East Carolina University’s Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge has a new name and investments to increase prize money and the student experience at the university’s signature pitch competition, which opened its eighth season Tuesday.
Helen and Thad Amann visit aspiring entrepreneurs during the Jean T. Amann Pirate Challenge.
Thanks to a $3.2 million gift from Helen Ammann and her family in support of the Miller School of Entrepreneurship, the College of Business renamed its signature pitch competition in honor of Jean Ammann 65. The Gene T. Ammann Pirate Challenge offers more participation opportunities, generous cash gifts, and the ability to expand our reach and impact across campus and in Eastern North Carolina.
Prime Minister Philip Rogers acknowledged the collaborative vision that has led to the success of this challenge, as he announced the ‘Gift of Transformation’. Rogers credited ECU Trustee Fielding Miller and his wife, Kim, for the gift that established the UNC System’s only endowed school for entrepreneurship.
“Thank you for your investment and for getting us to this moment where we can celebrate today,” Rogers said. “The generosity of so many Pirates will help us make this happen and help us accomplish this work as a university community. Thanks to the great people who have shown their faith in ECU. , we were able to sustain (the challenge) for a long period of time.”
“Today is a big day,” Mr. Miller said as he announced the second largest gift since the founding of the Miller School. The Ammann family’s investment brings the total capital raised for the Miller School to more than $20 million.
“We have financially empowered a lot of people to invest in this idea,” Miller said. “In Gene’s honor, the family has made a generous donation and today we are announcing that the Pirate Challenge is now the Gene T. Ammann Pirate Challenge.”
Aman majored in business administration and had a passion for business and entrepreneurship, Miller said. He became interested in business with his childhood friend James Maynard ’65. Amann was one of Golden Corral’s founding investors, along with Maynard.
Miller said Aman’s gift is a great addition to the entrepreneurship program.
“It’s more than double the budget,” he said. “Because this is an endowment, (approximately) $160,000 per year is spun off, more than doubling our investment capacity, and that investment is returned to our students.”
Founded in 2018, the Pirate Challenge has awarded more than $900,000 in prize money and in-kind services to more than 25 student-led teams representing all ECU schools and colleges. More than 50 degrees and departments have participated in the Pirate Challenge since its inception.
This year, over 75 aspiring entrepreneurs took part in the challenge. Miller, the Ammann family and Pirates alumni witnessed the first round of the contest, where students pitched ideas to the ECU community in hopes of becoming the eighth winner in a campus-wide contest. This year’s challenge will culminate in April, when the Miller School will name its eighth Pirates Challenge winner, with more than $1 million in prizes and services.
“This signature contest plays an important role in helping the Miller School serve as a national model for building comprehensive entrepreneurship programs,” said Dr. Michael Harris, dean of the School of Business. Ta. “The cumulative effort to reach this point has been generated by entrepreneurs at the College of Business, the Miller School, and ECU who see this Aman Challenge as a breeding ground for the next generation of pirate entrepreneurs. I’m here.”
Harris praised Aman’s gift, its impact on experiential learning at ECU, and its ability to enhance the entrepreneurial culture on campus.
“Today’s word is gratitude,” Harris said Tuesday. “This gift is truly a game changer. The next great entrepreneur could be at the mall this afternoon.”
