A team of five business administration and economics Cal Poly students went to San Francisco Feb. 7-10 to compete in a financial analyst competition and came back with a win.
In a contest of 15 teams that included graduate groups, business administration seniors Adam Pasco, Kian Ramezani and Coby Snyder, business administration junior Benjamin Consoli and economics senior Mason McCloskey were tasked with analyzing and making “buy/sell/hold” recommendations for the San Francisco company Salesforce.com.
The contest is called the Northern California Chartered Financial Analyst Investment Research Challenge. The global competition allows university students to get real-world experience, simulating the challenges of actual research analysts. Their abilities to value stock, write reports and present to industry professionals are tested.
Their presentation was what separated them from the crowd, according to McCloskey. He said their suits were coordinated and their script was razor sharp.
“I think we really excelled at the aesthetics of the presentation and report to ensure they looked professional to match the quality of the content,” McCloskey wrote in an email to Mustang News.
The Competition
Over the course of the competition, 15 teams were whittled down to three: Cal Poly, Hult Graduate Business School and Golden Gate University. The final round consisted of a 10-minute presentation followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer period.
While the preliminary rounds were held in small rooms, the final round took place in Golden Gate University’s largest auditorium, in front of anyone who wanted to watch and Salesforce Senior Vice President of Investor Relations John Cummings.
Still, Cal Poly’s team worked through their 30 main presentation slides and kept to their script.
After winning in San Francisco, all five Cal Poly students and their advisors are headed for Boston, Massachusetts. The next leg of competition is the Americas Regional competition March 19-20.
In Boston, Cal Poly’s team will face off against 55 universities from the U.S., Canada and Latin America, according to a press release.
The Americas Regional competition will be formatted similarly, according to McCloskey, with a written report and a presentation. The top teams in group competition will move on to the Global Final, where McCloskey thinks they have a shot.
“We are extremely excited to represent Cal Poly well and think we have a great chance to move onto the Global Final,” McCloskey wrote.