Marquette’s 2016 CFA Institute Research Challenge Teams

The CFA Institute Research Challenge offers students the unique opportunity to learn from leading industry experts and compete with peers from the world’s top finance programs.  This annual educational initiative 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. 

The first ever CFA Institute Research Challenge competition was hosted by the New York Society of Security Analysts in 2002 and involved just five teams from the New York area. Since then, the competition has grown to involve tens of thousands of students from over 800 universities in more than 55 countries.

The Challenge gathers students, investment industry professionals, executives from 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.

How the Challenge Works: Local CFA Societies, CFA Institute, and other organizations host and launch a local Research Challenge in conjunction with their participating universities.  The universities assemble teams of 3-5 business and finance 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.

O’Malley, Schulz, Canfield, Muth

The 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 standar

Wycklend, Woo, Connelly, Reardon, Tran

The CFA Society Madison is proud to host the annual local level of the CFA Institute Research Challenge in Madison.  Participating universities include two teams from Marquette University, as well as teams from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. 

The subject company is: ManpowerGroup (MAN). ManpowerGroup (formerly known as ManPower Inc.) is an American multinational human resource consulting firm headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Manpower provides recruitment and assessment, training and development, career management, outsourcing, and workforce consulting.

Marquette students participating the Challenge include:

•          Brendan O’Malley
•          Colin Canfield
•         Conor Connelly
•          Joanne Wycklendt
•          John (Connor) Muth
•          Michael Reardon
•          Patrick Schulz
•          Paul Tran
•          Ryan Woo