Thursday, February 18, 2016

Breaking News: Marquette's AIM Program Team Advances to CFA Investment Research Challenge America's Round!


Congratulations to both of Marquette University's AIM Program CFA Research Challenge Teams

Mike Reardon, Ryan Woo, Joanne Wycklendt, Paul Tran, Conor Connelly

Image result for cfa research challenge 2016MILWAUKEE—On Thursday, February 18, 2016, the Milwaukee and Madison CFA Societies hosted the local finals of the 2016 CFA Investment Research Challenge. The event was held at the Milwaukee Athletic Club. Participating universities in the Madison track included two teams from Marquette University, as well as teams from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.


The Marquette University Applied Investment Management team of Joanne Wycklendt, Ryan Woo, Conor Connelly, Mike Reardon, and Paul Tran were victorious and are advancing to the next round of the Challenge - the Americas Regional – which will be held in Chicago in April.


The other participating AIM team members included Brednan O’Malley, Patrick Schulz, Colin Canfield, Connor Muth. "Both teams performed exceptionally well and it’s unfortunate that only one team from each local competition can advance to the Americas round," said Dr. David Krause, AIM progrm director. "I was extremely proud of both teams - they were great representatives of Marquette and the AIM program." 

During the local competition for the CFA Institute Research Challenge title, the AIM teams gave an oral presentation that summarized their research and recommendation of ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), a Milwaukee company operating a multinational human resource consulting firm 

The teams’ research and conclusions were based on their interactions with senior executives at ManpowerGroup, investment thesis and risks analysis, financial modeling, valuation, comparable benchmarking and scenario creation. All participants were introduced and held to the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.  


The CFA Research Challenge competition is an educational initiative that was established to promote best practice in research among the next generation of financial analysts, and to provide students with an insight into the investment industry. Additional information on the Research Challenge and its participants can be found on the CFA Institute website: www.researchchallenge.org.