University of Waterloo Wins CFA Institute Research Challenge as Competition Celebrates 10th Anniversary
A team of future investment management professionals from University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Canada) has been named the winner of CFA Institute Research Challenge, an annual global competition that provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. This year the Research Challenge, which celebrates its 10th anniversary, has seen more than 5,000 students take part from 1,000 universities across the globe over the course of the 2015-2016 competition.
The Research Challenge Regional and Global finals, held in Chicago, saw 106 university teams and 500 students from the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, Middle East, and Africa, compete to be one of the final four teams. The winning team from University of Waterloo, the first ever Canadian winner of the challenge, overcame competition from Ateneo de Manila University (Manila, Philippines), Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy), and University of Georgia (Georgia, U.S.).
“Congratulations to University of Waterloo and to all the finalist teams that participated in this year's competition,” said Paul Smith, CFA, president and CEO of CFA Institute. “As the Research Challenge celebrates its 10th anniversary, we can reflect on the thousands of students who have shown the dedication and perseverance needed to succeed in this competition. The competition's strong focus on ethics and professional standards leaves us confident that, together with these future investment professionals, we have the ability to generate lasting change in the investment industry."
The winning team, comprised of Kam Dhaliwal, Adnan Khan, Brent Small, Daniel Zhang and Rudder Zhang, presented and defended a report on Canadian Tire Corporation to a panel of investment industry experts that included:
- Christopher Bloomstran, CFA, president and CIO at Semper Augustus Investments Group;
- Eleanor Kigen, CFA, president, CFA society East Africa;
- Derek Mok, CFA, head of Asset Management and CIO at RHB Asset Management; and
- Robert Taylor, CFA, partner, Portfolio Manager and Senior International Investment Analyst at Harris Associates
Over the past decade, the CFA Institute Research Challenge has seen a steady increase in participation, from 91 participants in 2006 to more than 5,000 this year. To mark the 10th anniversary, participants from the regional and global levels of the competition were able to come together for the first time, share experiences and support each other through this demanding process. Additionally, in conjunction with ENGAGE® International Investment Education Symposium, over 1,000 attendees had the opportunity to hear insights from featured speakers that are among the best in corporate America, government, and the financial media.
The global winners from the past three years came from Canisius College, 2015; University of the Philippines – Diliman in 2014; and Wroclaw University of Economics (Poland) in 2013.
CFA Institute is the global association of investment professionals that sets the standard for professional excellence and credentials. The organization is a champion for ethical behavior in investment markets and a respected source of knowledge in the global financial community. The end goal: to create an environment where investors’ interests come first, markets function at their best, and economies grow.
CFA Institute Research Challenge
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a global competition that tests the equity research and valuation, investment report writing, and presentation skills of university students. This annual educational initiative promotes best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills. 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. For more information, visit www.cfainstitute.org.