LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Somerset resident Robert Kaiser, a 1998 graduate of Rider University, recently won second place in the first New Jersey Collegiate Entrepreneur of the Year competition, sponsored by Bell Atlantic and GPU Energy.

Nominees for the award were student-entrepreneurs from companies throughout the state who were judged based on how successful their business ventures were while they were still attending school.

Kaiser, who is vice president of operations and controller for Kaiser Landscaping, Inc. of Somerset, received his degree in accounting with a concentration in entrepreneurial studies. Dr. Ronald Cook, assistant professor of management and human resources and director of the Small Business Institute at Rider University, nominated Kaiser for the award.

Rider University is an independent, coeducational, nonsectarian institution with a 353-acre main campus in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and a 23-acre campus in Princeton, New Jersey. The University offers 58 undergraduate programs and 17 graduate programs in the Colleges of Business Administration; Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences; Continuing Studies; and Westminster Choir College. Ninety-three percent of the faculty hold doctoral or other appropriate advanced degrees. U.S. News and World Report has again ranked Rider in the top tier of northern universities based on the quality of its programs.