The first-ever Irvine Investment and Trading Group Stock Pitch Challenge featured Cal State Fullerton College of Business and Economics’ Titan Capital Management finance students Mateo Garcia and Kishan Patel taking the top spot. The event featured 33 teams of investment-focused students from 17 schools in Southern California and across North America, including teams from Duke University and USC. A UCLA team took second place, with UC Davis coming in third.
The Titan Capital Management students only learned of the event in late February. They submitted a pitch deck, models and a recorded 10-minute presentation by late March, becoming one of the 20 teams that made it to the finals. The teams pitched to industry judges as one of six student cohorts, with only three teams advancing to the finals. Garcia and Patel earned a $3,000 combined first-place award. Industry judges were from such well-known financial firms as Bank of America, Fidelity and Apollo, providing invaluable expertise and insights to the contestants.
“The win is a credit to our students,” said Kelly Ko, director of the equity branch of Titan Capital Management and lecturer in finance. “The professors like me mentor and teach, but the students do the work and execute it. This shows the character, the humility and the skill set they have.”
Read more about the competition in this CSUF Business News article.