L.B. Hudson and Evan McKinnon took first place in the agricultural division of the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition with their entry AGcorp. The competition was held March 31-April 1, with an awards ceremony in Little Rock Tuesday, April 19. Two other Ouachita teams also competed at the statewide competition.
Hudson, a senior accounting and business administration/finance major from El Dorado, Ark., and McKinnon, a junior accounting and business/finance major from El Dorado, Ark., earned a $5,000 cash prize along with their award.
“The Agriculture Award is unique in that it is given to the winner of a division comprised of both undergraduate and graduate teams,” said Dr. Chris Brune, assistant professor of finance and faculty mentor for Hudson and McKinnon. “L.B. and Evan beat multiple teams that took home awards in other categories. I could not be more proud of the work they have done and the way they represented Ouachita.”
“I am tremendously proud of our AGcorp team. Evan and LB represented OBU and our school of business beautifully,” said Bryan McKinney, dean of Ouachita’s Hickingbotham School of Business. “Evan and LB have an entrepreneur’s spirit and they have a tremendous idea. My hope and expectation is that AGcorp becomes a real business that positively impacts Arkansas farmers for decades to come.
“I’m also grateful for the work of their faculty advisor, Dr. Chris Brune, who invested countless hours in this effort,” McKinney added. “A word of thanks also goes out to OBU graduate Ryne Dubach. Ryne is a farm manager in Newport, Ark., and he has been instrumental in seeing this idea come to light.”
“Winning the agriculture division meant a lot to us because we knew that the set of judges that were judging the division knew a lot about agriculture and what it takes to have a successful business in the industry,” McKinnon explained. “Knowing that they believed our business would be successful meant a lot more to us than coming from some of the other judges that were not necessarily experienced in the agricultural industry.”
The Governor’s Cup is divided into graduate and undergraduate divisions. AGcorp went up against 12 undergraduate teams in the competition and ranked in the top six. The team also competed against six teams, both graduate and undergraduate, for first place in the agriculture division, sponsored by Arkansas Farm Bureau.
AGcorp is a website and mobile application that provides farmers with a database of current cash bids from buyers within a specific region. By having access to this database farmers can compare prices among many different buyers and get higher cash bids, resulting in higher profits from their crops.
“I believe in AGcorp because it is built on the foundation of helping the farmers,” McKinnon said.
“From our research and conversations so far, AGcorp can really make a difference to the average farmer,” Hudson added. “AGcorp is built on a greater concept of eventually developing a much more efficient process for the farmers to be able to sell their crops at much better prices than they are offered currently. With our technology we are hopeful to be able to return some of the buying /selling power back to the farmers.”
Earlier this academic year, Hudson and McKinnon also won the Ouachita Baptist University Business Plan Competition and later the Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University Business Plan Competition.
“It was an honor to represent the Hickingbotham School of Business,” Hudson said. “Dr. Brune and Dean McKinney were beside Evan and me the entire process with encouragement and suggestions. Frank Hickingbotham really has an inspiring journey in realms of business and benevolence. There are students who want to follow in his footsteps of being very successful businessmen and businesswomen in order to be able to give back and advance the Kingdom.”
For more information, contact Bryan McKinney, dean of the Hickingbotham School of Business, at mckinneyb@obu.edu or (870) 245-5513.
By Anna Hurst
Photo above (left to right): Dennis Cooper, chair of the Arkansas Capital Corporation Board of Director, Travis Justice, chief economist for Arkansas Farm Bureau, and Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Tim Griffin congratulate Ouachita Baptist University team Evan McKinnon, L.B. Hudson and Dr. Chris Brune as the first place winners in the agricultural division of the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition with their entry AGcorp. Photo courtesy Arkansas Capital Corporation.
