Ateneo wins 2019 CFA Institute Research Challenge Global Finals

Team Ateneo/Philppines: The 2019 CFA Institute Research Challenge Global Champions

A team of Ateneo students topped the 2019 CFA Institute Research Challenge Global Finals held in the New York Marriott Marquis, New York on April 25—marking the university’s first ever Global Championship in the competition.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge (IRC) is a global investment research competition that provides students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. “The competition not only showcases the knowledge and expertise of these investment professionals of the future, but also their commitment to ethics and principled conduct that is so critical to building a better world for investors. It’s inspiring to see the next generation of investment professionals at work and know the future of our industry is in capable hands,” CFA Institute President and CEO Paul Smith said.

The Ateneo Research Challenge team is composed of Management Engineering seniors Katreena Dachelle Chang (Team Captain), Carina Monica Chua, Vince Benedict Say, Gabrielle Marie Tayag, and Christine Abigail Yu. They were mentored by faculty adviser Alfonso Miguel Sevidal (BS ME ’17) from the Finance and Accounting Department, industry mentor Mark Alan Canizares (BS LM ’99) from Manulife, and local society representative April Lee-Tan (BS ME ’96) from CFA Society Philippines.

In the Global Finals, Ateneo successfully defended their BUY rating on D&L Industries, a Philippine-based specialty chemicals manufacturer, in a ten-minute presentation. This was followed by a ten-minute question-and-answer portion in front of a panel of judges, composed of Altus Capital Limited Chief Investment Officer Shuk Yee Samantha Ho, CFA, BlackRock Managing Director David Greenberg, Refinative Labs Global Head of Applied Innovation Tim Baker, CFA, and State Street Global Advisors Senior Quant Fixed Income Researcher Jingyan Wang.

The team squared off against Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (Mexico) and Canisius College (USA), who were the Americas Regional Co-Champions, as well as Moscow State University (Russia) and University of Lausanne (Switzerland), who were the EMEA Regional Co-Champions.

Last February 22, the team won the Local Finals and earned the right to represent the country in the Asia Pacific Regionals. On March 29, the team emerged as Regional Champions in Sydney, Australia and earned the right to represent the Asia Pacific Region in the Global Finals.

With their victory in the Global Finals, Ateneo bested over 6,000 students from around 1,100 universities around the world. It also marks Ateneo’s first Global Championship, which now adds to the impressive track record of the university in the Research Challenge. Ateneo won back-to-back Regional Champions in 2015 and 2016, then this year in 2019.

As Global Champions, Chang, Chua, Say, Tayag, and Yu were awarded $10,000, a trophy, and individual plaques. Their team photo was also featured in Times Square, immediately following the announcement of results.

The Ateneo team’s photo displayed on Times Square last April 25, after the Global Finals