Overview
The New Venture Challenge (NVC), CU-Boulder’s cross-campus entrepreneurship championship, hosts its 4th annual business development competition starting at 5:15pm on Thursday, April 5th. The NVC received a record number of business submissions, with more than 40 teams competing for over $30,000 inawards. The final six teams will present their businesses at this culminating event, which also features commentary by a panel of judges with diverse areas of expertise in business leadership . Jim Fowler of InfoArmy will deliver a keynote address. The public is welcome to attend.
The NVC is cosponsored by a consortium of CU organizations, including the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, Silicon Flatirons, the Center for Education on Social Responsibility, CU Cleantech, the College of Engineering and Applied Science, eSpace, ATLAS and the Entrepreneurship Center for Music. It is also supported by Zayo Group, First Western Trust Bank, Boulder County Social Venture Partners, GC Andersen Partners and Marsh Fischmann & Breyfogle, LLP.
Register to attend the NVC Finals
Venture Capital Investment Competition
The 2012 Leeds MBA Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) team won the West Regional competition held at the University of Southern California on Friday, March 2 beating MBA teams from the University of Arizona, Santa Clara, San Diego State, Thunderbird, and UCLA.
The team of Lindsey Jensen, Dane McDonald, Jeff Schreier, Mark Wiranowski, and Nick Wyman advanced to the 15th International VCIC finals to be held April 12-14 at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. This is the 8th trip to finals for Leeds students since 2000—eight out of the last 12 years. CU won the Entrepreneurs’ Choice Award three of those years.
Leeds also hosts one of the regional competitions in February each year, with the help of many dedicated student volunteers.
“The best thing about participating in VCIC is the legacy that Colorado has created for itself within the competition. After the regional event, we had faculty and students form other schools and the judges coming up to us to ask us how we prepared and what the program at CU is like.”
—Jeff Schreier, MBA ’12
As part of the Leeds School of Business, the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship prepares graduates to embrace key global challenges by equipping them to think like entrepreneurs, act as social innovators and deliver as successful business leaders.
The Center advances the Leeds School’s leadership agenda through our collaborative initiatives across campus and in the business community in three key areas:
Innovation
- The mark of an entrepreneur is the innovation, the creativity, the game-changing nature of his or her work – whether it manifests inside an existing organization or in a newly created one. Our entrepreneurship students are challenged to turn accepted thinking on its head—in the classroom, in real-world industry projects, and by the business innovators who serve as student mentors and advisors.
Sustainability
- One of the leading areas for innovation and entrepreneurial opportunity is in the emerging field of sustainable business products and practices. We emphasize industry sectors such as cleantech, bioscience and organics that are well-represented in the region and serve national and international markets.
Access
- Boulder is consistently named one of the best places in the country to launch a startup. We connect students to industry leaders via the Deming Network – an active group of world-class entrepreneurs and innovators who are accessible and hands-on. CU-Boulder is also a top research university. Across campus, we help students access opportunities in technology transfer and the engineering, law, biofrontiers, and environmental science programs.
Innovation, sustainability, and a high degree of access to relevant businesses are all integral aspects of 21st century entrepreneurship education. The Center helps students apply their classroom learning to design creative solutions for cutting-edge businesses.
Cross Campus Entrepreneurship Education & Certificate
Students across the CU-Boulder campus want to learn how to apply their ideas to tackling big challenges in a business context. The Deming Center for Entrepreneurship offers an integrated program to help students take ideas through the process of enterprise creation while learning fundamental problem-solving skills they will use in any career.
The Cross Campus Entrepreneurship Certificate takes students through the entrepreneurial process. Participants study entrepreneurship in the classroom and meet and work with experienced entrepreneurs from the community. The certificate program is open to all undergraduate non-business upper division students (at least 60 credit hours). In addition to a set of courses tailored for a broad audience, there are specialty courses that address business challenges in engineering, journalism, music, and other disciplines.
The New Venture Challenge is a business plan competition open to all CU-Boulder students, faculty, and staff. Educational workshops help teams form and address the basics of business creation. Local entrepreneurs are available to mentor teams as they work through the process. The Challenge is cosponsored by the Deming Center, Silicon Flatirons, the Leeds School’s Center for Education on Social Responsibility, the College of Engineering and Applied Science, eSpace, and the School of Music.
