Thursday, April 7, 2011

CFA's Global Investment Research Challenge in Omaha

The Marquette University AIM team participated in the CFA Institutes's Global Investment Research Challenge Americas' competition. As the winner of the local CFA competition from the Milwaukee area, the Marquette team earned the opportunity to compete with 40 other universities from North and South America for the right to advance to Saturday's Global challenge.

The AIM students presented their analysis and sell recommendation on Quad/Graphics (QUAD). The presentation at the CFA Society of Milwaukee's finale was the culmination of three months of research, interviews with company management, competitors, and clients, presentation training, and evaluation.

The Global IRC consists of the following components: 
·         Analysis of a public company – Teams research a publicly traded company, and company management presents to the team and participants in a question-and-answer session.
·         Mentoring by a professional research analyst – Each team works with an investment professional who mentors the team on the research process and reviews their report.
·         Writing a research report – Students produce an initiation of coverage report on the chosen company. The report is reviewed and scored by a group of judges.
·         Presentation of research to a high-profile panel of industry professionals – The team with the highest presentation score is the winner.

Members of Marquette's team include Luke Darkow, Kristin Holzhauer, Mark Rutherford, Christina Starkey and David Zakutansky. 






Luke Darkow, Kristin Holzhauer, Mark Rutherford, Christina Starkey, David Zakutansky


"Like previous teams from Marquette, this is a group of very talented students," said Dr. David Krause, AIM director and professor of finance. "They worked many hours outside of the classroom researching and preparing their case presentation. Their dedication and level of professionalism helped secure our third consecutive Milwaukee CFA GIRC championship. We are thankful the CFA Society of Milwaukee again hosted this event. We enjoyed the opportunity to travel to Omaha and participate in the next round of the investment competition."


This was Marquette's third year of competing in the CFA GIRC - and the third year that they advanced to the Americas' challenge. Dr. Krause said, "The Global IRC offers students a unique opportunity to learn from leading industry experts and their peers from the world’s top business schools. This annual educational initiative is designed to promote best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills. This year, more than 100 CFA Institute member societies hosted competitions with more than 2,500 students from more than 500 universities worldwide participating."


Dr. Krause added, "Although we did not advance in the competiton, it was again an excellent experience. The CFA Institute has organized an excellent event - including the appearance of Warren Buffet and Tom Ricketts. We want to thank the CFA Institute for sponsoring the GIRC - it is an outstanding event for the students. I'm certain most of the students will remember this week for many years. It was also interesting for the students to visit Omaha and to see Buffett and Ricketts."