UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

UCLA Anderson Launches New Online Journal Spotlighting Current Research

Across disciplines, UCLA Anderson’s faculty enhance the school’s relevance through cutting-edge research that is highly applicable to the economy, business and the wider world. The weekly UCLA Anderson Review chronicles for a broader audience the research our faculty publish in leading academic journals.

UCLA Anderson Review launched with articles examining retirement savings, including Americans’ aversion to annuities and the hot topic of decumulation — illustrating how, under a single roof at Anderson, faculty members are individually and collectively expanding understanding of how to solve one of the country’s biggest financial and societal problems.

The Review joins other leading graduate business school publications in making available to a global audience of business leaders, fellow academic researchers, policymakers and others the substantial intellectual capital UCLA Anderson possesses and adds to each day.

UCLA Anderson Master of Financial Engineering Commencement Features Record Number of Graduates

By Paul Feinberg

The Class of 2017 is the ninth graduating class in the history of UCLA Anderson’s Master of Financial Engineering program. But the class also represents a first — as in, the first time two cohorts of students graduated from the program at the same time. The 78 students (from 18 countries) who earned their degree set a record number, collectively embodying the growth of the program since its inception and the strength and relevance of the Anderson MFE degree.

UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian addressed the graduates and assembled guests at what is always one of the most familial gatherings on the UCLA Anderson calendar. She reminded the graduates that although their understanding of the technical side of finance is important, their work is as much art as it is science. As part of a select group whose decisions might ultimately impact financial markets, Olian made it a point to remind the graduates that their work comes with significant responsibility.

“You have the values and now the tools to make a decision, and with humility,” Olian said. “You’re blessed with many gifts and extraordinary talents — otherwise, you wouldn’t be at Anderson.”

UCLA Anderson Economic Forecast, from Low-Volatility Stocks to the Bitcoin Bubble

By Margaret Bliss and John Bugajski

The December 2017 UCLA Anderson Forecast took on a sobering if realistic tone when panelists addressed the financial market outlook for the United States. Guests Christopher Harvey (head of equity strategy at Wells Fargo Securities), Christopher Schwarz (associate professor of finance at UCI Paul Merage School of Business), Ivo Welch (J. Fred Weston Chair in Finance at UCLA Anderson) and Harlan B. Spinner (senior vice president of UBS Private Wealth Management) agreed that one should be wary when predicting the future growth of the GDP and where to invest.

When asked about the stock market’s current exuberance and its future growth, Schwarz disclosed, “The multiple is very high, a historic high. Is it irrational? It is difficult to say while we are sitting up here, but it is not an incredibly crazy number like it was in 1999 … Going forward I think mid-to-single-digit stock market growth is reasonable.” Schwarz anticipates a 5 to 6 percent GDP growth rate over a five-year span.

Inaugural Fink Center Credit Pitch Competition Affords a Real-World Fixed Income Challenge

 

UCLA Anderson EMBA students Phil Meng and Nick Heard were recognized for Most Improved Portfolio by a panel of UCLA Anderson alumni judges

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By Danwei Chen

In fall of 2016, John Bay (’17) approached UCLA Anderson’s Fink Center for Finance & Investments with a novel idea. Having worked on the student committee for the annual Fink Center Stock Pitch Competition, he wondered why no such competition existed for fixed income. He expressed his plan for a competition that would embody both a portfolio competition over a span of time, as well as a bond pitch component that would be identical to the way stock pitches are conducted. After months of development with the Fink Center and recruiting co-founders Paige Kolesar (’17) and Charles McMahon (’17), as well as co-director Joseph Chiu (’18), the first MBA-level credit pitch competition was launched.

The students invited top MBA schools from across the nation to participate in a 12-week portfolio competition capped by a bond pitch competition at UCLA. With a three-month time horizon and $100,000 of “paper money” to invest, teams submitted an original portfolio of up to 10 bonds and were permitted to make 20 trades over the course of the competition. Teams operated anonymously and were each given a Greek letter team name.

