On April 12-15 COBE MBA students Ashleigh Anderson, Jessica Bottleberghe, Nam Do, Erin Howell and Steven Gabrielsen, represented Boise State University at the CFA Institute Research Challenge event in Chicago, Illinois. The annual global competition involves over 800 universities in more than 55 countries and provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. Students work in teams to research and analyze a publicly traded company. Each team writes a research report on their assigned company with a buy, hold or sell recommendation and then are asked to present and defend their analysis to a panel of industry professionals. The Boise State team was assigned Micron, and its financial report supported a buy recommendation for the company’s stock.
“This was the third straight year Boise State has won the Idaho regional competition and advanced to the global stage.” said faculty advisor, Brady Lawrence who accompanied the team to Chicago. “The team did a remarkable job creating a report and presentation that rivals what is produced on Wall Street. Most importantly, it was an amazing learning experience for the students to integrate classroom concepts with a real-world scenario. It was a tremendous opportunity to showcase the talent in our college and university.”
The Boise State team advanced to the Americas Semifinal round but did to advance to the global finals. The event provided amazing opportunities for students to connect with one another and established financial industry professionals.
Global Finalists in the competition were University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia), University of Waterloo (Toronto, Canada), Politecnico di Milano (Milano, Italy) and Ateneo de manila university (Quezon City, Philippines). University of Waterloo was declared the CFA Institute Research Challenge Global Final and Americas Regional Champions.