Finally, the Deming Center is working with these partners as well as CU Boulder’s Environmental Center and the CU Museum of Natural History to develop an Innovation Lab. The Lab will serve all students who have an interest in entrepreneurship, a technology with commercial potential, or just an idea that they want to explore. It will provide mentorship from the business community and MBA students, educational opportunities, and an opportunity to network with other students and build business teams. Scheduled to open in fall 2012.
Contacts
Frank Moyes
Program Director
frank.moyes@colorado.edu
303.492.2062
Jacquelyn Dietrich
Program Coordinator
jacquelyn.dietrich@colorado.edu
303.492.8936
Entrepreneurship Courses for Non-business Students
Introduction to Entrepreneurship ESBM 3100 (3 credits)
- Fall 2011 - TR 9:30 to 10:45
- Introduces students to the multiple facets of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial process. Venture creation is a set of behaviors undertaken by individuals, and therefore, the course is designed to help students learn about the range of interests, aptitudes, abilities, and values that entrepreneurs bring to the starting of a new enterprise. It provides students with a framework for assessing new venture opportunities. Innovation is central to this process and students will be challenged to develop creative solutions to a societal problem or need.
Principles of Business for Entrepreneurs ESBM 3200 (3 credits)
- Fall 2011 - TR 12:30 to 1:45
- Provides students with a basic understanding of the business principles required to start and grow an entrepreneurial venture. It is intended for individuals who have not taken a marketing, accounting or finance course. Starting ventures in the uncertain environment faced by entrepreneurs presents considerable challenges. This course will focus on two aspects of business that are critical to the success of a new venture: marketing and financial management. While these subjects are universal and apply to any enterprise, in this course they will be taught in the context of small early stage ventures.
Writing a Venture Plan ESBM 4100 (3 credits)
- Fall 2011 - TR 2:00 to 3:15
- The venture plan describes the strategy necessary to create a new enterprise. It requires students to engage in a rigorous and thoughtful process that is essential to starting a venture. The course will address: defining the service/product and value proposition; analyzing the market and competition; creating a effective marketing plan, determining the operations and development requirements; recruiting the management team; establishing a sustainable competitive advantage; mitigating risk; projecting pro-forma financial statements; and funding the venture. Communicating the plan is an essential element of this course and students will learn organized and focused writing and how to make effective presentations.
Sustainable Entrepreneurship
Sustainability is a hallmark of the Boulder region. Students who come here know that they will be immersed in a culture of sustainable business opportunities, from cleantech to natural products, outdoor gear to technology innovations.
The Deming Center helps capitalize on this culture. Our CU Cleantech program helps students secure internships in solar, wind, smartgrid and other clean energy technology companies in the area. It also provides opportunities for students to work with local business leaders to commercialize cleantech research coming out of CU.
In the area of natural and organic products, the Center’s Organic Business Initiative provides access and engagement with leading companies. Students can participate in a customized tour of a major facility like White Wave or Celestial Seasonings, or help a startup get off the ground.
For other aspects of sustainability, such as green jobs, corporate sustainability and social entrepreneurship, the Center’s Sustainability Council of industry experts provides mentorship and student advising on a wide range of topics. The student Net Impact group and the Leeds School’s Center for Education on Social Responsibility also support student learning in this area.
The Deming Center also hosts or supports numerous educational events featuring speakers on different aspects of sustainability, from Productive Collisions to the Sustainable Opportunities Summit to the Leeds School’s Sustainable Speaker Series.
More questions? Feel free to contact Alison Peters for more information.
CU Cleantech (C2)
CU Cleantech is dedicated to building upon the University’s leadership in cleantech and renewable energy research and commercialization capabilities. The organization was founded in 2011 with the purpose of positioning the University as the main regional hub of innovation and commercialization within the rapidly expanding Cleantech ecosystem by creating a collaborative initiative that fosters entrepreneurship, industry involvement and student opportunities. C2 achieves these goals through three distinct but intertwined programs: the Incubation Program (MAP/POC), the Corporate Partnership Program, and the Student Internship Program.
To learn more, go to cucleantech.com
Organic Business Initiative
The Organic Business Initiative (OBI) began in 2007 to promote education and entrepreneurship in the increasingly important area of natural and organic products and services, a key industry sector in the Boulder community and a highly entrepreneurial one. Boulder is world-renowned for its leadership in the natural and organic industry. Natural products and services have a significant impact on the Boulder area economy, contributing approximately $2 billion annually.