UCLA Anderson Team Finds a Prize-Winning Solution to the Biggest Problem in Clean Energy

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

Renewable energy is one of the world’s fastest-growing business sectors. In California, the statewide goal written into law in 2015 is to generate 50 percent of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2030. A more recent bill was introduced to increase the goal to 60 percent. The industry is said to employ hundreds of thousands of people.

But while wind, solar and other clean energy sources may be sustainable, accessing and financing them sustainably remains a challenge. This is why a UCLA Anderson team of MBA students won the first place $10,000 prize in the prestigious NRG Energy Case Study challenge hosted by the Economist’s Which MBA? Ean Mulligan (’17), Vishal Saheta (FEMBA ’17) and Julian Trobe (’18) solved the biggest pain point for their proposed client with an innovative financing model that breaks down silos between universities and commercial third parties.

Disney CFO Christine McCarthy Proved a “Risk” that Paid Off

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

In the late 1970s, Christine McCarthy (’81) was preparing to leave a career in banking for a Ph.D. in biology. Or so she thought: Following the death of her father, someone planted the idea that she should pursue an MBA for greater earning power than she could expect in academe — particularly in the male-dominated sciences. Vacillating between living on the East Coast or the West Coast and on the basis that “sometimes you just have to make it up as you go along,” McCarthy enrolled at UCLA Anderson to earn her MBA.

Not that business was exactly welcoming to women executives: but if McCarthy has ever regretted her choice, she need only consult her own resume for proof that glass ceilings were no impediment. Once the youngest EVP at First Interstate Bank, the self-described “accidental MBA” is also the Walt Disney Company’s first female CFO, a role she assumed in 2015 after five years with the company, where she started as treasurer.

McCarthy, whose distinctions include the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2016 Executive of the Year award, visited UCLA Anderson as the first spring 2017 guest in the Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series. Her appearance coincided with Anderson’s annual Impact Week in part because Disney as a company has made a commitment to social and environmental responsibility, and McCarthy oversees its corporate citizenship — with positive results over the last six years that parallel Disney’s financial success. Among UCLA Anderson’s long-term strategic goals is to elevate the school’s social mission, and conscious, connected leaders set the standard for the MBAs who follow their examples.

McCarthy’s personal impact also resonates because UCLA Anderson is dedicated to greater inclusion and equity. She told the audience that Disney chair and CEO Bob Iger “took a risk” appointing her to the C-suite, suggesting that a high-profile enterprise is still likelier to be scrutinized more closely for breaking with a conventional organizational chart. “You have to have a rapport with the entire executive management team,” she said, “and a complete, consistent dialogue with the board,” all of whom will be expecting more from someone representing a “first” like McCarthy does.

UCLA Anderson Defends the ACG Cup Title in an Unprecedented Consecutive Win

By Ole Bjoernstad (’17)

Expectations were high when Jeremy Mau (’17) and I decided to enter the 2017 ACG Cup to defend the title for UCLA Anderson: In 2016 Jeremy and UCLA Anderson classmates David Shin (’17) and Kyle Patterson (’17) claimed the hard-won prize. With my teammate determined to win the cup back-to-back — which has never been done before — and having interned with the competition’s main sponsor, Houlihan Lokey, I knew there could be no slip-ups or hesitation if we wanted to bring the cup back home.

The Association for Corporate Growth’s Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego chapters hosted the best teams from 12 schools in this annual investment banking and private equity competition. After two weeks of thorough analysis, heated discussions and multiple all-nighters, Jeremy and I went into the final rounds prepared and confident. Our training at top-tier investment banks over the summer (Jeremy’s at Lincoln International and mine at Houlihan Lokey) gave us the confidence and stamina to keep going into the wee hours of the morning. Our hard work paid off, and we took home the grand prize of $8,000 and the right to retain the coveted ACG Cup trophy for another year.

