Chuck Powell
Partner
Houston


Brian Fenske
Partner
Houston

Fulbright co-sponsored and acted as judge in the 2009 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC). A three-day competition between forty-two university teams from around the world, it is the world’s richest and largest business plan competition.

More than $800,000 in cash and prizes were presented to the winning teams at the April 18^th banquet, which was hosted by Rice University’s Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.

Fulbright partners Chuck Powell and Brian Fenske were among the judges, which included more than 200 venture capital investors, entrepreneurs and professional and business leaders. A team of Fulbright associates also participated in preliminary screening of the business plans.

Powell presented a check to the team from Thammasat University in Thailand for its plan involving an environmentally-friendly additive for use in natural rubber compounds. The Thai team was one of the first foreign teams to make it to the finals of the competition. Carnegie Mellon University won the Grand Prize and the Best I.T. Award for a plan involving next-generation interactive payment cards.

The competition and winning teams will be featured on CNNMoney.com and in the June 2009 issue of FORTUNE Small Business.