A team of four University of Winnipeg students from the Faculty of Business and Economics won the Prairie Regional Competition of the annual Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Ethics Challenge, hosted by the CFA Society of Winnipeg.
The team we have works really well together. We challenge each other’s ideas and reach best outcomes collaboratively.
Momina Ijaz
Marissa Chernoff, Momina Ijaz, Sayli Velankar, and Li Zhang made up the team, which included Instructor Dennis Ng. They competed against teams from the University of Manitoba, University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Regina.
Teams were asked to analyze an ethics in finance case, present to a panel of judges from the local finance community, and navigate a difficult Q&A session following the presentation.
It was the UWinnipeg team’s first time taking part in a case competition before, so they were quite happy with the result.
“The team was super excited to take part in this challenge,” Ijaz said. “The win was a real shock as we had no expectations going into the competition. It really brought us a lot of joy and confidence.”
Ng says he was nervous watching the team present even though he saw them practice the presentation.
Momina Ijaz
Based on the other teams’ performances he watched, he knew the UWinnipeg team had a good shot at winning the entire competition, which is exactly what they did.
“They presented better than I had seen them when they practiced,” Ng said. “They just nailed it.”
Ng met with the team for 30 minutes during judging to give them feedback. It was at that point he knew they were going to win, but he didn’t want to ruin the moment for them.
“I just told them that I thought they did really good and that they had a chance at winning,” he recalled with a laugh.
Up next for the team is the CFA Societies Canada Ethics Challenge – National Round on May 6. All regional winners will be competing virtually for the title.
In this round, Ng says teams are given the case and one day to prepare the presentation.
“The team we have works really well together. We challenge each other’s ideas and reach best outcomes collaboratively,” Ijaz said. “At the end of all this, we joined this case competition to gain experience and a win would just be a bonus added on top.”
Ng wouldn’t predict if he thinks they’ll win the national competition, but he’s very confident that they’ll bring their very best.
“I have a feeling that they’re going to do very well,” he said. “It’s probably going to come down to the nuances of some of these ethical problems, which are very, very tricky.”
