On May 20, 10 students from CEU’s International Business Law program participated in a case study competition organized by OPL Attorneys and ExplicoTech. The CEU students were joined by 5 students from the Faculty of Economics of Babes-Bolyai University (Romania), who acted as financial advisors. In a simulation of a real business-life scenario, three mixed teams of lawyers and economists received on the spot a case involving the potential construction of an ethanol plant in Hungary. The teams analyzed the case and prepared an assessment of whether a foreign company should make a green field investment into such a biorefinery, in particular in light of changing regulations and developments in technology.
The teams delivered their advice through 20-minute presentations to a fictional board of directors comprised of Jessica Lawrence (Assistant Professor at CEU), Eric Sievers (Director of Investments at Ethanol Europe, Managing Director of Danube Energy Ventures, and Board Member of Carbiotix), who has been dealing with bioenergy investments for 15+ years across the globe, and Miklos Orban (Partner at OPL), a New York and Budapest licensed lawyer who worked for 7 years as Director of Regulation and Governmental Affairs at British Telecom in London.
At the end of the competition, the Board declared as winners the team made of IBL LL.M. students Ivona Vidovic, Michael Tiu Jr. and Svitlana Buriak who, together with two Romanian students, László Szabó and Nagy Györk Hunor, convinced the jury through their thorough coverage of regulatory matters both at the EU and Hungarian levels, as well as their persuasive presentation skills.
