Phillip Flesch, Mike Gunderson and Evgeniy Savov were winners of a regional CFA Challenge competition and now head to nationals.

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Team of UD students wins regional CFA Challenge, advances to national competition

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2:29 p.m., Feb. 26, 2015--A team of students from the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics has won this year’s CFA Institute Research Challenge for the Philadelphia region.

Seniors Mike Gunderson and Evgeniy Savov and junior Phillip Flesch bested 14 teams to become regional winners. In April, the team will compete in the national CFA Challenge in Atlanta. 

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The regional CFA Challenge’s first round required the team to research and analyze a publically traded company and write an extensive initiation report, along with a recommendation to buy, sell or hold stock from that company.

Team Lerner’s initiation report was one of four finalists chosen to compete in the second presentation round at Philadelphia’s Union League on Feb. 12, where the team was named a regional winner.

“When it came time to present, we had just 10 minutes to discuss our findings and present our recommendation,” Savov said. He added that the panel of four judges, all CFA (certified financial analyst) charter holders, gave the team strong positive feedback.

“Our recommendation was comprehensive, forward looking, and well supported with data,” he said. Further, the group maintained a presentation style that he called “confident, succinct and direct.” 

The question-and-answer session with the judges, he said, “really tested our recommendation from all aspects – industry, financial analysis, valuation methodologies and risks. It became clear that the team was extremely knowledgeable and unified.”

Flesch said that the lessons the team members have learned from their work at UD was critical to their success. All three members of the team hold senior positions in the Blue Hen Investment Club and have challenged themselves with double majors. Savov and Flesch are finance and accounting double majors, while Gunderson studies finance and economics.

“We definitely applied our Lerner experience to help us,” Flesch said, mentioning a range of skills from creating complex financial models to effective public speaking.

“We are knowledgeable in ways to create comprehensive solutions and are familiar with what a typical management team would like covered,” he continued.

Gunderson agreed, saying that the company the team researched for the challenge “was amidst a turnaround and we had to keep this in mind for our valuation and final recommendation.”

Gunderson also shared one of his favorite memories of the Union League visit.

“We came across the portrait room, which contained the hand-printed portraits of many presidents, including the original of George Washington,” he said.

The team said that they are “overwhelmed” by the support they’ve received from the UD community, their faculty adviser Richard Fagan and industry mentor Steve Dolce.

“They provided us with a number of critical tips and feedback during practice that made a tremendous difference in the final presentation,” Savov said.

The team looks forward to representing UD at the national CFA Challenge in April.

Article by Sunny Rosen

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