Manitoulin entrepreneur succeeds at the Hospitality Business Competition in New York

MANITOULIN—At just 23 years old with a business honours degree in Entrepreneurship and currently doing her Master’s in management and hospitality at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Avery Sheppard, owner of Purvis Fish and Chips and Lakeside Ice Cream in Gore Bay, participated in the 2025-2026 Hospitality Business Plan competition and successfully earned first place which included a prize of $25,000. 

“It was a lot of work for me, however I pushed through,” Ms. Sheppard told The Expositor in an interview last week. “I worked on it all semester while I was in school. I pitched my business and I won the competition. It was a huge accomplishment.”

The Cornell Hospitality Business Plan Competition is an annual entrepreneurship event hosted by the Pilsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration. The competition is intended to challenge students to develop and pitch innovation. Beginning at the start of the academic year students (typically) form teams, develop and then pitch their hospitality business concepts.