The Sri Lanka team "Apex" a combination of undergraduates from various departments specializing in different fields from the University of Colombo did well to reach the final round of 6 teams and go on to be placed 4th, but it was the team "Scions" from the Philippines that was crowned global champion at the prestigious 2011 CIMA Global Business Challenge (GBC).

The Sri Lanka team comprising of Vindya Cooray (business Economics) Poorna Manushka ( marketing) Asvini Ramanathan and Dilani Ratnarajah ( Finance ), however did well to win the Best Video Competition, which was a creative production developed by the team promoting the qualification.

Team Scions beat off competition from 16 other strong regions and countries at the two day event hosted by Chengdu Municipal Government - one of China's rising economic centres. Team Scions comprised of four individuals with varied interests, bound together by their passion to succeed. The team was made up of Jerard Megg D Cordero, Ordisi P Osonio, Marra Francillan P Cordera and Dominique A Dabad. The team provided innovative and feasible solutions that balanced attention to detail with the appreciation of broad strategic issues.

The global final, which is held in partnership with Barclays, attracted audiences of over 700, Scions presented a business case and was assessed by a panel of industry expert judges from organisations across the globe including: Barclays, Shell, L'Occitane en Province, Tangs Department Store,TRW and CIMA.The competition has evolved from eight regions and countries in 2009 to cover 17 in 2011, demonstrating the rising success and reach of the event.

The GBC is an international competition designed to bring out the best in potential young business leaders which gives them the opportunity to showcase their talent on a global platform. The team beat nearly 9000 international applicants to emerge as global champions at the GBC in China. Other competing countries and regions were; Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia Ireland, Malaysia, Middle East, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the UK. On discovering they had been awarded winners at the CIMA GBC final team Scions said:

"This is unbelievable - we had faced a gruelling six months to get to this stage. It has been such a thrill to compete at the GBC and we are honoured to represent our country and win!" Andrew Harding, Managing Director at CIMA, headed up this year's GBC judging panel, and said of team "I would like to commend team Scions on their outstanding performance and on becoming this year's CIMA GBC champions. The GBC is the most important event in CIMA's calendar as it gives the world an opportunity to discover the business leaders of tomorrow and to highlight the critical importance of developing business talent in what is an increasingly competitive global market.

"The competition has been a phenomenal success and I applaud each of the finalists on making it through to the global final. It has been exceptionally difficult to judge at times as the level of business skill in evidence has been striking. Team Scions really stood out for us because of their outstanding and solid "I would like to thank our partners Barclays, the Chengdu Municipal Government for hosting the final and the army of student volunteers from across China whose hard work insured a successful event."

Other winners on the night included; Case Crackers from Singapore who were awarded First Runners Up, Eva Consulting of Australia -Second Runners Up, Apex of Sri Lanka who won the Video Competition and Minh Pham of Vietnam team Fingerprints who was awarded Future Business Leader at the CIMA GBC.