Monday, November 24, 2014

BW Alum, Student Capture Top Spots in Pitch Contest

Pitch winners included Tessa Louche (right) and Shanina Knighton (middle)
A BW graduate and current student were holding the "big check" at the end of the night as the first and second place winners of Blackstone LaunchPad and Bad Girl Ventures inaugural Pitch Night for Female Collegiate Entrepreneurs. Tessa Louche ‘17, a marketing major from Parma, finished second, while the contest winner was BW sports medicine alum Shanina Knighton ’06, now a graduate student at Case Western Reserve University and co-founder of healthcare startup RKN.

The evening of female mentoring and networking, and first ever #GirlPower Pitch Night was a collaboration by all four Northeast Ohio Blackstone LaunchPad programs—Baldwin Wallace, Case Western, Kent State and Lorain County Community College—and Bad Girl Ventures (BGV).

"At BW’s Blackstone LaunchPad program, we promote female entrepreneurship because it’s good for our students – both in terms of education and opportunity,’ said Mike Nock, Director of BW’s Blackstone LaunchPad. ‘AND because Northeast Ohio would benefit tremendously from an increase in women in leadership roles, specifically running businesses and non-profits.”

The event took place at TOAST, a local restaurant founded by BGV alum, Jillian Davis, who also served as one of judges, and was one of several BW events marking Global Entrepreneurship Week.

An Innovation Summit at BW's Center for Innovation and Growth (CIG) was the highlight of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The event featured five Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year winners or nominees.