Rutgers University Wins Investment Research Challenge

Business Wire,  April 11, 2008  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

NEW YORK -- The Rutgers Business School - Newark and New Brunswick team was selected as the winner of the 6th Annual Investment Research Challenge, held on April 9th at the Westin Hotel in Times Square. The team will close the NASDAQ Stock Market on April 16th and compete in the 2nd Annual Global Investment Research Challenge.

"It was a privilege for Rutgers Business School to participate in the NYSSA Investment Research Challenge. The students obtained invaluable skills and prepared a research report that was on par or better than those completed by professional security analysts," said John Longo, Rutgers faculty advisor. "They also had the opportunity to present their findings to a distinguished panel of Wall Street experts. Winning the challenge was an incredible moment that the entire Rutgers team will never forget. Thank you NYSSA for a wonderful opportunity and event!"

Jesse Cohen, Jorge Barreiro, Elizabeth Moore, Sylvie Nappey, and Benjamin Schmid led Rutgers to the title. They were followed by Pace University's Lubin School of Business in second place, the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University in third place, and Fordham University's Graduate School of Business in fourth place.

Gold sponsors for the Challenge were Reuters, and EDGAR Online. The Silver sponsor was CFA Institute.

Each team had ten minutes to convince the expert panel of judges of its recommendations on W. P. Carey & Co. LLC (NYSE: WPC). Martin S. Fridson, CFA, president of FridsonVision LLC and publisher of Leverage World, was the panel chair. The other panelists consisted of John J. Apruzzese, CFA, managing director at U.S. Trust; Steven Kent, CFA, managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Co.; Jack L. Rivkin, chief investment officer of Neuberger Berman; and Christina Rizopoulos Valauri, managing director and director of equity research at Broadpoint Capital, Inc.

Jesse Cohen, captain of the Rutgers team said, "What an incredible and rewarding opportunity! In addition to the inherent challenges of executing investment research analysis, our team faced the even more daunting task of effectively melding the business and interpersonal skills of Baby Boomer, Gen-X and Gen-Y'ers. Overcoming these obstacles to produce a comprehensive report judged superior by experienced Wall Street professionals, while representing our school, wonderful faculty and mentors, was truly a gratifying experience and one that won't soon be forgotten!"

The Rutgers team will now advance to the Global Investment Research Challenge to face teams from Asia-Pacific, Europe, and other North American teams on May 1st at Thomson Financial. This year, the Global Challenge featured local competitions with more than 300 student participants from over 80 countries worldwide.

For more information, please visit www.nyssa.org.

About NYSSA

The New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) is a leading forum for the investment community. NYSSA's mission is to promote best practices and the highest professional and ethical standards in the industry. NYSSA is the largest of the more than 135 societies worldwide that make up CFA Institute, which has more than 93,000 members.

COPYRIGHT 2008 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning