If you graduated last century, you may not recognize today's MOOT CORP Competitions. Consider the following:

The Texas MOOT CORP Competition

• Forty teams prepare business plans in four sections of New Venture Creation each year.
• The best compete in the Semifinals held
• Four finalists compete in February for a $100,000 investment.
• UT teams go to five other competitions each year.
• Approximately four teams launch their ventures.
• Increasingly the ventures are based on technologies developed at UT.

Gary asked me to organize an Alumni Association to assist in the continuing growth of the MOOT CORP Program, and I enthusiastically agreed. As you can tell from the accompanying article, the MOOT CORP Competition has continued to grow in impact, quality, size and prestige and has become truly global. With this continuing growth, the demands on Gary and his assistant, Ann Whitt, continue to mount; they are asking for our assistance in terms of our time and energy, not our money. For a number of years, Gary has involved alumni in judging the competitions; now assistance is needed in other areas as well. The number of competitions at UT has significantly grown. Let me give you an overview.

On January 27, eight MBA teams from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin will participate in the annual Texas MOOT CORP® Competition Semifinals. The Competition has become an annual launch for aspiring entrepreneurs who are graduate students at UT Austin.