GBA Students, Faculty and Administration celebrated the win by closing the bell at NASDAQ on March 1. Photo by Syd Steinhardt

Graduate students Jonathan Ball, Alex Lik Hang Ng, Thomas Messineo and Ravi Misra made up the four-person squad that defeated teams from 15 schools, including Cornell, Yale, Columbia and Rutgers universities. They were assisted by John Hunter, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor of finance and economics, and industry mentor Thomas Galvin.

Fordham will compete against teams from around the world next month at the CFA Institute Global Investment Research Challenge in Hong Kong.

“This is the second time during the eight year annual competition that Fordham’s team has won, an exceptionally high batting average considering that sixteen or more teams compete each year,” said Robert F. Himmelberg, Ph.D., interim dean of GBA. “The team members themselves, their experiences as they prepared for the competition, tell us a good deal about the Fordham’s Graduate School of Business Administration. They are students from diverse national backgrounds and they worked together harmoniously and cooperatively to achieve results and succeeded.  They are quick to acknowledge the value of the tools and methodologies they have received at the hands of the faculty of our Finance Department. That they have developed a strong sense of commitment to excellence as GBA students is evident from the determination they have shown as they have won out over the efforts of a very talented roster of competitors to surpass them.”

Hosted by the NYSSA, the Investment Research Challenge is an educational initiative in which leading industry professionals teach business and finance students how to research and report on a publicly traded company. The contest spans one academic year and consists of the following components:

• training in research and report writing;
• mentoring by a professional research analyst;
• assessment of written reports;
• and presentation of research to a panel of Wall Street experts.

The four finalist teams—Fordham, Cornell, Rutgers and Stony Brook—presented their research to a panel of Wall Street experts on Feb. 25. The Fordham team was chosen as the winner based on the combined scores for the written report and the presentation.

As part of their victory, the Fordham team members had the honor of ringing the closing bell at NASDAQ on March 1.

Himmelberg’s academic and administrative leadership at Fordham spans nearly five decades. This includes service as a faculty member and chair of the history department, and as a member and president of the faculty senate.

His further experience includes tenures as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; interim dean of the faculty of business and the Graduate School of Business; and interim dean of the arts and sciences faculty.

He has been a moving force in planning and implementing the transition to a 3-2 course load; in working with academic departments to articulate and develop strategic plans; and in identifying and hiring an outstanding complement of new faculty, said Stephen Freedman, Ph.D., Fordham’s senior vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer.

Himmelberg earned his bachelor’s degree from Rockhurst College, his master’s degree from Creighton University and his doctorate in history from Pennsylvania State University. He has authored and edited numerous books and articles in his field, most recently The Great Depression and the New Deal(Greenwood Press, 2000).