Seton Hall Team Wins
5th Annual Investment Research Challenge

The Seton Hall Team: Angelo Stracquatanio, Theresa Ko, Bill Moore, Megan Joseph, and Andrey Botev.

 

For the second year in a row, Seton Hall University's Stillman School of Business won the NYSSA Investment Research Challenge, held on April 18, 2007, at Reuters America. The team rang the Nasdaq Stock Market's Opening Bell on April 23, and went on to take second place in the inaugural CFA Institute Global Investment Research Challenge on April 26.

Seton Hall is the first repeat winner in the five years of the NYSSA Challenge. “It's a true testament to the commitment of the Seton Hall students, faculty, and administrators that they have been able to come out on top two years in a row in such a competitive field,” said NYSSA executive director Alvin Kressler.

Andrey Botev, Megan Joseph, Theresa Ko, Bill Moore, and Angelo Stracquatanio represented Seton Hall. They were followed by Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick in second place, Pace University's Lubin School of Business in third, and The Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John's University taking fourth.

Gold Sponsors of the NYSSA Challenge were CFA Institute, The Dreyfus Corporation, and Reuters. Silver Sponsor was CreditSights.

Panelists Christina Valauri, Steven Kent, and Kay Booth.

“The challenge highlights the degree of teamwork and creativity needed to generate original ideas on Wall Street,” remarked Kay Booth, director of global equity research at Bear Stearns, and a first-time panelist. “The dedication of the participants and the sophisticated analysis of the winners ensure a bright future for investment research.”

Each team had 10 minutes to convince the expert panel of its recommendations on Tasty Baking Company (Nasdaq: TSTY). Booth was joined by chair Martin S. Fridson, CFA, President of FridsonVision LLC and publisher of Leverage World; John J. Apruzzese, CFA, managing director at U.S. Trust; Steven Kent, CFA, managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Co.; and Christina Rizopoulos Valauri, managing director and director of equity research at First Albany Capital.

Panelists John Apruzzese and Martin Fridson.

The Challenge is an eight-month educational initiative in which leading industry professionals teach students from top area business schools best practices in securities research. To reach the finals, the teams had previously bested students from Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business, Fordham University's College of Business Administration, and NYU Stern School of Business.

The Seton Hall students faced Babson College, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Rice University at the CFA Institute Global Investment Research Challenge, which was modeled after NYSSA's Challenge, on April 26 at U.S. Trust. Babson College took first, reporting on Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE: ADI), with Seton Hall coming in a close second.

“Participating in the NYSSA Investment Research Challenge provided our team with the opportunity to apply our academic knowledge to a real-world company research project,” stated Bill Moore. “Beyond our financial research, the Challenge allowed us to hone skills such as working as part of a team, preparing a presentation, and defending our position before top industry professionals.”

“I think the victory was the result of a great team effort,” said Andrey Botev. “We were able to quickly form a coherent and determined team. The diverse background of my colleagues was an advantage for two reasons: First, we argued a lot, which helped us build our analysis on the basis of constructive argument; and second, each student found a particular niche where he or she was able to take a strong lead. The project was an invaluable learning experience, and the ringing of the Opening Bell at Nasdaq will be one of our most cherished memories for a very long time.”

Theresa Ko expressed a similar view: “The preparation process required much dedication and perseverance. What glued this team together was that each member played a significant role, and we were able to depend on each other. After five months of preparation, it was such a great feeling to see the final product of our hard work, and the trophies we came home with served as the icing on the cake!”

The Rutgers Team: Kavan Desai, Reuel Ayalew, Ken Miller, Karen Wheeler, Edward Scheuer.		The Pace Team: Ria Moore, Shriya Rajan, Tarun Chopra, and Rahul Bhasin.

 

 

The St. John's Team: Pat Trucchio, Mahesh Chhabra, Amish Dalvi, Yuan-Ming Cheng, and Makoto Shibata.		Challenge founders Eric Stieglitz (left) and Stella Alvo (center) with NYSSA executive director Alvin Kressler.

 

 

Mary Borneman, manager of investor and public relations at subject company Tasty Baking Company, and Hal McIntyre of Summit Group.		John Apruzzese, Martin Fridson, and Steven Kent.

Martin Fridson, Christina Valauri, Kay Booth, and Alvin Kressler.		Seton Hall mentor Tim McGlinn (left), research analyst at Train, Babcock Advisors, with his team.

Pace mentor Mark Wienkes (center), vice president at Goldman Sachs, with his team.		Therese Pactwa, faculty advisor for the St. John's team, with students Pat Trucchio and Amish Dalvi.

 

From NYSSA News, June, 2007