Deadline Extended For Competition Applicants

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (November 8, 2007) – The deadline for Smeal College of Business undergraduates to submit application materials for the The Next CEO competition has been extended one week to Nov. 18.

Ten contestants and two alternates will be selected from the applicant pool to compete for prizes, including $2,000 in PNC Visa Gift Cards and a flat-screen plasma television.

The competition, which has undergraduates pose as global CEOs and answer questions about how their companies should respond to complex business crises, is open to all Smeal and Schreyer Honors College students.

Following the application process, finalists will be selected to travel to Washington in February for a day of study at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), one of the world's most-respected think tanks.  After an evening of touring and dinner with high-profile Penn State alumni, the students will spend a full day at the think tank, discussing world events with former ambassadors and senior policy advisers.

The day begins with a presentation from Erik Peterson, senior vice president of CSIS, on the coming "Seven Revolutions," which are major global trends identified by Peterson and his colleagues that will drastically alter international business throughout the next 20 years. The Seven Revolutions form the backdrop for The Next CEO competition two months later.

The final contestants will be chosen after the Washington trip and the students will be assigned a company, which they will study up until the competition.

During the competition itself, contestants will play the role of CEO, answering questions in light of hypothetical world-event and business-crisis scenarios presented by Peterson. A panel of corporate executives will pose the questions, judge the student responses, and select a winner. An audience of hundreds will be in attendance. And prizes totaling thousands of dollars will be awarded to the top three finishers.

The Next CEO competition will be held on April 21 at The Penn State Conference Center Hotel.

Complete details and application information can be found online at www.smeal.psu.edu/thenextceo. Direct questions and all application materials to Roni Francke at rdo1@psu.edu.