Raleigh, NC -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/11/2011 -- Hughes Pittman & Gupton, LLP (http://www.hpg.com), one of the largest CPA firms headquartered and staffed in the Research Triangle Park region of North Carolina, is co-sponsoring Duke University’s DUhatch Student Business Incubator summer internship. Miguel Duhalt, a recent graduate of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke, will use the internship funding and resources to develop the start-up company, Ludus Broker.

Ludus Broker is an e-trading platform where people can trade sport's teams and players following the same logic as the traditional financial trading platforms. Ludus users trade teams as if they were trading stocks and players as if they were bonds. Ludus is the first platform that combines the best of fantasy sports, social gaming, online betting and commodity trading.

Also utilizing the DUhatch facilities this summer are:
• Hytower Energy – winners of the Duke Start-up Challenge, the company converts out of service water towers into power storage units
• Advisync – a start-up that provides educational tools for administrators and students

Firm partner Brooks Malone is also serving as a Coach-on-Call during the summer. He will meet one-on-one with prospective entrepreneurs to discuss financial questions and offer counsel.

“There is a tremendous wealth of young entrepreneurial minds in the Triangle area,” says Larry Boyd, Ph.D., M.E.M., associate director of the Duke Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization. “HPG has a rich history of supporting their advancement, and we are thankful for their dedicated efforts.”

The DUhatch program provides enterprising students with office space to facilitate business development, while connecting them with faculty and industry mentors. This is HPG’s third consecutive year supporting Duke business students.

About Hughes Pittman & Gupton, LLP (HPG)
HPG is one of the largest CPA firms headquartered and staffed in the Research Triangle Park region of North Carolina, as ranked by the Triangle Business Journal. More than just an accounting firm, HPG assists clients in looking beyond the bottom linesm by being the right people, right value and right firmsm to achieve each client's definition of success. HPG is a member of CPAmerica International and affiliated with the Crowe Horwath International alliances of firms, with offices worldwide. The firm leverages this to provide national and global accounting resources to its clients. HPG offers a wide array of business accounting, auditing, corporate tax and management advisory services. Specialties include serving owner-managed, investor-backed technology and life science organizations, healthcare services, real estate development, manufacturing and distribution businesses, as well as providing ERISA audits, family wealthcare services and Sarbanes-Oxley internal audit services.

HPG has remained committed to advancing a thriving Triangle community since its founding in 1983. In recognition, the firm is the recipient of two Pinnacle Business Awards by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce; the 2009 Large Entrepreneurial Business Award and the 2010 Integrity in Business Award. Additionally, HPG has been certified Green Plus by the Institute for Sustainable Development for integrating environmental sustainability efforts into company culture, and has been named one of the top 100 Best Accounting Firms to Work

For in the country by Accounting Today. Visit www.hpg.com or follow HPG on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HPGcpashttp://twitter.com/HPGcpas.