Niamh is the business

It all began two years ago.

Castleknock commerce student Niamh Prenderville and three of her fresher colleagues from the UCD Quinn School of Business spent seven weeks preparing a report analysing a specific european industry such as energy, real estate or pharmaceuticals. A panel of Merrill Lynch judges in London reviewed the submitted reports and the BComm students’ analysis was rated one of the eight best.

For the final round, the intrepid foursome travelled to London to deliver a ten minute presentation and face a grilling from a judging panel of Merrill Lynch executives. Having the youngest team and facing opposition with more experience in the financial area didn’t stand in the way of the UCD team as they beat off rivals from Norway to China to scoop the first prize.

It was this success that prompted the organisers of the prestigious Marshall International Case Competition in Los Angeles to invite the quartet – Niamh, Daniel Tanase from Dooradoyle, Andrew Flood from the North Circular Road and Stephen Brosnan from Ballyclough – to become the first Irish team to compete in the event. They will be facing competition from 29 other teams from around the world at the finals in the University of California from 12th - 16th February 2008.

Now in her final year at UCD Quinn School of Business, the former St. Brigid’s NS and Mount Sackville student is understandably very excited by the forthcoming grilling!

“Our success in the Merrill Lynch competition really paved our way for this invitation,” she told Community Voice. “This is a world class competition which highlights the strategic challenges and managerial dilemmas faced by global business leaders. We will have to work under pressure to solve a real business problem, using simulated business conditions such as time-critical deadlines and incomplete information to formulate workable, action-oriented recommendations.

“And of course we are competing against some of the top business students in the world,” she said.

Teams will be presented with a business case study on Friday morning, February 15th. They will then be locked into their downtown Los Angeles hotel room for 24 hours to research, analyse and develop a set of action plans, make recommendations and prepare their presentations, which will be made the following day. Passive use of the internet is allowed but not for communication.

“We are up against teams from New Zealand to Canada and all places in between,” says Niamh. “It is a long time since a non-American team won this competition but we will certainly give it our best shot,

“It is a great honour to be part of the first ever Irish team at the finals and I would like to thank Ernst and Young for their generous sponsorship, as we would have found it very expensive to attend otherwise.”

Niamh, who lives in College Road, is in her third and final year of a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the UCD Quinn School of Business. “This is a new school only open six years and it is really hi-tech,” she says. “We all have laptops where we keep the slides from our lectures and it really is state of the art.

“In the final year, I am specialising in accountancy and I hope to continue this by studying for a Masters at the Smurfit Business School.”

The girl from St. Brigid’s has come a long way.

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