From left to right: Anastasia Kopanaki, Despoina Chatzimichalaki, Dimitris Lykoudis, Dr Vasilis Theoharakis, Ioannis Moraitidis, Dr Ioannis Arabatzis

24/06/2005

The business plan for the commercial exploitation of a Greek product for self-cleaning materials won the 1st prize of the "European Business Plan of the Year Competition 2005", that took place from 2nd to 4th June 2005, in Stockholm, Sweden.

The winning business plan was a high-tech venture called ?Nanochem?, developed by students from the ALBA Business School in Athens (Dr Ioannis Arabatzis, Anastasia Kopanaki, Dimitris Lykoudis, Ioannis Moraitidis and Despoina Chatzimichalaki). The team was supervised by Dr. Vasilis Theoharakis, Associate Professor of Marketing & Entrepreneurship. It is noted that ALBA had also won the first prize in the same Competition in 2003, and it has been in the final phase of the competition for the last 5 years.

The product was developed by Dr Ioannis Arabatzis within the framework of his doctoral studies at the Institute of Physical Chemistry, of the National Centre for Scientific Research ?Demokritos?, under the supervision of his Research Director, Dr P. Falaras. This leading idea uses a combination of nanotechnology and light to produce self-cleaning, self-sterilizing and anti-fog materials.

The new product, with a cost of around 15 euro per square metre, can be used for windows and tiles. It also improves the use of glass panes and vertical surfaces in big buildings since it diminishes the cost for cleaning. The product has already been patented at national level, while the consolidation of a European Patent is also being sought.

The European Business Plan of the Year Competition was founded in 1993 by INSEAD and the London Business School, with the purpose of supporting academic studies in entrepreneurship and growth of new enterprises. To this end, the above-mentioned competition is held annually for students from European business schools.

ALBA will represent Europe in the upcoming Business Plan World Championships "3rd Global Startup @Stanford", which will be held at Stanford University, USA, in October 2005.

Source: ALBA