OGI masters' students win venture capitalist competition;
now it's on to Austin for international judging of creative ideas

ArtCentral TeamBEAVERTON, Oregon - A team of masters' students representing Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology (OGI) is $15,000 richer today and will be on its way to compete in a prestigious international venture capitalist competition later this week in Austin, Texas.

The OGI team was judged the best of 20 competitors over the weekend in the Ninth Annual New Venture Championship. The event was hosted at the Greenwood Inn in Beaverton by The Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Oregon. OGI won the right to compete at Moot Corp, the international business plan championship in Austin.

The OGI team is seeking financial backing for an Internet-based service called ArtCentral.com that would link art dealers and artists with buyers such as interior designers. Led by team leader Jim Hollcraft, team members include Steven Redman, Ann Parsons, Sharon Jacobson, Troy Garrett and Mark Rehley. All but one earned master's degrees in 1999-2000 from OGI's Department of Management in Science and Technology (MST).

To gain the right to represent OGI, the ArtCentral team first had to win the 1999 Capstone Project competition, the last required course in earning a degree from MST, which provides management and leadership skills to professionals in organizations that have a strong technical, engineering, manufacturing or scientific orientation.

"The theme of MST's program is to promote entrepreneurship, and this success obviously affirms we're doing a good job at that," says Alvin Tong, OGI professor of management. "The judges concluded ArtCentral.com is a viable idea and that the team's goal of $25 million in revenue within five years is achievable."

"For professional art buyers, searching for art takes too long," Hollcraft says. "There are just too many places to look and each place has a very limited selection."

To ensure a large selection, ArtCentral would establish a network of commissioned art scouts to find the art. "Generally, fine artists have at least 20 works in their home or studio, which amounts to potentially 2 million pieces of fine art hidden in the U.S.," Hollcraft adds.

The Ninth Annual New Venture Championship was hosted by The Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Oregon. Sponsors are Intel Corp., Columbia Management, the Edward Lowe Foundation, the Singing for Change Charitable Foundation, Palo Alto Software, the Portland Business Journal, KXL Radio and the Oregon Entrepreneur's Forum.

OGI won the right to compete at Moot Corp later this week (May 3 - 6th) at the international business plan championship in Austin, Texas for the "Super Bowl of World Business-Plan Competition." To read more about this competition, please visit: www.mootcorp.org/

For more information contact, Alvin Tong, professor of management in the MST department, (503) 748-1537.

For information about the event at the University of Oregon, check out the web site: www. venturechampionship.com

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