Niko Vasilopoulos Wins 2025 Tomato Can Loving Cup Award

Known for his dedicated leadership and friendly, familiar presence on campus, Niko Vasilopoulos, ’25 BSB, is the winner of the 2025 Tomato Can Loving Cup Award, the most prestigious award the Carlson School of Management bestows on an undergraduate student.

Vasilopoulos received this honor as part of the undergraduate commencement ceremony on May 19.

"I feel extremely honored," says Vasilopoulos. "Really a privilege to be part of such an amazing class. I want to thank not only my family and friends, but also everyone who has been able to serve with me on Business Board, my work with the Regents, and everything all these years."

A two-time Carlson Business Board student body president who has been involved with University of Minnesota student government since his first year, Vasilopoulos graduated with a double-major in International Business and Marketing, and minors in Strategic Management, Spanish, and Managing People in Organizations.

Despite his eager involvement in the school’s community, Vasilopoulos had originally never thought he’d attend Carlson. He originally planned to transfer to an Ivy League school after his first year at the University of Minnesota, but then the COVID-19 pandemic changed his plans.

“Without the pandemic leading me to take a chance on the U ‘only for a year,’ I would have never seen myself coming here. Ultimately, I stayed past the one-year mark, and, though difficult at the time, it became one of the best decisions I have ever made,” Vasilopoulos says in his nomination materials for the Tomato Can Loving Cup Award.

Academically and in his student leadership roles, Vasilopoulos has consistently focused on community-building.

“Leadership and service, to me, is about a consistent dedication to bettering the spaces you inhabit,” he says.

Vasilopoulos started his University student government journey by joining the Campus Safety Task Force as an at-large representative his first year. He followed this with multiple stints on the Undergraduate Student Government Executive Board and time on the Student Senate, where he was elected as the Twin Cities representative to the Student Senate Consultative Committee, managing the delegation of senators across all colleges. He has also served three terms as the student representative to the University’s Board of Regents.

Additionally, he served on the Carlson Business Board, concluding with two terms as student body president. Among his many strong leadership efforts in student government, Vasilopoulos highlights the Fresh Fruit Initiative with the Business Board as a favorite. He led the work to partner with Carlson staff and alumni to raise funding for offering free fruit to students, and he personally placed weekly fruit orders.

Vasilopoulos also worked as a Carlson Ambassador, leading tours for prospective students; a Carlson Crew Leader, guiding students on their transition to college; and a teaching assistant in the Carlson Leadership Lab.

The Tomato Can Loving Cup is not the first formal recognition of Vasilopoulos’ leadership. This year, he also received the 2025 Donald R. Zander Alumni Award for Outstanding Student Leadership as part of the University of Minnesota President’s Student Leadership & Service Awards.

Recipients of the Tomato Can Loving Cup Award are eligible for a master’s degree scholarship from the Carlson School. Vasilopoulos will be able to choose from a half-tuition scholarship to obtain an MBA or a master’s in Supply Chain Management or Applied Business Analytics, or a $20,000 scholarship for master’s in Marketing, Finance, Business Analytics, or Accountancy.

The oldest award given to students by the Carlson School, Tomato Can Loving Cup’s history dates to 1929 when students asked Dean Russell Stevenson to present an outstanding service award to a senior. Henry Hilton, ’29 BSB, volunteered to make the trophy that would be presented to the winner. As a joke, he fashioned a trophy from a tomato soup can nailed to a wooden candlestick that belonged to his mother. To Hilton’s surprise, Stevenson presented him with his own creation, which became known as the Tomato Can Loving Cup Award. The increasingly rickety soup can is given each year.