JU Financial Analysis Team Advances to Global Finals of the CFA Institute Research Challenge

Jacksonville, FL, April 06, 2018 -- Students from the Jacksonville University Davis College of Business make up one of only five Chartered Financial Analyst teams that qualified for the global final of the prestigious CFA Institute Research Challenge. They will be featured on the world stage April 27.

Henry Crayton, Maria Juliana Fueyo, and Jamie Seim of the Jacksonville University CFA Team. The Jacksonville University CFA team will represent North and South America in a global competition on April 27 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Henry Crayton, Maria J. Fueyo and Jamie Seim will compete in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The team from JU won the Florida Research Challenge for the second year in a row in February, then won the Americas Regional Research Challenge in March.

The CFA Institute is a world-renowned organization of Chartered Financial Analysts and the Research Challenge is the pre-eminent competition for finance students.

“We have a goal to be one of the top five business schools in Florida,” said Dr. Don Capener, dean of the Davis College of Business. “This is an opportunity to have it not just be a point of pride, but to help us reach that goal.”

Steve Kelley, vice president of community development lending and investing at EverBank, said the school already has a strong reputation.

“Within the business community, it is held out as one of the bright spots Jacksonville has to offer to organizations looking to relocate here,” said Kelley, who is receiving a Doctor of Business Administration degree this month from JU.

In the challenge, teams are assigned a stock to determine whether to buy, sell or hold. JU’s team initiated a buy on Harris Corporation, a Florida-based defense contractor and technology company.

The intense practice regimen included a Shark Tank-like session organized by JU President Tim Cost, featuring top business leaders who observed the team’s presentation, then asked tough questions and provided vital feedback.

Cost said the panelists were impressed by the team’s presentation and knowledge of the company, which went far beyond earnings reports and the information gained during a one-hour session with the company.

The students aggressively sought out many of Harris’ suppliers, customers and peers to get a ground-level perspective of its performance.

Among the people they spoke to was a soldier who said one of Harris’ radio products saved the lives of his company on the battlefield in Iraq. The radio was connected to a drone that provided live aerial footage, showing that the enemy was just around the corner – right where they had been planning to go.

The team is coached by Abdel Missa, a finance professor and an advisor of the Dolphin Student Investment Fund, of which the three students are members. Missa and Dr. Daphne Wang, a fellow professor and adviser of the fund, selected the team members.

The three students are scheduled to graduate in April. Seim will earn an Executive MBA, Crayton, who hails from New Zealand, an MBA, and Fueyo, who calls Argentina home, will earn bachelor’s degrees in both finance and economics.

Missa believes the school’s success in the CFA Institute Research Challenge can be the catalyst to even greater success.

“This is just the beginning, honestly. There is no reason why we can’t build the best finance program in the world here. Give me one reason why not,” he said.

Attachments

• 2018 DSIF
• 2018 DSIF CFA Research Challenge

Alix Robinson
Jacksonville University
9042567020
[email protected]