Mercer University’s Stetson School of Business and Economics will hold its second annual Entrepreneurial Festival on May 2, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m., on the Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta.

Five finalists in the festival’s business model competition will vie for $10,000 in prize money, presented by BB&T, and Karen Robinson Cope, co-founder and senior vice president for business development of LED lighting design corporation NanoLumens, will be presented with the University’s Atlanta Outstanding Entrepreneur Award.

“This competition represents the culmination of a yearlong effort by our student entrepreneurs to launch startups. Under the guidance of associate professor and business consultant Dr. Robert Perkins, Mercer students are distinguishing themselves in competitions around the Southeast for their exceptional preparation,” said Dr. Susan P. Gilbert, dean of the School.

“I am also excited to welcome highly successful entrepreneur Karen Robinson Cope to Mercer, which has been acclaimed by The Princeton Review for its female friendly learning environment.”

Earlier this semester, 10 student startup companies competed in the preliminary round of the business plan competition, which was judged by a panel of Mercer MBA graduates and current members of the School’s Board of Visitors. These judges not only ranked the entries but also provided valuable feedback to each of the students.

The five finalists who will compete on Saturday include Fatimata Aw (Delicies du Sui – Baobab 5000), Lorenzo Jackson (Bottom Line Recovery Services), Andre Jerry (JustBeeCards), Stafford McCoy (Choosey Smoothie) and Janice McFadden (Perfect Pak).

They will be judged by three experienced investors with strong networks of young companies. Tarby Bryant is chairman and CEO of Sweetwater Capital Corporation and founder of The Gathering of Angels. Randall Foster is a managing director at Focus Investment Bank, and Akbar Kassam is founder and president of DGG LLC investment firm and the only returning judge to the business model competition.

Honorable mention selections in the competition included Lavette Dow-Jones (Crime Punchers), John Matthews (PourItOn Sauces), Justin McAfee (Encite), Erika Smith (Golden Spa) and Charles Weaving (Aeroquick).

Following the announcement of the awards at noon in the Trustees Dining Room and a private luncheon for students, faculty and invited guests, Dean Gilbert will present this year’s Atlanta Outstanding Entrepreneur Award to Cope.

Cope is a serial entrepreneur who has been CEO of four high-growth ventures over the last two decades. She has raised over $100 million for her companies, more than any other woman in Georgia. She was named Women in Technology’s (WIT) first Woman of the Year in Technology in 2000.

Cope was chairwoman, president and CEO of Enrev Corporation, a technology firm, which was acquired in 2001. Next, she led Prime Point Media, one of the largest out-of-home advertising companies in the U.S., as president and CEO, which she sold to a public company in 2006. That same year, she and her husband, Richard “Rick” Cope, founded Nanolumens with one goal – to create displays that would change the industry forever. As senior vice president for business development, she spearheads the strategic growth of the company, which has been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes magazine among other major publications.

Cope is a leader in developing future entrepreneurs. In 2010, she founded the nonprofit Atlanta Council of Board Advisors (COBA) to offer strategic advisory services to small firms. She is the first female president of the Atlanta chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a nonprofit organization that fosters entrepreneurship globally, and she serves on the board of StartupChicks, another nonprofit aimed at creating a global community of female founders. In addition to Mercer, she has spoken at MIT, Georgia Tech, Harvard and Emory.