Left to right: Jonathan Pieper, Ryan Swan, Matthew Veen

Eastern Wyoming College business majors competed at the Wyoming Collegiate Business Ethics Case Competition in Laramie on April 8.

EWC’s team consisted of Sophomore Jonathan Pieper, Mitchell, NE; Ryan Swan, Freshman, Casper, WY; and Matthew Veen, Sophomore, Denver, CO. They are advised by Jennifer Minks, CPA, Associate Professor-Business, and Ellen O. Creagar, J.D., MA, Professor-Business Law and Social Sciences.

As part of the competition, the team played the role of an ethics consulting firm advising a board of directors and presented their recommendations in a 10-minute presentation. The team also prepared an Executive Summary as part of the competition.

“The preparation for the competition was interesting because we didn’t know what to expect and what they were looking for as judges,” commented Mathew Veen.

Ryan Swan explained that, “It was a cool experience to not only learn about something new but to also present what we learned to other people by putting ourselves into the characters of a consulting team. I thought it was a really fun experience overall.”

The competition was hosted and funded by the University of Wyoming College of Business and the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program and included dinner and a speaker.

According to Jonathan Pieper, “It was a good opportunity to think about business in a way that a lot of individuals don’t, while also being able to enhance my public speaking skills and do something our school has never done before.”

“Professor Minks and I started working with the team in January,” explained Creagar. “U.W. provided us with 2 cases from previous years and the students used those to familiarize themselves with the key ethical principles identified by Daniels. When we received the actual case study, Ryan, Matt, and Jonathan took off with it. It was such a treat to work with this team.

Not only are they among the best and brightest students at EWC, they are very competitive and have high goals for themselves and each other. They set out to win, and they did it!”