Marquette AIM Students Selected to Participate in Global Investment Research Challenge

The CFA Institute Global Investment Research Challenge offers students the unique opportunity to learn from leading industry experts and compete with peers from the world’s top finance programs. AIM program director, Dr. David Krause said, "The GIRC promotes best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills. It is an outstanding event - we appreciate the local and national effort that goes into organizing the Challenge each year."
 
The CFA Challenge gathers students, investment industry professionals, publicly traded companies, and corporate sponsors together locally, regionally, and globally for a real world competition. Participation in the challenge promotes best practices in equity research and company analysis, as students research, analyze, and report on a company as if they are practicing analysts.  Additionally, all participants are introduced to and held to the standard of the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.

Dr. Krause commented, "The Challenge rules are very clear. I especially like the rule that each competitor is required to complete the Ethical Standard for Investment Professionals course.  Not only are we proponents of high ethical behavior at Marquette, but we are embracing more interactive curriculum - including CFA webcasts."


Local CFA societies host and launch an Investment Research Challenge in conjunction with the participating universities. The universities assemble teams of 3 to 5 students who work directly with a company in researching and preparing a company analysis.The team’s final presentations are locally evaluated by high-profile panels of heads of research, portfolio managers, and chief investment officers from the world’s top firms.The local champions advance to regional competitions in the Americas, Asia, and Europe and then to the global finale.

"We were fortunate to compete at the Americas' regional level our first two years of involvement in the GIRC," said Dr. Krause. "We are looking forward to this year's competition; however, we take nothing for granted. In fact, we have found that the local competition and grading was as stringent as what we experienced at the regional level of the GIRC."

Krause said, "We have many qualified students who wanted to be a part of the GIRC team. I wish we could include more than 5 students; however, we understand that 5-member teams make the most sense." In very close voting, this year's CFA Global Investment Research Challenge team from Marquette University consists of:

–        Luke Darkow

–        Kristin Holzhauer

–        Mark Rutherford

–        Christina Starkey

–        David Zakutansky