The Turnaround Management Association (TMA) announced seven winners of the 2012 Carl Marks Student Paper Competition on November 3 at The Annual, the association’s 24th annual conference, held at the Westin Copley Place Boston, Boston, MA.

Funded by New York-based Carl Marks Advisory Group, the competition was established in 2003 to recognize outstanding achievement in the study of corporate renewal by students enrolled in MBA or equivalent business-related master’s programs at the time the paper is written.

Vivek Kalwani, a Richard Ivey School of Business student at the University of Western Ontario, was honored for his first place paper in the theoretical conceptual category. His paper, titled, “An In-Depth Look at Corporate Turnarounds from the Lens of Organizational Learning,” focuses on adding value to existing research by assessing turnaround performance against two types of actions that companies take: single-loop learning and double-loop learning.

Jordan Flowers, Martin M. Saravia Laconi, Thomas Silva, Elizabeth Adams, and Boris Vaisman, Columbia Business School students, were recognized for winning first place in the case analysis category. Their paper, “Restructuring Verso Paper Corp.,” provides a two-pronged Plan of Reorganization to Verso’s Board of Directors that focuses on operational and balance sheet restructuring.

Chris Clark, a Naveen Jindal School of Management student at The University of Texas at Dallas, was awarded second place in the case analysis category. His paper, titled, “Turnaround of Sears Holdings,” provides a comprehensive turnaround plan for Sears. The paper analyzes the competitive landscape of the U.S. retail industry and its current trends and challenges.