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LangÌýReynolds, MBA 2015 -

Spring Semester means one thing for the MBA Finance Club here at Leeds: Competition Season! Leeds MBA teams are currently gearing up to compete in theÌýÌýas well as the Association for Corporate Growth’sÌý. Both competitions are geared towards achieving the Finance Club’s goal of providing value-added experiences for practical application of what we have been learning during the course of the MBA program.

The CME Group Trading Challenge provides the opportunity for students to learn how to use the powerful CQG trading platform while trading live in several key futures markets such as energy (crude oil, natural gas), agriculture (corn, cattle), precious metals, interest rate and equity indices. Last year the Leeds MBA team placed 5th out of over 400 global teams following two rounds of challenging trading and this year we have two teams devoted to improving on this result.

The ACG Case Cup is a corporate finance case competition where student teams play the role of an investment bank pitching a board of directors on strategic options for a company at a crossroads. During this competition students must apply what they have learned in the corporate finance case to model the financial situation and outlook for the company while also perfecting presentation skills by role-playing bankers pitching to a board of directors. Both financial acumen and emotional intelligence are required to excel at this competition. The preliminary round of this competition is between Leeds MBA teams here at CU, from which the winner will emerge to compete against DU, CU-Denver and Regis teams in the final round in late February. Leeds won the competition in 2012 and we are looking to re-take the crown this year.

Participation in these competitions follows on a strong year of activities for the MBA Finance Club also focused on practical application and expansion of the academic learning experience. Finance Club members recently convened in the Bloomberg lab to complete a training program on how to use the powerful Bloomberg Terminals. Leeds is very fortunate to have access to such a lab here on campus, and knowledge of how to use the terminals is a valuable asset in today’s finance job market. The Finance Club also presented a financial modeling course in the fall to develop basic financial modeling competencies such as three-statement and various valuation modeling, providing Leeds MBAs another opportunity to further develop their finance credentials outside their coursework.

UPDATE: ÌýAn exceptional team of 2nd Year MBAs - Christine Brook, Jake Musson, Paris Potivejkul and Lang Reynolds - won the statewide ACG Cup corporate finance case competition on February 28. After advancing from the campus round two weeks before, the team competed at DU's Daniels School of Business against teams from DU and Regis, and returned the crown to CU.ÌýThis is a prestigious win for CU and provides a cash award for the team.ÌýGo Buffs!