Graduate students earn podium place at PRMIA Risk Management Challenge finals

The Beedie School of Business 2016 PRMIA Risk Management Challenge at the CME Group Chicago office. From left to right: Mahad Farrukh, Ai Zhang, Chang (Emma) Liu, and Salvatore Moustakas.

A team of MSc in Finance students captured the silver medal at the prestigious Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA) Risk Management Challenge finals.

The PRMIA Risk Management Challenge is an annual case competition that provides undergraduate and graduate students from multiple disciplines in the UK, US, Ireland and Canada with the opportunity to solve real-world risk management-focused business problems.

After winning their regional competition in February to qualify, Mahad Farrukh, Chang (Emma) Liu, Salvatore Moustakas, and Ai Zhang fought against seven other teams from schools in Canada, Germany, Russia, and the US in the global round, held in Chicago on March 11.

Coached by Beedie instructors Tara Immell and Derek Yee, the team spent three weeks preparing their case. Initially meeting three times in the first week, the students’ preparation became more intense as the competition approached, ultimately spending some eight to ten hours a day preparing their case in the week prior to the competition.

“The case was very multi dimensional – initially we dived in but with the help of our coaches we reshaped our strategy to make a complex problem more simple,” said Farrukh. “Derek helped us with the direction of our case, while Tara focused on our presentation skills. She was also helpful in connecting us with experts, and pushed us to present to as many people as possible in order to practice.”

After presenting their case to a panel of judges from industry and academia the team were chosen as runners-up, placing them above some 97 other teams who had competed in the challenge from the first round.

“The case we were faced with was related to the skills we had learned in our MSc in Finance program, but delved into deeper levels than we had experienced before,” said Liu. “The case required us to focus on the more complex tools within the finance industry, and to identify which angles we wanted to dig deeper into.”

During their trip to Chicago the Beedie team was treated to a tour of the trading floor of the CME Group, the largest mercantile exchange network in the world.

For more information on the PRMIA Risk Management Challenge, visit www.prmia.org/prmia-risk-management-challenge