Each year, Nicholas Center students compete in the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Cup case competition which challenges students from WI’s top MBA programs in a realistic private equity and investment banking case study competition. Teams present their recommendations on a complex business case that requires a combination of corporate strategy, finance and valuation skills and provides an opportunity to gain presentation experience in front of M&A leaders from members of ACG Wisconsin. This year, the team was tasked to present to a Board of Directors at a Private Equity Firm and make strategic recommendations on a portfolio company (a beverage company) on whether they should accept an offer to sell the company or pursue a different path. The students leveraged valuation models and strategic analysis to support their sell price and strategic options.
On March 21st, teams from the Wisconsin School of Business competed in Grainger Hall and the Round 1 winners consisted of MBA students Connor Mann and Shokhrukh Shodiev, along with BBA students Samuel Stelling, and Olivia Barfnecht. ACG judges traveled to Madison to observe and judge the competition and members of the panel included: Christine Adee, CEO at OwnersEdge, Inc, Megan Brobson, Vice President at Borgman Capital, Thomas Gregg, Team Lead, Investment Operations at SWIB, and Carlos Sava, Principal-CFO at ProCFO Parters.
On April 10th, our Round 1 winning team advanced to the final round and competed against teams from Marquette and UW Milwaukee at Northwestern Mutual corporate headquarters. After an exceptional presentation, our Wisconsin team was awarded first place and was presented with the coveted ACG Cup Trophy and prize money, totaling $4,000!!
We’re grateful for their team mentors Bart Blohowiak, Director of Commercial Operations at Fisher Barton and Jeanine (Bartoli) Ubl, SVP of Finance at Evans Transportation Services who provided the team with mentorship and guidance. The final round competition was judged by Mike Wirth, Managing Partner at Copper Truss Capital Partners, Christi Kubiak, Managing Director, Public Investments at Northwestern Mutual, and Ryan Chimenti, Managing Director at CIBC.
We were fortunate to have Hannah Rowe, David Henke, and Tracy Greymont organizing and sponsoring the competition, which was an extremely rewarding and positive experience for everyone.
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