Home » Featured Events » The “Bronx Bankers” take first place in the PRMIA Challenge

The “Bronx Bankers” take first place in the PRMIA Challenge

Featured Events | Feb 14, 2014 |

photo-1Finance majors Blake Rodriguez (GSB ’15), Neal Sukhia (GSB ’15), Chris McCloskey (GSB ’15) and Stephen Hearn (GSB ’15) — also known as the Bronx Bankers — beat 30 teams from universities such as Yale and Princeton when they placed first in the Professional Risk Managers International Association (PRMIA) Risk Management Challenge regional finals in January.

It was a sweep for Fordham GSB and GBA students who took first, second and third place in the competition. As first-place winners, the Bronx Bankers earned one of seven spots in the international finals in Toronto on February 28, where they’ll compete for a cash prize of $9,100.

Their competition will come from Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Ireland and London — the other cities, besides New York, that have a local PRMIA chapter.

What is the Risk Management Challenge? It’s a hands-on business challenge, not unlike the ones that our marketing students compete in through Target, or the case study contests that accounting students test their skills in via the Big Four.

But this one is ideally suited to our alternative investments students.

The Kellogg School of Management provided the challenge’s case study to simulate current, real-life risk management issues. The participants — undergraduate and graduate students from Europe, Canada and the United States — came away with practical experience in financial services and management consulting.

Credit Suisse hosted the New York Chapter finals on January 25 in New York.

The Gabelli School team was one of 11 teams chosen for the finals, based on its recommendation for how to handle a financial firm’s Long Term Care product. There, they faced off against MBA students, doctoral candidates and other undergrads.

As the international challenge approaches, “we’re staying optimistic but realize it will take a strong collaborative effort to top the teams at Toronto,” Stephen Hearn said. “As an all-undergraduate team, we face stiff competition.”

Worldwide, 91 teams representing 38 schools entered the competition, and 30 were from New York.

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