Mizzou team wins the St. Louis Regional CFA Institute Research Challenge

Two Crosby MBA candidates, Dylan Jungels and John Milligan, represented MU alongside an undergraduate economics student Tristan Young in the CFA Institute Research Challenge. The trio won first place in the St. Louis region and will compete this week in Chicago for the Americas Division, where two winners will be selected to compete globally.

“I was excited to have an opportunity to take everything I’ve learned in regards to financial analysis and valuation and have a chance to compete,” Milligan said. “It was excellent for networking too.”

Milligan said half of his personal success on the team came from being a part of the Chartered Financial Analyst Program and the other half came from passionate faculty members at the Trulaske College of Business. He highlighted John Stansfield, Director of the CFA Partner Program, as well as Michael O’Doherty, Faculty advisor for the CFA Institute Research Challenge, and Andy Kern as professors that have played an instrumental role in mentoring him and furthering his finance career.

The team was judged half on the report, which was developed over roughly three months and half on presentation.

“We won across the board on both presentation and report,” Milligan said, explaining that one judge complimented the team, saying she gave them the highest score of her entire career as a CFA Institute Research Challenge judge.

Two judges awarded the team 98/100.

“I hope that this gets people – current students, potential students and employers – to realize the quality of our finance and investments curriculum at Mizzou and see the caliber of student that it creates,” Jungels said.

Their initial strong showing in the first round will put the team in a favorable position during the multi-national Americas round – teams cannot change their reports.

“I like that nobody can edit,” Milligan said. “There was a great deal of work put into this, and there’s still things I would change.”

However, the team will be allowed to improve their presentation.

“I think we wrote a great report, and we will be working all through Spring Break to improve our presentation,” Jungels said. “I think we have a shot at going even further.”