LOS ANGELES - A team of MBA students from UCLA Anderson School of Management won first place and a $5,000 prize from a field of 12 teams in the second annual Fink Center AIA Stock Pitch Competition, which took place on Feb 22.
UCLA Anderson's Team GreenRock competed against challengers from the nation's top business schools, including University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Columbia Business School, University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Duke University Fuqua School of Business, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, Indiana University Kelley School of Business, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Michigan Ross School of Business, MIT Sloan School of Management, University of Rochester Simon Graduate School of Business, and USC Marshall School of Business.
Professionals from top finance firms served as judges, including Trust Company of the West, DoubleLine Capital, PIMCO, and HighMark Capital. In the final round, UCLA Anderson's Team GreenRock vied with teams from Ivey, Columbia and Haas in presenting their buy or sell recommendation on Tesla stock. This included a 20-minute analysis of the company and 25 minutes of questioning by the judges. Team GreenRock, along with second- and third-prize winners from Ivey and Columbia, were selected based on the quality of their analysis, the strength of their investment thesis, presentation skills, and their responses to the judges' questions.
The day-long event was hosted by the school's Laurence and Lori Fink Center for Finance & Investments.
The Laurence and Lori Fink Center for Finance & Investments serves as a bridge between academia and industry in the field of finance. The Center sponsors research, teaching, and the application of financial knowledge in the global corporate and investment communities. The Fink Center's mission is to connect students, alumni, faculty, and the investment community to transform fundamental knowledge into applicable practices that benefit today's global economy.
The Fink Center takes a leadership role in recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty and scholars. The Center works with faculty to expand UCLA Anderson's capability to publish innovative work and effectively disseminate cutting-edge research. The Center also supports promising Ph.D. and MBA students and serves as a bridge to the industry through the development of its future finance leaders. To this effort, the Center hosts investment conferences, stock pitch competitions, and networking events. Relationships with the Center's Advisory Board, on which Larry Fink has served as chairman since 2006, help foster interaction between students, alumni, faculty, and prominent experts in the field of finance.