As part of its national environmental grant program, Wells Fargo today announced that it has provided a $125,000 grant to the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin that will fund a new Clean Energy track within the 2012 Global Venture Labs Investment Competition (GVLIC).
Graduate students from universities around the globe come to The University of Texas at Austin each May to present their business plans at The Global Venture Labs Investment Competition. From among myriad offerings, panels of investors select the best new-venture opportunity. With aspiring entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from experienced investors, the competition simulates the real-world process of raising venture capital.
Competing for the new Clean Energy Prize sponsored by Wells Fargo (along with the overall Global Championship) at the GVLIC will be start-ups focused on improving energy efficiency, innovating energy delivery and offering energy from alternative fuels, for both residential and commercial energy sectors.
“This partnership with Wells Fargo is ideal due to its commitment to renewable energy and entrepreneurial endeavors in this rapidly growing sector,” said Rob Adams, director of the Global Venture Labs Investment Competition. “Wells Fargo is a leader in Clean Energy and their reach and abilities are of real value to the companies raising money through the Venture Labs process.”
“What impressed us most about the university’s competition is that it has a worldwide reach and covers renewable energy, greener buildings and energy efficiency, areas that are also core to our business,” said Michael Klein, Regional Executive of Wells Fargo’s Commercial Banking Office in Austin. “We also look forward to lending our business expertise and mentoring these aspiring new business opportunities by leveraging our leadership throughout the competition with Doug Mangum’s involvement, who was recently hired to head up Wells Fargo’s Technology and Clean Tech practice in the southwest out of Austin.”
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo and Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com and wachovia.com), and other distribution channels across North America and internationally. With approximately 275,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in America. Wells Fargo and Company was ranked No. 23 on Fortune’s 2011 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.
About the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin
The highest ranked business school in Texas and the Southwest, and a top-ranked research institution, the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin is dedicated to educating the business leaders of tomorrow while creating knowledge for industry and society. McCombs educates more than 6,000 undergraduate, MBA, MPA and Ph.D. students each year, creating one of the largest cumulative impacts of any business school in the world. About 2,000 professionals also participate each year in custom programs designed for working executives and their firms. McCombs is one of the few business schools in the country to receive top marks in nearly all the business specialty areas ranked annually by U.S. News and World Reportat both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
