Yale Team Wins $50K Barrett Foundation Prize

A team of students from the Yale School of Management (SOM) and Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (FES) has won the Barrett Foundation Prize of the National Forest Foundation. The business plan competition challenges students to find market-based incentives to address forest stewardship challenges on National Forest System lands.

Patrick Hook '13 and Spenser Shadle '13, students in the joint degree program between SOM and FES, and FES teammates Michael Parks '13 and Gregory Zimmerman '12 will receive $50,000 for their business plan, "The Deschutes Collaborative Conservation Fund—Sustainable Funding for a Restoration-Based Economy." The plan proposes the formation of The Deschutes Collaborative Conservation Fund, which would help drive development of a restoration-based economy that rehabilitates Central Oregon's forest products industry and promotes forest health.

The Barrett Foundation Prize was created by Craig Barrett, the former chairman and current vice chairman of the National Forest Foundation Board of Directors, and retired chairman and CEO of Intel Corporation.