A team of students from Marquette University won the 2011 ACG Cup, held on Feb. 19th at the Milwaukee Athletic Club. The event, presented by the Wisconsin chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth, is a business exercise, based on a private equity investment transaction, where MBA and MS accounting students are asked to scrutinize and evaluate potential business acquisitions.
Members of the winning team, David Blong, Darren Dewing, Brad Hutjens and Tara Stewart, will share the $5,000 first-place prize. Teams from UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee were awarded $1,500 as runners up in the event
This was the third year that the event was held. Each participating university holds preliminary competitions on its campus and selects a team to compete in the finals. The preliminary competitions were held in December and January.
ACG members help coach teams from each participating university – other members also judge the event.
Chris Nolte, vice president at Marcus Investments LLC and an ACG member who has been highly involved with the creation and development of the cup, said previously that the event is important not only for the learning opportunities that financial students gain, but also the connections they can make with working professionals through the program.
“It creates a touch-point for people that realize they would enjoy the industry,” he said. “And having that touch-point to one or several people in the industry can help them participate or get into the industry. M&A jobs are highly sought after and you almost always need some sort of sponsor.”
For more information about the program, visit www.acg.org/wisconsin/events/acgcup.aspx.
