Alumni Association Update

The first predominantly Wharton team to enter INSEAD's Business Plan Competition was also the first to win. The company, VivaTech Imaging, was led by Wharton students enrolled during summer 2005 at INSEAD's Singapore campus as part of the Wharton-INSEAD Alliance.

The winning team consisted of Nikhil Lalwani, WG'05, Dr. Sanjiv Talwar, WG'05, Anya Schiess, WG'05, Dr. Alexander Schuth, WG'05, and Monisha Dillon, an INSEAD MBA student. All Wharton representatives were health care management majors.

The team, in a slightly different lineup, made it to the Great Eight in Wharton's 2004-2005 Business Plan Competition as Lemire Imaging Inc. When Lalwani traveled to Singapore to finish up his studies at INSEAD, he had no plans to enter another competition. Upon arrival, still passionate about his company's potential, he saw an opportunity to refine its business plan and presentation.

Lalwani and Schuth recruited an INSEAD teammate and kept their U.S.-based colleagues on board remotely. With more experience under their belts and a stellar mix of skills, VivaTech Imaging made a winning pitch. The team won the top prize of 10,000 euros, as well as a bronze medal for innovation.

The company seeks funding to develop and market a painless, laser-based screening tool for breast cancer. VivaTech's technology, called LaserScan, is based on a patent developed by advisory board member Bob Lemire. It uses non-ionizing laser energy to detect tumors by measuring hemoglobin concentration in neo-vascularization. The light passing through the tissues is scattered and absorbed, then computer algorithms construct a three-dimensional image of the breast.