UW Foster School of Business: Wrapping Up Another Year of Support

Nearly five years ago, RedCloud’s very own Managing Partner, Brett Clifton, joined the advisory board of the University of Washington Foster School’s Consulting and Business Development Center (CBDC) as an avenue to support youth education in our local community. Throughout the years, there have been many opportunities for our team members to join in Brett’s generosity to help the organization, which offers real-life experience for UW undergrad and MBA students. The CBDC is all about preparing their own for what’s to come in the workplace after graduation, and we couldn’t be more supportive of that mission. Today, we’re taking a look back on what 2021 brought our way with CBDC and celebrating all those who dedicated their time and resources to the students this year.

With the ongoing virtual environment, we are grateful for the opportunity to continue supporting the program and for the fact that it is still offering students the same caliber of experience.

Impact Awards

Taking place last month as an annual wrap-up event, the CBDC virtual Foster School Impact Awards recognized business, civic, and student leaders who are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in business and have made a substantial impact in growing companies in underserved communities as well as accelerating student careers. RedCloud was proud to sponsor the event in the great company of other sponsors.

A big congrats to Ovation Technology on their William D. Bradford Minority Business of the Year Award. The Bradford Award, named for former Foster School Dean William D. Bradford, is presented to an outstanding business owned by a person of color who has demonstrated leadership through its revenue growth, management quality, and investments in community efforts.

Macadons was the winner of this year’s Client of the Year Award, sponsored by Harborstone Credit Union. The award is presented to a company that has grown substantially by utilizing several of the Center’s programs.

2021: A Year of Mentoring

Earlier this Spring, we recapped the exciting wrap-up of the CBDC Business Management Consulting Program. During this exciting and enriching student program, four talented RedCloud mentors, Marie, Sophia, Mary Anne, and Scott helped guide and advise small student teams (4-6 members each) as they navigated real-life client challenge scenarios, creating their own plans and strategies for solving them, implementing all that they have learned so far in business school. The program kicked off at the New Year and the student teams each completed their client presentations late March. From spring into early summer, final meetings took place with the clients to guide the implementation of the student team recommendations.

We thank CBDC for all they do to help students pursue successful career journeys and look forward to our upcoming support in 2022!