Freeman team takes top prize at Wall St. Training Valuation Competition

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Four Freeman School Master of Finance students beat out teams from more than 25 universities to take home the top honors at the inaugural Wall St. Training Valuation Competition. The contest, sponsored by Wall St. Training, a provider of training programs for finance professionals, took place in New York on Feb. 3.

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Hamilton Lin, left, CEO of Wall St. Training, with the winning Freeman School team. From left to right, Bo Yuan, Bohua Liu, Feifan Qiang and Luo Xue. (Photo by Craig Williston/Qool Foto.)

In winning the competition, the Freeman School team—Bo Yuan (MFIN ’12), Bohua Liu (MFIN ’12), Feifan Qiang (MFIN ’12) and Luo Xue (MFIN ’12)—edged out finalists from Princeton, Rutgers and the University of San Francisco to earn a $1,000 cash prize.

“The whole experience was very exciting,” said Yuan.  “Our analysis required in-depth knowledge in a particular industry, so the classes we took at Tulane were incredibly helpful. I think they gave us an advantage.”

The Freeman School team won the competition with an analysis and valuation of Chesapeake Energy Corp., a company they’d first studied as part of the Freeman School course Energy Markets, Institutions and Policy.

Making the team’s accomplishment that much more impressive is its circumstances: Three of the four students were members of the Freeman School’s Zhejiang Advanced Placement Program (ZAPP), a 12-month dual education program with China’s Zhejiang University that enables students to earn a master’s degree from Tulane in conjunction with their honors program curriculum from Zhejiang.

The students entered the competition last fall when they were attending classes together in New Orleans, but by the time they learned they were finalists, the ZAPP students had finished their residency in New Orleans and team members were scattered across two continents with a daunting 12-hour time difference separating them. Undeterred, the students collaborated online, fine-tuning their analysis and practicing their final presentation via Skype and other Internet resources.

“We’ve always known that the students in our joint master’s program with Zhejiang University are among the very best in the world,” said Ira Solomon, dean of the Freeman School. “The ability of these students to work together and succeed despite significant obstacles speaks volumes about their knowledge, dedication and spirit. I congratulate them on this outstanding achievement.”