Terry MBA team dominates CFA competition

A team of Terry MBA candidates captured first place at the annual Chartered Financial Analyst Institute’s Southern Classic Research Challenge on Feb. 23 in Atlanta.

In addition to the top finish, the team of Daniel Coogle, Kathy Kellert, Viju Krishnan and Patrick Muller earned the opportunity represent the Southern region at the Americas region competition, held March 20-21 in Toronto. That event will include winning teams from local challenges throughout North and South America.

The CFA Institute will finance the team’s travel and has arranged for the team to have a daylong coaching session on professional presentation skills. The winning team from the Americas region will advance to the Global competition in London in late April.

The competition, known as “the investment Olympics,” is a global competition that tests the equity research and valuation, investment report writing, and presentation skills of top university students.

The Terry team, under the tutelage of mentor Patrick Coyne (MBA ’94), and faculty advisor Matej Blasko, a lecturer in the Department of Finance, was graded on a paper and a presentation they created analyzing the valuation of the Norcross-based company RockTenn.

The Southern Classic consisted of nine teams of students, hailing from regional universities. When the Terry team competes in Toronto, they will be judged against a crowd of about 50 teams from across the Americas. The winners of that challenge will compete in the CFA Global Final in London.