Four teams composed of students studying in ASOA MBA Program took the first four places in the First Business Competition in Azerbaijan.

"Citizens Development Corp", a non-profit US organization operating in Baku in cooperation with USA Embassy in Azerbaijan, on October-December 2002 announced and held the first ever business case competition in Azerbaijan. 16 teams from 8 Universities of Azerbaijan were encouraged to participate in "1-st Azerbaijan Business Case Competition". The students compete in teams to solve an actual business problem. The teams were given a written business case and 24 hours to analyze the information, determine the best approach/solution, and develop an oral presentation and a written summary in English of their analyses and recommendations. (The case subject was "The project of American Pipeline". The case was prepared by William A.Teichner, Charles Williams Fellow, Harvard Business School). 4 teams (out of 16) who won the competition were composed of students studying at the ASOA MBA Program :

1st place :
Orkhan Mustafayev, Elvira Sulikova, Elena Sankova and Yuliya Dronova

2nd place :
Gulnara Ibrahimova, Nurin Hassanov, Emin Hassanov, and Farkhad Parvizi

3rd place :
Nargiz Husseynova, Natella Abdullayeva,Tahir Mollayev, and Elshan Rahimov

4th place:
Samir Nurmammedov, Farid Orudjev, Nazim Niftaliyev, and Murad Tahirov

The winning team has gained the opportunity to travel to the US for 4 to 6 weeks study tour (expense paid) on business issues. The other teams taken 2nd, 3rd and 4th places in the competition shared $2000, $1500 and $1000 in cash, respectively.

The panel of judges scored the teams and chosen the winners comprised of the representatives of industry, academia and government :

Ross Wilson, Ambassador of USA in Azerbaijan (Chairman);Jonelle Glosh, Am Cham; Leyla Rzakuliyeva, Exxon, Azerbaijan;Phil Home, BP;Farida Safarova, "Azeronline ".

The list of sponsoring organizations:

CDC, USAID, bp, ExxonMobil, Unocal 76 Khazar, HYATT Hotels, Azeronline, Lufthansa, Coca-Cola, Price WaterhouseCoopers

Congratulations!!!