Congratulations to incoming MBA student Jason Doran, winner of the Lally School’s first ESP (Economic Stimulus Package) MBA Scholarship Competition! Jason’s proposal, entitled, “A Business Venture That Co-Develops and Brings to Market the First Technologically Advanced Decontaminant Products in Nearly a Century,” identified the public health problem of Healthcare Associated Infections and their cost to society, and outlined a product line of next generation surface decontaminants to address the issue.
Jason Doran, ESP Winner
Jason’s entry was selected as the winner after extensive review by a faculty judging panel that included MBA professors Jeffrey Durgee, Andrew Corbett and Shyam Kumar, and Lally Assistant Dean Jill Terry. Within a highly competitive pool of entries, the judges were impressed by how Jason’s proposal and solution applied technology for social good.
“I was glad for the opportunity to compete and I feel honored and privileged to have won,” said Doran, interviewed by phone during a break from his summer job as a fly-fishing guide on a ranch in Colorado. “I believed in this idea enough to submit it to the competition. Although the technology is still in its early stages, it would save a lot of lives and human suffering.”
In addition to receiving a prestigious tuition scholarship, Jason will receive mentoring and support to develop his concept at Lally, within a support structure designed to foster entrepreneurship and grow new ideas.
In his Lally MBA application essay, Jason wrote: “The current economic crisis has inspired me to leave the world of finance, leverage my quantitative background and passion for entrepreneurship, and launch a new career in technological innovation and creative design. At Rensselaer, and Lally in particular, I look to combine my background with Lally’s expertise in this area to accelerate my change of career. . . .Professor Lois Peters has advised me that, if accepted into your MBA program, the concentration in Technology Commercialization and Entrepreneurship offered at Lally is the ideal program for me personally and professionally.”
Jason brings significant business and entrepreneurial experience to Lally. He worked for two years at a software startup, MSDSPro, and was also an Investment Analyst at Capital Source Finance. Jason holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia, and has worked as a boating and fly fishing travel guide. He is also fluent in Spanish.
About the Lally ESP Competition:
Business Schools worldwide are examining how management education contributes to the benefit of society and how to train socially innovative leaders of tomorrow. At the Lally School, innovation for societal benefit is one of the core values of our program. As the business school of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technological university in the U.S., we are particularly interested in ideas that demonstrate innovative commercial enterprises that “apply science to the common purposes of man.”
In order to attract some of the most creative and entrepreneurial minds to the Lally MBA program, in 2009 we launched The Lally ESP Challenge. Lally’s ESP (Economic Stimulus Program) Competition is one of the school’s many initiatives to support entrepreneurial ideas for Societal Benefit and Economic Development. As part of Lally’s ongoing commitment to support budding entrepreneurs and nurture the spirit of game-changing innovation, all Lally MBA applicants are invited to submit proposals to the competition, which awards tuition scholarships to the full-time MBA program.