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Parkside's MBA program does more than just study business from a distance, as current student Armin Mehic demonstrated on January 18th.

Mehic, originally from Europe, was visiting there when he met leaders of the British energy brokerage and consultancy Alfa Energy, which was interested in investigating whether to expand into the United States. Alfa Energy, founded in 1995, operates by contracting energy rates for their clients, in order to get lower prices when the market goes up.

They decided to take on Mehic as an intern to investigate the electric and gas markets in the Chicago area; he is also getting MBA credit for his internship. Only 18 U.S. States have deregulated markets in energy that a company like Alfa could play for the benefit of their clients, and Illinois is one of them. California and Texas are others, but they're focusing on Illinois as their initial target market. Wisconsin is not one of them, as the state has a regulated monopoly.

He commented, “We were assigned to research all the competitors, suppliers, and utility brokers in the state of Illinois. The project is very broad.” He found plenty of room for a company like Alfa, with existing players leaving gaps in customer service and high prices.

The 18th was the day of the final presentation, which went extremely well. He commented, “There was nothing they didn't like about it.” He was offered a job and accepted it. The original team is still working with Alfa Energy for a few more weeks.

The project includes three other students, Jeremy Covey, Christian Westphal, and Adam Ritzman. Mehic said, “They are very unique, smart, and hard working individuals who represent UW-Parkside in the best possible way”. Also involved were Parkside faculty Peter Knight and Dirk Baldwin.

Mehic would like the success of his project to bring more attention to the MBA program at Parkside. When I interviewed him he emphasised that this is a project with a real business, not just a training exercise.