Mendoza School of Business

Notre Dame MBA takes first place in finance competition

Published: November 17, 2011 / Author: Carol Elliott



A team of Notre Dame MBA students won the inaugural Fuqua
Finance Case Competition with its proposed solution for valuing an
international satellite telecommunications company verging on bankruptcy.

Zachary Schneider (’13), Michelle Purvis ( ’13), John
Vicente ( ’13) and David Young ( ’12) traveled to Duke University for the Nov.
11-12 event to compete against four other teams: the Stockholm School of
Economics, George Washington University, and two teams from the Fuqua School of
Business.

The case consisted of two rounds, with Notre Dame and the
two Fuqua teams advancing to the second and final rounds. The judging panel
consisted of investment bankers from Suntrust Robinson Humphrey’s media and telecommunications
group as well as R.W. Baird’s technology, media, and telecommunications group.
Bank of America sponsored the competition, along with Suntrust and R.W. Baird.

The winning team took home a cash prize of $5,000.

“We believe we won because we focused not just on the
numbers, but also on the qualitative aspects of the case,” said Young.  “We also stayed cohesive as a team during the
stress of the competition, even though we had to create an entirely new presentation
in under two hours between the first and second rounds.”

The case asked teams to explain how the near-bankrupt
telecom should be valued, and to justify their explanation.  They also had to pinpoint areas of failure in
corporate governance and recommend strategies going forward in how to mitigate
such failures in the future.

The Notre Dame team took a two-pronged approach that focused
on stakeholder theory and what dictates good corporate governance, as well as a
multiples analysis of comparable companies that trade in the public markets.

The Notre Dame MBA at the Mendoza College of Business
enrolls approximately 340 students annually in its one-year and two-year
programs. The program is designed to sharpen students’ analytical and
problem-solving skills, enhance their leadership ability and increase emphasis
on ethical decision making. Students have the opportunity to study the
complexities of global business through international immersions in Asia, Latin
America and other locations.

During the week-long Interterm Intensives, the MBA students
analyze, investigate and offer solutions for real-life problems presented by
executives from large global organizations. The Notre Dame MBA is ranked No. 4
on the Aspen Institute’s “Beyond Grey Pinstripes” survey and 24th among U.S.
business schools by Bloomberg Businessweek.

For more information about the Notre Dame MBA, contact Brian Lohr,
Director of Admissions, at (574) 631-8488 or Lohr.1@nd.edu,
or visit business.nd.edu/mba.

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