Indiana University of Pennsylvania is the first-place winner of the 2009 Small Business Institute National Case of the Year Award.

SBI award winners

The IUP Small Business Institute is sponsored by IUP's Eberly College of Business and Information Technology. The Small Business Institute provides business services to local businesses and organizations by undergraduate and graduate students working with faculty with professional consulting backgrounds.

IUP won in the graduate student category for the Small Business Institute's work with Indiana Printing and Publishing. The national competition recognizes the work of Small Business Institutes from colleges and universities across the nation.

The 2009 awards reflect a decade of achievement for IUP's Small Business Institute. It has won awards in this competition since 1999, including a total of seven first-place Case of the Year Awards.

IUP's faculty team that won this year's award included Dr. Stephen Osborne, director of the Small Business Institute; Eric Palmer, codirector of IUP's Excellence in Entrepreneurial Leadership Center; and Dr. Ramesh Soni, professor of Management. Student team members were Gregory Clay, a 2008 Management degree graduate from Washington; Elizabeth Griffith, a 2008 Management degree graduate currently studying for her Master of Business Administration degree at IUP from Ebensburg; and Marko Mitrov, a 2008 Master of Business Administration graduate from Macedonia.

In addition to Indiana Printing and Publishing, the Small Business Institute has developed award-winning case work for a variety of regional business and nonprofit organizations, including Cherry Hill Manufacturing, Chestnut Ridge Golf Resort and Conference Center, Four Footed Friends, Gorell Enterprises, Indiana Regional Medical Center, Lockheed Martin, Renda Broadcasting, and the United Way of Indiana County.

Pictured from left: Dr. Stephen Osborne, director, IUP Small Business Institute; current graduate student Elizabeth Griffith, from Ebensburg, and Eric Palmer, codirector, IUP Excellence in Entrepreneurial Leadership Center.