UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A team of first-year MBA students from the Penn State Smeal College of Business recently won the 2016 Global Supply Chain Management Initiative Inter-College Case Competition, hosted by Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management.

Greg Wommer, Mattson Wardy, Franziska Schmid, Jordan Crespo, and Ankush Agarwal teamed up to emerge victorious from six teams selected as Phase 2 qualifying schools. The Smeal team placed ahead of the second-place team from the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and the third-place team from Washington (St. Louis) University’s Olin Business School.

Smeal’s No. 1 supply chain program offers a comprehensive suite of supply chain education, beginning at the undergraduate level with a bachelor’s degree in supply chain and information systems. In conjunction with Penn State's World Campus, students can earn a master of professional studies in supply chain management. The Penn State Smeal MBA Program offers a concentration in supply chain management, and the college also offers a Ph.D. in supply chain.

The case emphasized the theme of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Global Supply Chain Impact. The first phase occurred in November and was a virtual qualifying round to determine the six finalists. Teams were asked to submit a PowerPoint presentation of their recommendations.

The finalists received new case materials, questions, and problems for the teams to reconsider as they built on their first-phase presentations.

“It was very interesting working on a real-life problem that was developing in the news as the competition progressed,” Crespo said. “The amount of time and research that we put into proposing a successful recommendation was extensive. We were very happy that it paid off.”