BizTimes: Marquette business students advance in investment contest

Five undergraduate students from Marquette University's College of Business Administration have advanced to the Global Investment Research Challenge - Americas Regional competition to be held in New York City, March 18-20.

This is Marquette's first year participating in the prestigious competition sponsored by the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute. Four winners from the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe/Middle East/Africa regions will compete in this year's global finale on April 2, 2009, in London.

The Marquette students, who are in the college's Applied Investment Management (AIM) program, defeated the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee team on Wednesday in the final round of the local competition, which was hosted by the CFA Society of Milwaukee.

Members of the winning team include Alison Bettonville, Chris Cebula, Brian Finnie, Maggie Hughes and Anna Toshach.

"This is a great group of talented men and women," said David Krause, AIM director and adjunct assistant professor of finance. "They worked countless hours researching and preparing their case presentation. The level of professionalism they displayed is second to none."

All teams analyzed a Milwaukee-based small-cap industrial firm. Each of the students had the opportunity to visit the company's headquarters for a tour, CEO/CFO presentation and meetings with management.