Three Warrington students place at Virginia Undergraduate Investment Conference
Heavener School of Business students Kelly Bersch (BSBA ‘25), Nathan Marshall (BSBA ‘25) and Ethan Poliner (BSBA ‘25) recently placed second at the Virginia Undergraduate Investment Conference.
The Virginia Undergraduate Investment Conference was held for its second year at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce. Students were required to pitch an equity to a panel of judges for a chance to win $2,000 for first place, $1,000 for second place or $500 for third place.
Bersch, Marshall and Poliner spent their spring semester refining their investment thesis in preparation for the conference. “We created a pitch deck and financial model to aid in the explanation of our thesis and valuation,” said Bersch. “We prepared by learning everything we could about Doximity, so we could confidently and accurately answer any questions the judges had.”
The investment conference promoted interaction between participants and some of the most experienced professionals in the financial services industry with judges, panelists and keynote speakers from a variety of funds.
“This experience was critical in sharpening both our technical skill set and presentation capabilities,” Marshall explained. “Presenting a cohesive pitch required thinking about the best way to structure our pitch and communicate with judges, which was a great learning experience. We also received feedback from judges at the competition that we will certainly apply to future investment processes.”
Conference rules stipulated a minimum market capitalization of $500 million and expected teams to touch on such subjects as business overview, industry overview and market misperception.
“Given the complexities of value investing, we believe this experience will serve as a valuable reference point to base our future investment ideas on,” said Poliner. “The speakers and investor panels at the event were fantastic and offered interesting viewpoints for us to explore further.”
