Students in the News

Jones School Students Take Honors

Students from the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management are making their mark, winning honors at an investment strategy conference and at a finance case competition.

Four second-year students of the Jones School scored a win at the 2004 Redefining Investment Strategy Education (RISE) Symposium with the performance of their student-managed investment portfolio. The M.A. Wright Fund won the “blend” category with the highest risk-adjusted return for 2003 at the fourth annual RISE Symposium, the largest student investment conference in North America, held in April in Dayton, Ohio.

The Rice team competed against teams from about 100 other universities for the top honors in one of four investment management-style categories: value, growth, blend, and hybrid (portfolios that are allowed to sell securities short). Using a combination of equities and fixed-income securities, the Wright Fund reported a 2003 return of 18.10 percent, or 8.72 percent on a risk-adjusted basis (annual return/monthly standard deviation).

Representing the Jones School’s Wright Fund team were Jeff Kirkham, the fund’s chief operating officer; Adam Michael, chief investment officer; Brian Quattrucci, chief operating officer; Antonio Zuniga, a fall 2003 winner of the “Best Wright Fund Team” award; and Jill Foote, lecturer in management and faculty adviser to the Wright Fund. This is the second time in four years the Wright Fund has won top honors at RISE. A Rice team won at the 2001 inaugural conference.

Modeled after the World Economic Forum, RISE connects investment students and faculty with Wall Street professionals in interactive discussions. It is co-sponsored by the New York Stock Exchange, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Deutsche Asset Management, and the University of Dayton School of Business Administration.

Another team of four Jones School students earned honors in April with its second-place win at the Rolanette and Berdon Lawrence Finance Case Competition held at the Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. The Harvard Business School case covered a merger and acquisition situation and asset purchase agreement. Teams were given five hours to work it, followed by a 30-minute presentation and question-and-answer session.

The Rice MBA team—Dilip Bhojwani, Jon Donnel, Jorge Murillo, and Tanay Shah—won the $3,000 prize, the second consecutive year for a Rice team to do so.