The OBI Steering Committee, consisting of leaders from Boulder’s natural and organic industry, identified the importance of a two-way street that offers both the opportunity to build leadership in the natural products industry and the opportunity for entrepreneurial businesses to draw on student talent to achieve their on-the-ground goals. The Committee also envisioned the Initiative as helping to create a platform for all business to move in a more sustainable direction. Out of these directives came the Initiative’s mission and goals:
Mission
To foster entrepreneurial leaders, world-class scholarship and research in natural and organic business that result in sustainable business models and innovations that inspire transformation across all sectors.
Goals
- To provide the natural and organic industry a laboratory for fresh business models, product innovations and technological solutions -- and be a source of future talent and empowered entrepreneurs.
- To provide Leeds students a connected learning environment by building bridges with the natural and organic business community through case-based coursework, sustainability curriculum, mentorships and internships.
Value Proposition
We create value for businesses, students and the community through:
- Inspired and hard-working student interns who bring fresh ideas and talent.
- Support and expertise for entrepreneurs launching natural and organic businesses.
- Class projects and research that lead to solutions for tough business challenges.
- Development of business models and product concepts that add value to natural and organic ventures and help solve environmental and social challenges.
- Mentorships that allow natural and organic leaders to give back to their community and advance the next generation of innovators.
Successes to Date
- MBA students completed the groundbreaking Boulder Natural Business Community Audit. It captured for the first time the scope and scale of Boulder’s $2 billion natural business industry.
- Leeds students wrote business plans for Bhakti Chai and Reel Lawn, two sustainable product startup companies.
- Five students shared their talents and motivation as interns with Naturally Boulder, Pixie Mate and White Wave.
- Distinguished speakers from the industry shared expertise in classrooms and workshops, including leaders from White Wave, Celestial Seasonings, Rudi’s, Izze, Greenmont Capital, Aurora Organics Dairy and more.
- Five students mentored with industry experts and attended Expo West.
Bioscience
The Deming Center and the Leeds School are currently assessing opportunities to partner with the new Biofrontiers Institute, CU's biotech initiative.
Led by Nobel Laureate Dr. Tom Cech, and Dr. Leslie Leinwand, the Biofrontiers Institute will focus on key research priorities, as well as seeking to address the gap in education between 'the bench and the bedside.' Traditionally, the gap has been the business skills and expertise that help bring transformational scientific research and medical breakthroughs through the process of regulatory approval and commercialization.
As a tier one research institution, it is our mission to pursue explorative and transformational scientific breakthroughs. It is also our mission to apply those breakthroughs so that they ultimately benefit the human condition. The specific skill set which scientists possess is not as teachable as fundamentals in business, so the collaboration would primarily utilize the expertise and experience of faculty in the Business School, to teach business to students in the sciences. Through the growth of curriculum and collaboration between the programs, there is also an opportunity to expose traditional business students to the business of the scientific industries.
Professors from the Leeds School and the Biofrontiers Institute are currently developing a plan for implementation of curriculum and other aspects of the collaboration. The support of private donors will also be critical to build this collaborative effort.
Course: Biotechnology Entrepreneurship
Fall 2011
Instructor: J. William (Bill) Freytag, Ph.D.
jwfreytag@comcast.net
Biotechnology Entrepreneurship will provide a fundamental understanding of how to start, grow and exit a biotechnology company. The course will begin with an overview of the biotechnology industry, defined in its broadest sense, but the bulk of the course will focus primarily on the biopharmaceutical industry. The course work will step through the varied disciplines involved with starting (finding and evaluating science/technology, licensing the technology, writing a business plan, making a venture pitch, negotiating a term sheet), growing (hiring key employees, recruiting an executive team and board of directors, raising additional capital, developing a strategic plan, conducting drug development, navigating the regulatory maze, launching a drug) and exiting (preparing for and conducting an IPO, mergers and acquisitions, negotiating corporate partnerships) a biotechnology company. The course work will include lectures and discussions by industry experts.
Syllabus
Deming Network
The Deming Center engages a diverse group of business leaders with the next generation of entrepreneurs to the benefit of companies and students alike. Over 2000 businesses in the Boulder-Denver region's thriving entrepreneurial community take advantage of the opportunity to connect with graduate and undergraduate students through the Deming Network.
