Oluwayimika (Yinka) Taiwo-Peters, Angie Gonzalez, Mallory Smith, and Kaila Squires, all first-year MBA students from the Wharton School of Business, have won the 2019 Executive Leadership Council‘s National Business Case Competition. As a team, they will share a check for $35,000.
The annual competition, sponsored and hosted by Exxon Mobil Corporation for the tenth consecutive year, invites students from the nation’s top business schools to form teams, led by Black team leaders, to analyze a timely business issue that demonstrates the students’ critical thinking, analytical and communications skills.
The teams were challenged to research and identify factors, roadblocks, and other impediments to industry image, brand, recruitment and retention. The teams developed and presented viable solutions for attracting and retaining millennial/Generation Z employees.
“The petroleum industry offers a rich variety of career and leadership options that touch on nearly every aspect of business, from accounting to exploration to marketing and technology,” said Skip Spriggs, president and CEO of The Executive Leadership Council, the preeminent membership organization for the development of global Black leaders. “These teams have helped identify effective ways to encourage the next generation to participate in an industry that is on the leading edge of climate-science research and seeking solutions for developing low-emissions technologies while serving the energy needs of society. Congratulations to the Wharton team on their winning case.”
In addition to the cash award, the first-place team from Wharton will be introduced at The Executive Leadership Council’s Annual Recognition Gala on October 10, 2019, at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC, attended by more than 2,200 leaders in business, public affairs, education and the arts.
“ExxonMobil is committed to attracting, developing and retaining a premier workforce of talented men and women around the globe, particularly from among the millennial and Generation Z populations,” said JoAnn Lee, Associate General Counsel for ExxonMobil. “We’re proud to partner with The Executive Leadership Council in recognizing these future business leaders for their academic excellence, dedication and creativity.”
