March 15, 2021

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MILWAUKEE — Five undergraduates from Marquette University’s Applied Investment Management program have advanced to the Midwestern sub-regional finals of the Chartered Financial Analyst’s Institute Research Challenge, which will be held virtually on March 19.

This is the 11th time in the past 13 years that a Marquette AIM team has advanced beyond the Wisconsin CFA Research Challenge.

Marquette’s Blue team, made up of Sean Dole, Erik Floyd, Nicholas Rohrer, Brook Seifu, and Joseph Vitrano, was one of two groups representing the university at the CFA Research Challenge on Feb. 25. It beat teams from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Marquette’s Gold team finished second.

The Americas Regional Semifinals will be held on April 15, with the finals to follow April 21. The Global final competition is April 22 and includes the winners from the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe-Middle East-Africa competitions.

"The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a rigorous global competition that tests our students' knowledge and application of investment management principles, ethics and professional standards," said Dr. David Krause, director of the AIM program. "To be among the few teams who are moving on to the sub-regional challenge is an honor for our students, and a testament to their hard work and commitment to the competition and their futures in the investment management profession. I'm very proud of all of our students who are participating in the CFA Challenge. Like past teams, they worked hard and delivered a quality product. I think they can do very well and I’m hopefully we continue to move forward in the competition."

About the 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. This year because of COVID-19, the challenges are being held virtually. For more information, visit cfainstitute.org.