How To Engage
It's easy. Just take a moment to sign up to get regular news of student activities and entrepreneurial partnerships between CU and the business community; start with our newsbytes or our list of opportunities for involvement for a more detailed description of how businesses can connect with entrepreneurship students, or register your student opportunity online so that we can communicate it to entrepreneurship students at Leeds.
You'll make a difference. The next generation of entrepreneurs are bright, dedicated, and eager to interact with seasoned community members. They welcome your input and expertise, whether it be via business plan competition judging, mentoring, or being interviewed for a class.
You'll get work done. We have outstanding undergraduate students, and our MBA students come in with an average of five years experience in business. They are available for summer and year-long internships, as well as for project work, consulting, or business plan development.
You'll get cutting-edge information. The Deming Center is nationally ranked for the quality of its graduate and undergraduate entrepreneurship education. We maintain our high status with innovative courses and research, and dynamic business partnerships. Our current areas of specialization include clean technology, natural products, and biotechnology. In many cases, our students drive the effort to stay at the forefront of new ideas.
Subscribe
What Do You Get?
The Deming Network is an informal affiliation. You can sign up via our online survey for any of the following:
- Receive monthly Deming Newsbytes with news and events.
- Advertise for interns.
- Get student assistance on a company project.
- Sponsorship of events, student scholarships, or other activities.
Who's In the Network?
Deming Network members include:
- High-tech leaders in the storage, software and systems industries.
- Pioneers in clean energy.
- Entrepreneurs in biotech and nanotechnology.
- Leaders in natural/organic products.
- Venture capitalists, angels, and others in the investment community.
- Professional services firms and incubators
These leaders provide insights, mentoring, and a network of contacts that students will leverage for the rest of their lives. In return, they receive access to the brightest minds, research, and opportunities to engage in networking and educational events with their peers. We hope you'll join their ranks.
Participating in the Deming Network is free. But there are very real needs that you can help meet. Consider philanthropically investing in the Deming Center's programs, students, faculty and more.
Visit these resources for more information about entrepreneurial networks on the CU-Boulder campus and in the community.
Get Involved
We at the Deming Center are excited about the changes we're making in the world through entrepreneurship, and we welcome your participation. We usually engage members of the community at large through the Deming Network, a collective of businesspeople, students, faculty, staff, and volunteers dedicated to furthering entrepreneurial pursuites around Colorado and beyond. Below are some of the ways you can become involved in the Deming Network and the Leeds School of Business. You can learn more by signing up to receive information about the Deming Network, or contact Patty Graff with questions.
Mentoring
Description: MBA students are offered the opportunity to be matched with a mentor beginning in the spring of their first year. The mentor and mentee, depending on the student's needs, the mentor's availability, and any special circumstances, agree upon the goals and structure of the relationship. A typical engagement might include meetings every 2-4 weeks and email or phone contact in between. Undergraduate students have a mentoring program with a lower time commitment, typically twice a year for two years.?
- Timing: Fall and/or spring semesters, occasionally continuing through summer.
- Time commitment: 2-4 hours per month for three months or twice yearly for two years.
Internships
Description: MBA students between their first and second years seek summer internships, occasionally continuing part-time into the fall. Undergraduate entrepreneurship certificate students seek internships of at least 60 hours, typically part-time during their junior year. Interns generally expect to be paid.
- Timing: Full-time in the summer, part-time in fall and/or spring. Companies need to fill out an intern job description.
- Time commitment: Preparation and interview time, plus supervision time.
Judging
Description: The Deming Center hosts seven different business plan competitions during the year. Judges are needed for both screening and final in-person reviews.
- Timing: December, January, February, March, April
- Time commitment: 4-6 hours.
Speaking
Description: Both undergraduate and graduate classes seek speakers from particular industry sectors or with experiences relevant to the class theme. Speakers are often set up six months in advance to ensure fit with the timing of the class and syllabus. Speakers may also be needed to talk with student groups, or for Deming industry events such as breakfasts on specific topics like clean technology.
- Timing: September through April.
- Time commitment: 2-4 hours preparation, 1-2 hours in class.
