Five teams of FIU students competed in May 2024 for the top prize at the Kemper Foundation Case Competition. The challenge: developing strategies for financial planning and investment banking on topics that ranged from cryptocurrency to artificial intelligence and real estate.
After tallying the scores, the winning team was comprised of four FIU Business students.
Lobarkhon “Lola” Uktamboeva, Aracely Saenz, Christy Manzueta and Serena Atlan dissected the rise and fall of crypto exchange FTX. They won $1,000 for the student organization of their choice - Women in Finance, a new sub-group the Financial Management Association.
First place winners Serena Atlan, Lobarkhon Uktamboeva, Aracely Saenz and Christy Manzueta.
While the topic of cryptocurrency may have been new to some of the team members, they worked together to deliver a visually compelling presentation that mapped out the risks and potential mitigating tactics to avoid a similar collapse from happening again.
Each competing group had 15 minutes to present their case including a strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis and their recommendations to the panel of five judges. Two FIU Business alumni were on the panel, including former FIU Board of Trustees member and president of the Alumni Association, Gerald Grant Jr. (BBA ’78, MSF ’89).
The goal, he noted, is to “share our knowledge with the future graduates of FIU” and he encourages other alumni to participate in these types of events.
“Do it for the first time, and you see the difference or the impact that you're making with the students, and if you like the results, you will come back,” said Grant. “And if you don't like the results, that's even more reason to come back.”
Allan Pries (MSF ’13), vice president at BayBridge Capital Advisors, explained that students have a lot to gain from these experiences and hopes they understand the power of clear communication is just as important as their expertise on the subject matter.
“They're going to gain the knowledge and the experience of presenting in front of people, which in the COVID-19 era I think got kind of watered down and was affected,” said Pries. “I think a lot of students now kind of struggle with in-person and presenting in front of people.”
It was the first case competition for three of the winners; only one had previously participated in a similar exercise.
“The other three of us, this was such an amazing learning opportunity,” said Atlan. “We just went into study mode and locked down, listened to podcasts, read tons of articles, had constant zoom discussions, and then we dedicated a ton of time to practicing our public speaking, and videotaping ourselves and rewatching it.”