ACG is the global community for middle market M&A dealmakers and business leaders focused on driving growth. The ACG Cup is a case study competition designed to give students from leading MBA programs across the country real-world experience and insights into mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, financial advisory and private equity. The intra-school competition at Anderson this year was tough, to say the least: The teams consisted of veteran and future investment banking professionals, all eager and able to represent UCLA Anderson in the highest capacity. In the end, we won the round and were selected to represent our school at the regional championship at Chapman University. Our crosstown rivals at USC were gunning to reclaim the trophy, which kept our competitive spirits going.

Team Building and Investing Acumen Won UCLA Anderson Students First Place in the 2017 Fink Stock Pitch

UCLA Anderson’s Justin Phillips (’18) (left) and Jarrid Johnston (FEMBA ’19) of team J^2 Capital won the 2017 Fink Stock Pitch Competition, with teams from UVA Darden School of Business and Stanford Graduate School of Business placing second and third, respectively. Phillips, an equity research analyst, described the rush of competing — and prevailing — in the seventh annual stock pitch.

Watch the day unfold in photos!

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By Justin Phillips (’18)

After answering the Fink Center’s annual call for resumes and statements of purpose, I was proud to learn that I had been selected to represent UCLA in the 2017 Fink Center Stock Pitch Competition. I soon learned that I would be partnered with Jarrid Johnston, a first-year FEMBA student, whom I’d never even met. And after a few brief calls, I could tell that Jarrid really knew his stuff. He is an investment professional with expertise in financial modeling and experience in public and private equities analysis. We called our team J^2 Capital because both our names start with the 10th letter of the alphabet.

We would have a week to prepare our first-round pitch options. On a Friday morning, we received our investment universe, scrutinizing the securities list of popular equities like Tesla, NVIDIA and Amazon. Given the one-year investment horizon, we decided to pitch Health Equity (HQY) as a long because of its sustainable, scalable business model and an accommodative regulatory environment. We each conducted our own investigations on the name by vetting the recent quarterly and annual reports, conference calls, investor days and sell-side research. After a few days, we came together and built out our investment thesis and valuation. Balancing the stock pitch with the rigors of first-year MBA coursework proved to be a challenging but rewarding experience.

UCLA Anderson MBA Students Win Seventh Annual Stock Pitch Competition

Fink Center executive director Jose Plehn-Dujowich (left) congratulates Justin Phillips (center) and Jarrid Johnston of UCLA Anderson team J^2 Capital on taking first place in the seventh annual Fink Center Stock Pitch Competition

Watch the day unfold in photos!

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By Isha Patel

On Friday, February 10, MBA students from 12 invited institutions gathered at the UCLA Anderson School of Management to compete in the seventh annual Fink Center Stock Pitch Competition. The event, hosted by the Laurence and Lori Fink Center for Finance & Investments, included teams from business schools across the nation:

• Columbia Business School
• Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management
• Ivey Business School, Western University
• NYU Stern School of Business
• Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management
• Stanford Graduate School of Business
• Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University
• Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth
• UCLA Anderson School of Management
• University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• USC Marshall School of Business
• UVA Darden School of Business

All teams participated in the first round, when they pitched real stocks to a panel of experienced judges. After the first round, the judges deliberated and chose the top three finalists to move onto the final round of pitches. Throughout the entire competition, judges were unaware of the teams’ school affiliations.

An Impressive Collective Resume: UCLA Anderson MFE Class of 2016

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

If the audience that attended the UCLA Anderson Master of Financial Engineering commencement ceremony seemed small, it’s in part because the 64 graduates in the Class of 2016 represent 19 different countries —so, many of them are far away from the family, friends and colleagues forming their wider circle of support. To that end, the ceremony is webcast so people overseas can watch in real time.

Tad Rivelle (MBA ’90), TCW’s group managing director and chief investment officer – fixed income, was invited to address the Class of 2016. Finance, he said, is “a market-based coordinated effort” that serves as the “brains of capitalism.” He reminded the newly-minted quants that “markets are a reflection of ourselves, both rational and irrational,” and finance is “not a game you play with other people’s money.” Rivelle is among the most accomplished investment managers to graduate from UCLA Anderson.