Cases
Description: The Deming Center is developing a library of business cases from companies doing work in sustainability or developing new business models. Cases fall into the general categories of marketing, operations, or finance. An industry leader works with a professor and student intern who identify a key challenge faced by the company and create an analysis for students to come up with solutions. Cases will be used by Leeds students and disseminated to other schools for use as well.?
- Timing: Any time during the year; about 2-3 months overall to complete a case.
- Time commitment: Identify potential cases; work with professor and student to frame case and review writeup; perhaps 12-14 hours.
Hiring Students
Description: MBA and undergraduate students graduate each spring with a solid business education, a wide range of interests and skills, and, frequently, previous business experience. The Leeds School's Career Services Office can help potential employers get in touch with students who could be a good match for their needs.?
- Timing: March-May
- Time commitment: Meet with Career Services, develop job description, interview students.
Event Hosting
Description: Financial support for the Deming Center, its events, and its students allows a high degree of interactive learning as students gain access to business leaders and industry gatherings. Major donations for scholarships or operating funds are discussed directly with the Deming Center Executive Director. Event hosting includes (a) covering the cost of food for student lunches with industry speakers, Deming Center Networking Nights, or Board breakfasts; or (b) providing student stipends to attend events such as the Sustainable Opportunities Summit or to serve as interns to start-up firms or nonprofit organizations.
- Timing: 1-2 events per month throughout the year.
- Time commitment: none.
Deming Corporate Partner
Description: Corporate partners provide financial and in-kind support for particular areas of interest. Partnerships are tailored to company interests. Partners may host events, provide services, products, or food for events, host projects or student group activities, or other activities.
- Timing: Typically a three-year commitment
- Time commitment: Varies. May include meetings with students, event attendance, etc.
Financial Support
Description: Financial support for the Deming Center helps the Center provide fundamental services to students and the business community; start or seed new programs; and offer student fellowships, internships, and support for student groups.
- Timing: Varies.
- Time commitment: Minimal time required, although financial supporters often choose to engage directly with students in other ways.
Tools & Resources
Business planning resources are available at Deming Startup. We provide templates, examples, and information on business planning, financials, and powering up a new enterprise. Includes resources for business instructors.
The Deming Center Venture Fund supports emerging companies in Boulder and surrounding communities. The Fund is managed by Leeds MBA and Colorado Law School students. Student team members benefit from the guidance of an experienced advisory board that includes University faculty and local leaders in venture capital and angel investing.
Entrepreneurial Solutions is a unique consulting firm operated by a team of MBA students from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder. ES serves the Colorado business community by applying their skills to a broad range of projects including business and strategic plan development, business performance improvement, market research, and competitive analysis.
The Colorado Small Business Development Center provides management assistance to current and prospective small business owners. There are multiple locations in Colorado including Boulder, Denver, Longmont, and Westminster.
The Women Higher Entrepreneurship Learning Program (HELP) is a resource center web site that offers virtual training and regional networking to facilitate and support entrepreneurship and micro enterprise development for women.
The Demings
Robert H. Deming earned his B.S. in 1956 while on a scholarship from the University of Colorado and was an instructor as he completed his M.S. in 1959. He received his Doctorate from Harvard Business School while on a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1963.
Bob and Beverly were married during college and survived their first year living in a CU Vetsville married student housing trailer with no running water for $18 per month. As students, Bob worked at the Federal Center and the Colorado Daily and Bev was a telephone operator. Bob was employed as an executive with public companies but his strong entrepreneurial spirit led him to several successful leveraged buyouts, culminating in taking Toastmaster Inc. (manufacturer of portable kitchen appliances) public on the New York Stock Exchange and subsequently selling it.
This allowed them to endow the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship in 1998. Because of their devotion to CU, they also endowed professorships, scholarships and several dedicated rooms in the Koelbel Building.
Bob received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Colorado's School of Business, was a member of the Young Presidents Organization and served as International President of the Chief Executives Organization.
The keys to Bob and Bev's success include motivation, perseverance, and strong entrepreneurial spirit, which gave them the priceless gift of traveling the world together. Their partnership and teamwork exists after more than 55 years of marriage, four accomplished sons and eight active grandchildren.
Bob believes that "success is in the journey, not the destination." The Demings' goal via their endowment is to fuel the success of the University of Colorado at Boulder's dynamic entrepreneurship program and to provide the resources to propel the program to ever greater heights.
