Rider Students to Compete in National Competition

Editor's Note: The following is a news release issued by .

After a third place victory in the Johnson & Johnson National Business Case Competition last year, the current Rider University team is back to compete for the title this year. Four students from the College of Business Administration will represent Rider in the national phase of the competition on March 29 and 30 at J&J’s Worldwide Headquarters in North Brunswick. 

The Rider team is composed of Eric Elgin ’14, an accounting major; Bryan Griffith ’13, a marketing major; Victoria Marquardt ’14, an accounting major; and Jonathan Moyer ’13, an accounting major.

The team was selected during a preliminary round of the competition, judged by J&J executives, on Feb. 23 on the Lawrence Township campus where four other Rider teams also competed. This year, 18 accounting, finance and marketing students participated in the preliminary round.

As part of the case competition, the teams were required to make a recommendation on whether to lease or buy a skin care product line from an internationally based company and on how to position, price and promote that line to the United States market.

Dr. Larry Prober, associate professor of accounting, and Dr. Cynthia Newman, director of international partnerships and associate professor of marketing, serve as advisers to the Rider teams.

“The team’s presentation was a very professional and compelling analysis of the situation,” Newman said. “They presented a strategically motivated recommendation that was justified by financial analysis as well as a consideration of the company’s mission and values.”

The Rider team will compete against teams from nine other institutions, including Rutgers University, the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pennsylvania, Seton Hall University and Florida International University.