Virtual Enterprise Executives Participate in Leadership Conference

Huntington High School recently sent 18 executives from its four Virtual Enterprise business firms to the leadership conference at LIU Post in Brookville where they had an opportunity to meet and network with fellow VE students, program alumni and actual chief executive officers, chief operating officers and chief marketing officers from real work businesses.

Virtual Enterprise is a full-year, one credit honors business class available to Huntington High School juniors and seniors. “Virtual Enterprise is a simulated business that is set up and run by students to prepare them for working in a real business environment,” according to the course bulletin. Course grades carry an “honors weighting.”

The Huntington High School Virtual Enterprise business executives attending the leadership conference included:

Flo-Pro: Mia Molina (CEO), Ethan Naima (CFO), Emma Gutierrez (COO) and Sofia Vias (CMO)

Haven: Grayson Dunn (CEO), Daniela Garcia (CFO), Spencer Krull (CSO), Mabelin Maldonado (OM-Office Manager), Katie Sorto Cabrera (COO)

Horizon VR: Grace Gordon (CEO), Banny Soc Concua (CFO), Braid Martin (VP of Sales), Sage Cicciari (CMO) and James Masler (CTO)

Raydiance: Grace Oliva (CEO), Samantha Muller (COO), Ryan DiVico (CFO) and Christian Luca (CMO)

“The capstone speaker was Chuck Garcia, professor at both Columbia University and LIU Post, who previously worked as a consultant for BlackRock and Bloomberg,” Huntington business teacher Bryan Outsen said. “He emphasized the importance of public speaking and emotional intelligence as the future of the business world.”

Participants then broke out into groups at the Tilles Center CEOs, including ones covering marketing and sales, human resources, information technology and design and finance. Group members worked on a case study on the eParel clothing line.

“They were tasked with creating a presentation in 10 minutes to discuss marketing strategies, sales tactics, employee benefit plans, digital security, and pitches to angel investors and then had to present with their groups on stage in front of judges,” Mr. Outsen said. “Judges then selected the best presenters from each group and they presented in front of the entire conference.”

One of the day’s highlights came when Huntington’s James Masler and his IT group won first place for their digital security presentation.

The Huntington business executives returned to the high school invigorated and ready to tackle the challenges associated with each of their four companies.