SFU Business hosts first annual Finance International Case Competition

In its first year, the Finance International Case Competition (FICC) hosted its top twelve teams from November 12-13, 2010, with the preliminary round at Harbour Centre followed by finals at Segal Graduate School of Business. The judging panel, including representatives from corporate partners from CIBC, GE Capital and CGA, awarded third place to the University of Hawaii at Manoa, second to Edwards School of Business (Saskatchewan) and first to Queen’s School of Business.

The top twelve out of twenty six qualifying round teams represented Canada, the United States, Asia and Europe. Competitors became friends at social events at the Coast Coal Harbour, but proved to be fierce foes during the competition. Having already beaten out fourteen other written case electronic submissions in the October qualifying round, the dozen trios of dynamic individuals impressed judges with the caliber of their presentations, particularly their depth and breadth of analysis for a mere three-hour case deliberation period.

Founder Jorge Cruz Lopez (an SFU BBA, MBA and ph.D in Finance candidate) wanted to create a win-win recruitment platform for finance. By April 2010, Lopez had garnered the support of SFU’s Faculty of Business Administration and financial backing from the Student Affairs Office. FICC’s objective is to identify motivated individuals that can apply their knowledge to issues in the financial industry. The structure of the competition provides an outlet for students to present their innovative ideas to leading financial professionals and a platform for businesses to interact with and potentially identify exceptional job candidates.

To ensure FICC would be well established within its first edition, Lopez enlisted Irina Nica, Sahar Sharafzadeh and Pam Hernandez, a group of students in their final year at SFU Business with past organizing committee experience. He stated he is “convinced that FICC was a success. Thanks to SFU Business, our corporate partners and the endless effort of the Organizing Committee and volunteers, we were able to meet or even exceed our expectations. In addition, the feedback that we have received from participants and professionals has been very positive, so I really look forward to next year’s event.”

FICC is the only Canadian undergraduate case competition of its size solely focused in the field of Finance, and is already preparing for next year’s competitors. For more information on FICC, click here.

2010 Top 12 Finalists:

• Babson College
• Edwards School of Business – University of Saskatchewan
• Jon M. Hutsman School of Business – Utah State University
• Mount Royal University
• Queen’s School of Business – Queen’s University
• Simon Fraser University
• Singapore Management University
• University of Hawaii at Manoa
• Universite Laval
• Universidad de Navarra
• University of New Brunswick
• University of Waterloo