RVK Senior Consultant and Principal, Josh Kevan, CFA, served as an Industry Mentor for the Boise State University (BSU) team in the annual CFA Institute Research Challenge. The BSU team won this year’s Idaho Chapter competition and now advances to the sub-regional level of competition! As the investment advisor to the Boise State University Foundation, this served as a great opportunity to get involved with one of our clients. Picture of the winning team, their professor, and Josh is shown below.
For background, this annual competition provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. Local CFA® Societies work with universities to assemble teams of 3-5 undergraduate and/or graduate students. Teams research and analyze a designated publicly traded company; prepare a written report on that company that supports a buy, sell, or hold recommendation; receive advice and support from a faculty advisor and an industry mentor; and present and defend their findings to a panel of industry experts. Winners from the local competitions advance to sub-regional competitions, then on to regional competitions in the Americas, Asia, and Europe, culminating in a global final. The winning team is chosen based on the thoroughness of its analysis and knowledge of one company, rather than whether their predictions of the stock price are correct.
2022 Participation by the Numbers:
• 6,400+ Students
• 3,000+ Volunteers
• 1,000+ Universities
• 150+ CFA Societies
• 119 Local Challenges
• 90 Countries
https://www.cfainstitute.org/en/societies/challenge
In the words of Josh:
It’s so great to see these students with a hunger and passion to learn more about the investment industry. I know many current RVK staffers also participated in the research challenge when they were students so there is a great opportunity here to both partner more closely with one of our clients and get to know some great potential future investment professionals. Congratulations to the BSU Team! They worked very hard on their analysis, report, and presentation.