Blog
Posted: May 14, 2012
Stratman, Beebe, McIntosh with mentor Eben Johnson at Cleantech New Venture Challenge regional finals in Boulder They’re graduates now, but just a month ago, three undergraduate students from University of Colorado at Boulder took the CU Cleantech New Venture Challenge, … Continue reading →
Posted: April 18, 2012
The University of Colorado graduate team from the Leeds School of Business in Boulder won the 15th International Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) competition at the University of North Carolina on Saturday, April 14 beating second-place IESE (Spain), and third-place … Continue reading →
Posted: March 08, 2012
On February 29, CU’s Venture Capital Investment Competition team took off for the University of Southern California to compete in the western regional finals of this global contest–and won. This marks CU’s 8th trip to international finals in 12 years; … Continue reading →
Video
Keith Downham ('94 finance) and Marcus Robinson provide a tour of DIA, including the control tower and eastern most runways. From his office overlooking the Frontier Airlines terminal, Downham discusses his role at DIA and a recent stint in Doha, Qatar.
Advisory Board
-
Steven Berens
- Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Co-Founder
- Power Tagging Technologies
-
Tim Bour
- Executive Director
- Boulder Innovation Center
-
Steve Breuner
- Owner
- Supercuts Pennsylvania
-
Jim Cloar
- Vice President and General Manager
- Medtronic, Inc.
-
Tim Connor
- VP, Business Strategy and CFO
- Boulder Wind Power
-
Drew Crouch
- Vice President and General Manager
- Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation
-
Frank Day
- Chairman
- Rock Bottom Restaurants, Inc.
-
Frances Draper
- Vice Chancellor for Strategic Relations
- University of Colorado Boulder
-
Matt Fargo
- Partner
- Kurtz Fargo LLP
-
Susan Graf
- President & CEO
- Boulder Chamber of Commerce
-
George Heinrichs
- President & CEO
- Intrado
-
Carla Johnson
- Waterstone Enterprise Strategies & Technologies, Inc.
-
Carl Koval
- Professor and Interim Faculty Director
- RASEI
-
Richard LeBlanc
- CEO and Director
- SkyFuel, Inc
-
Kyle Lefkoff
- Founder and General Partner
- Boulder Ventures Limited
-
CJ Lett III
- Managing Director
- Living Naturally, LLC
-
Rob Masinter
- Executive Vice President
- OpTerra Energy Group
-
Mark Matthews
- Shareholder and Natural Resources Co-chair
- Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck
-
Keith Mountain
- President and CEO
- Spatial Corp
-
Marty Murphy
- Manager of Enterprise Development
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory
-
Sheldon Romer
- Founder
- Rudi’s Organic Bakery
-
Scott Schaefer
- Executive Consultant
- 10th Street Advisors
-
David Traylor
- Managing Director
- Headwaters MB
Board of Directors
-
Carol Frank
- Managing Director, Pet Industry Specialist
- SDR Ventures
News
Daily Camera
May 1, 2012
Winners of the Deming Center's New Venture Challenge, Rideorama, officially launched their website this week.
Daily Camera
April 18, 2012
CU Cleantech Incubation Open House showcased six projects that were handpicked from 120 CU- and NREL-developed technologies to go through CU Cleantech's Market Assessment Program. As part of the program, a team of students, researchers and industry veterans have worked since December to identify the technology's commercialization and market potential.
Leeds School of Business
April 17, 2012
A team of CU-Boulder MBAs and a Colorado Law student win first place in an international event for venture capital and entrepreneurship.
Leeds School of Business
April 12, 2012
CU Cleantech, a flagship program of the Deming Center, hosts an inaugural competition to increase clean energy businesses coming out of universities.
Daily Camera
March 29, 2012
Daily Camera covers the New Venture Challenge, sponsored by the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship and the University of Colorado. It began in the fall with 80 teams participating and ends with the final six presenting on Thursday. The top idea will win $4,000.
Past Events
Event
May 10, 2012
4:30 pm
Coors Events Center
Leeds School of Business graduation ceremony takes place May 10, 2012 at 4:30pm at the Coors Event Center on campus. Graduates should arrive by 3:30pm. The event center floor is closed off from guest access at 4:15pm. (The ceremony is approximately two and a half hours long, please plan on attending the entire event.) No tickets or reservation required, guests are asked to enter through the northwest entrance for open seating.
