MBA students from Robert Gordon University’s (RGU) Aberdeen Business School faced their own set of “dragons” when they took part in an Investment Den exercise supported by Energy Ventures and Simmons and Co.
Over the course of two days five teams comprising 21 students on the MBA programme were tutored on investment appraisal techniques by Anoop Poddar, Senior Partner and President of Energy Ventures Houston Office, before being given time to prepare presentations on hypothetical business scenarios. They then had to pitch their business proposal to an investors’ panel and negotiate a deal.
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The winning team – Thuy-tien Le Guen Dang, Hector Martin and Prasanna Chandran – impressed the panel with their presentation on adrone technology business. To mark their success they were presented with a glass trophy commissioned by the late Richard Selwa, a former judge at the annual event.
Anoop, who led the panel of judges which also comprised Rajat Maheshwari, Energy Ventures, Andy Blues, Simmons and Co, and Ian Broadbent and Farooq Ahmad, of RGU, said: “It’s been a pleasure to work with Ian, the MBA Director at RGU and this highly experienced and motivated group. I was very impressed with the students’ ability to pitch an opportunity as well as negotiate a deal with the investors.”
There are currently more than 270 students on RGU’s MBA programmes, one of which offers an MBA in Oil & Gas Management. Ten percent of the students study full time on campus with 90% studying on a part-time basis on campus or around the world on a distance learning basis.
Ian Broadbent said: “This is an annual event which gives participating students the opportunity to learn from and engage with experts in their field and to work on a project with a practical application and which they could expect to encounter in the real world – indeed, previous participants have stated that they have continued to use the techniques from this workshop in their careers. Industry engagement forms a main pillar of our approach at Aberdeen Business School and we are grateful for the support of Anoop, Andy and Rajat.”
