Media Release - For Immediate Release

March 25 2010

Impact Team Places Third in the Americas

Members of the IMPACT fund team from the Sobey School of Business are celebrating this week after placing third in the Americas in at New York investment competition.

The four-student -team beat out 23 other teams from across U.S., Canada, Latin America and South America to qualify as one of five finalists at the CFA Institute Americas Regional Investment Research Challenge. They placed third in the final round.

“For a small school like ours to beat out all the Ivy League schools and every other Canadian university is a significant accomplishment, “ said Ross Hallett, an academic director supporting the team. “ It shows quite clearly that our students measure up quite favourably.”

In the competition students study a public company and then present a panel of senior investment professionals with an analysis featuring buy, sell or hold recommendations.

The Halifax students studied Stantec, an engineering consulting and design firm with 9,300 employees in 150 offices across North America. The company’s investor relations staff was in the audience when the presentation was made and lauded the students’ performance at the conclusion of the event.

The event is designed to promote best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills. This year, more than 75 CFA Institute member societies hosted local competitions with more than 1,500 students from more than 425 universities worldwide participating.

Joel Snow, one of the members of the team, said everyone is proud of what was accomplished.

"Finally seeing our hard work pay off made all the long nights and early mornings worthwhile."

David Wicks, Dean of the Sobey School of Business, said it is the second year the IMPACT team has made it to the top of the pack. Last year it finished in the top six..

The competition was held March 17-18, 2010. The team members are Paul Kratz, Joel Snow, Andrew Walker and Sophie Cheong.

CFA Institute is the global, non-profit professional association that administers the Chartered Financial Analyst curriculum and sets voluntary, ethics-based professional and performance-reporting standards for the investment industry.

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For More Information:

Steve Proctor
External Affairs
Saint Mary's University
(902) 420.5513
E-mail: steve.proctor@smu.ca
www.smu.ca

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