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Canisius College Named Winner of Ninth Annual CFA Institute Research Challenge

20 April, 2015
Atlanta United States
Student competitors demonstrate financial analysis skills to the highest standards; represent the future of the investment management industry

A team of future investment management professionals from Canisius College (Buffalo, NY) has been named the winner of the ninth annual CFA Institute Research Challenge Global Final — an annual competition of 4,000 students from 865 universities globally. Hosted by CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals, and Atlanta Society of Finance and Investment Professionals, the competition provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis to promote best practices in equity research among the next generation of financial professionals. The Research Challenge encompasses the values from the CFA Institute Future of Finance initiative, a global effort to shape a trustworthy, forward-thinking investment management industry that better serves society.

Regional competitions were held in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and EMEA over the last year to determine the four teams that competed in the Global Final, held in Atlanta. The winning team overcame competition from Ateneo de Manila University; Kyiv National Economic University, and University of Florida.

“I congratulate Canisius College on winning the CFA Institute Research Challenge Global Final,” said Paul Smith, CFA, president and CEO of CFA Institute. “This year universities from 70 countries took part and thousands of students dedicated countless hours to the competition. The students Canisius College have shown a strong commitment to the best practices in equity research and throughout the competition they have demonstrated the diligence and dedication that will help them to succeed as they move on to careers in finance.”

The CFA Institute Research Challenge offers students the unique opportunity to learn from leading industry experts and their peers from the world’s top business schools. Ethics and professional standards are essential components of this challenge. Through the course of the competition, which requires hundreds of hours of preparation, participants receive mentoring from a professional research analyst as they analyze a publicly traded company, write a professional research report, and present their research results and recommendations to a high-profile panel of experts. Points are awarded to teams on the basis of their investment case, their poise, and their ability to answer the judges’ questions. The teams are sponsored by local CFA Institute member societies or groups of volunteers, each of which previously hosted country heats of the Challenge. 

The winning team, Matt Coad, Ryan Zimmer, Stephen Miller, Kevin Monheim, and Carl Larsson presented and defended a report on Sovran Self Storage, Inc. to a panel of investment industry experts that included:

  • Ashby Watts, CFA, Managing Director at Mirador Advisors
  • Rex Macey, Head of Investment Risk at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors
  • Gautam Dhingra, CFA, Founder, Portfolio Manager, and CEO at High Pointe Capital Management
  • Syarifa Galeb, CFA, U.S. Utilities & Midstream Energy Equity Research Associate at Bloomberg Intelligence

The global winners from the past three years came from University of the Philippines – Diliman who won in 2014; Wroclaw University of Economics (Poland), who won in 2013; and Thammasat University (Thailand) who won in 2012.