Event
April 27, 2012
6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Koelbel Atrium
The fundraiser for the Barney Ford Fellowship Fund, which enables the Leeds School of Business to build a more diverse graduate student population.
Event
April 24, 2012
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Folsom Stadium Club
End of year event for all PMP students and mentors, honoring graduates and celebrating the participants and program's succes
Event
April 23, 2012
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Wolf Law Building
The Deming Center is co-producing an evening event with sustainable business thought leader Horst Rechelbacher, the founder of Aveda and Intelligent Nutrients. Register
Event
April 6, 2012
5:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Omni Interlocken Resort
500 Interlocken Blvd
Broomfield, CO
Map
Since 2001, the Office of Diversity Affairs and the Multicultural Business Student Association have worked together to help foster leadership, commitment, scholarship, volunteerism, and character. This year we will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of a successful partnership and beginning the next chapter. Everyone is invited, please RSVP.
Publications
Publication
August 2011
Authors: Norman Miller, Liang Peng, and Michael Sklarz
Using quarterly data for all 379 metropolitan statistic areas (MSAs) in the U.S. from 1980:1 to 2008:2, this paper empirically studies the effect of house prices on local Gross Metropolitan Product (GMP). We compare the effects of predictable and unpredictable house price changes, which we use to capture the collateral and wealth effects of house prices respectively. We further analyze the relationship between the effects and household borrowing constraints, as well as the temporal pattern of the effects. Our analysis provides the following findings. First, house price changes have significant effects on GMP growth, and the effect of predictable changes (the collateral effect) is about three times stronger than the effect of unpredictable changes (the wealth effect). Second, the persistent component of predictable changes has a stronger collateral effect than the novel component. Third, when households are more financially constrained, the collateral effect is stronger, the wealth effect is weaker, and the total effect remains unchanged. Finally, the effects last for eight quarters, and peak on the fourth quarter after house price changes take place.
Read/Download
Forthcoming
Authors: Liang Peng and Thomas G. Thibodeau
Municipal governments in China established direct control of the supply of urban land in August 2004. This paper examines whether this government action mitigates the efficiency of the residential land market. Using a unique data set of detailed land and residential community transactions with manually collected location information for residential land lots in seven Chinese cities, this paper analyzes the relationship between the land lease prices and residential property prices from the first quarter of 2001 to the fourth quarter of 2007. Results indicate that property prices determined land prices both before and after 2004:3, but the effect was significantly weaker after 2004:3. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the market for residential land became less efficient after municipal governments gained direct control of the land supply
Read/Download
Publication
November 2009
Authors: Patric H. Hendershott, Halbert C. Smith and Thomas G. Thibodeau
This paper summarizes the 45-year history of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA). It describes how AREUEA was created in the mid-1960s by a few academics interested in promoting real estate research. It tracks the Association's growth into a highly respected international association of real estate academics and researchers employed by industry and governments. The paper also examines the activities of its members: officers elected, awards presented, conferences organized and scholars' contributions to its main academic publication—Real Estate Economics. The article identifies the most prolific contributors to the Journal (located both in the US and internationally) and the impact that the Journal's publications have had on real estate research. Finally, we describe how real estate research interests have changed over time.
Read/Download
Publication
June 2008
Authors: Jim Clayton, Greg MacKinnon, and Liang Peng
This paper proposes and empirically evaluates competing models to explain the time variation in private real estate market liquidity documented in Fisher et al. (2003). We test three classes of models. In the first, that seller estimates of property value lag market conditions because of an asymmetric information problem. Sellers, at least in part, base their estimates of value on observations of signals from the market, but the presence of noise means a change in signal is not fully reflected in sellers' updated value estimates. The second class of models incorporates the value of waiting or opportunity cost of not transacting, recently introduced by Krainer (2001) and Nov-Marx (2004), into seller's optimal valuation strategy. In the third, we allow for the possibility of noise traders, or investors who are not fully rational in the sense that they trade on market sentiment. We follow Baker and Stein (2003) and consider a formal model that links stock market-wide liquidity to investor sentiment with higher liquidity being due to the presence of irrationally over-optimistic traders. In this model measures of aggregate liquidity act as an indicator of the relative presence (or absence) of sentiment-based traders in the market place and therefore the divergence of asset price from fundamental value. Empirical findings are generally consistent with models of optimal valuation with rational updating and provide support for the opportunity cost.
