Media Release

For Immediate Release

March 23, 2009

Sobey students in finals against “Americas” best

Finance students from Saint Mary’s University stood with the best investment teams in the hemisphere last week at the “Americas” regional final for the Global Investment Research Challenge.

The team from the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s (representing Atlantic Canada against university teams from across Canada, the United States and Latin America) made it through the semi-final round and into the finals as one of the top six teams.

“Top six in all of the Americas is a win in my books,” said Finance Professor Dr. Greg MacKinnon who coached the team. “There is no doubt in my mind that students from Saint Mary’s can compete with students from any university in the world -- and I do mean any.”

As finalists in New York, the Saint Mary’s team and the other five finalists were invited to be on the floor for the opening of the New York Stock Exchange the next day.

The students from the Sobey School of Business included Bachelor of Commerce students Joel Muise and Michael Jack, and Masters of Business Administration students Nikolay Shimukovich and Victor Gendy.

At the competition, they were required to present their analysis and valuation of a company, including a buy/sell recommendation, to a panel of industry experts. The competition gives business and finance students the chance to interact with investment professionals and top firms while getting real-world experience and mentoring.

The other teams making it through the semi-final round and into the final six were Boston University, Fundacao Getulio Vargas − Sao Paulo, Texas A&M University, Bowling Green State University and University of Alberta.

To reach the “Americas” competition, each team had to first win their local investment challenge sponsored by the CFA society in their area, prevailing over some of the top business schools in the world. Teams from many of the big schools like Harvard, MIT and Wharton didn’t even make the cut to get to New York.

Saint Mary’s won the right to represent Atlantic Canada by winning the Atlantic Canada Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society Investment Research Challenge held last November at Saint Mary’s.

The final winner in New York was the team from the Brazilian university, Fundacao Getulio Vargas − Sao Paulo. They will now represent the Americas in the global final in London, England on April 2 against teams from Europe and Asia.

“I would like to congratulate the students, and point out the huge amount of work they put in to preparing their analysis and presentation,” said Dr. MacKinnon. “They started work on this in September, continuing right up to the competition last week – and spent a lot of long days and late nights the last two weeks preparing.

“The SMU team did an amazing job, he said. “I cannot think of anything else they could have done better.”

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For More Information:

Blake Patterson
Public Affairs Officer
Saint Mary's University, Public Affairs
(902) 420.5514
E-mail: blake.patterson@smu.ca
www.smu.ca