information, contact the ACE-Canada Head Office in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at 416-304-1566, e-mail info@acecanada.ca or visit www.acecanada.ca.