Read/Download
Publication
June 2008
Authors: Allen C. Goodman and Thomas G. Thibodeau
In the first half of this decade, US house prices experienced significant real rates of appreciation. The dramatic increase in house prices led some economists to conclude that there was a speculative bubble in the US housing market. This paper explores how much of the recent appreciation in US house prices was attributable to the fundamental economic determinants of house prices. On the demand side, we note that the rate of homeownership in the US increased from 66.8% in 1999 to 69% in the fourth quarter of 2005 1 . Each percentage point increase in the homeownership rate increases the demand for owner-occupied housing by about one million units. On the supply side, land prices and housing construction costs increased substantially in real terms over this period. The national average increase in house prices conceals significant spatial variation in appreciation rates. According to OFHEO, house prices in California cities increased by more than fifteen percent per year during this period while house prices in Texas cities increased four percent per year. The increase in aggregate housing demand had different effects on metropolitan area house prices because housing market supply elasticities vary spatially. We estimate housing supply elasticities for 133 metropolitan areas and conclude that although areas on the East Coast and in California had large observed price increases, they owe much of their house price increases to inelastic supplies of owneroccupied housing.
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Working Paper
August 2007
Authors: Wenbin Li, Thomas G. Thibodeau, and Ying Xaio
During the 2002-2004 period, the Beijing government's procedures for transferring land use rights changed twice in economically significant ways. We examine the effect that these reforms have had on local house prices using a hedonic house price equation and transaction data for newly constructed homes over the 1998-2006 period. We employ five alternative house price specifications to control for spatial variation in Beijing house prices. We observe significant increases in house prices after the August 31, 2004 reform became effective.
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Publication
June 2007
Authors: Allen C. Goodman and Thomas G. Thibodeau
An important question related to housing submarket construction is whether geographic areas must be spatially adjacent in order to be considered the same submarket. Housing consumers do not necessarily limit their search to spatially concentrated areas and may search similarly priced neighborhoods located throughout a metropolitan area when making housing consumption decisions. This paper examines two alternative procedures for delineating submarkets: one that combines adjacent census block groups into areas with enough transactions to estimate the parameters of a hedonic house price equation; and a second that permits spatial discontinuities in submarkets. The criterion used to evaluate the alternative techniques is the accuracy of hedonic house price predictions. The empirical research is conducted using data obtained from the Dallas Central Appraisal District (DCAD). The DCAD provided information for every parcel of real property in Dallas County. As of January 1, 2003, there were approximately 500,000 single-family homes in the DCAD area and 44,000 transactions in the 2000:4-2002:4 period. We find that both submarket constructs significantly increase hedonic prediction accuracy over a standard pooled model, but that neither construct statistically dominates the other. These results have important implications for empirically modeling submarkets within metropolitan area housing markets. Creating housing submarkets by combining spatially adjacent census block groups that lie within the same municipality and same independent school district is time consuming and costly. These results suggest that comparable increases in hedonic prediction accuracy can be achieved by delineating submarkets by dwelling size and median census block group per square foot transaction price.
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Working Paper
August 2006
Authors: Christopher R. Cunningham and Tom Thibodeau
Zoning is often pursued by homeowners seeking to protect themselves from the subsequent introduction of a disamenity on neighboring properties that may negatively affect their home values (Fischel 2001). However, in the many communities the feared disamenity, is not industry or commercial land uses, but simply other housing. absence of zoning protections, developers can mimic these safe guards through restrictive covenants Siegan (1970), and homebuyers can seek out locations near land that is protected from development because of government ownership or the existence of conservation easements, Walsh (2003). We examine the home prices and development activity in several communities in the mountains of Colorado in which the feared disamenity may be additional housing developments. We go on to explore the unsuccessful efforts to pass binding growth management legislation in 2001. The analysis incorporates GIS to construct several novel right hand side variables including the share of housing protected or developed land within a given buffer distance of homes which are included in a hedonic regression framework. Our initial findings are that homebuyers are willing to pay a premium for houses near but not adjacent to protected or conserved land. We also find that homes with a higher share of protected land around them were worth more when there was an increased likelihood that the state would place constraints on rural development.
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