Student and Program Highlights
KPMG International Case Competition After the inaugural debut of the KPMG International Case Competition (KICC) in 2010, KICC was back in November 2011 with twice the participation. A total of 17 student teams competed in the business case competition, having only 48 hours to prepare a presentation to a panel of judges. The winning team, Bucky on Equity—comprised of Jordan Heginbottom, Andrea Nichols, Hannah Sugars, and Matthew Zimdars—advanced to the Western Region Semi-Finals in San Francisco. Having just three hours to analyze a complex business case and present recommendations to a panel of KPMG partners, Bucky on Equity secured a victory in San Francisco. Bucky on Equity continued their impressive performance in the case competition by emerging as the winner in the U.S. finals in New York, beating out teams from Penn State, Wake Forest, and Miami University of Ohio. The team advanced to the international component of this case competition in April 2012 in Hong Kong to represent the United States while competing against 25 other teams from around the world. While a team representing Hong Kong came away with a victory in their home city, Bucky on Equity represented the United States well in the global competition. The students enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime experience and enhanced their analytical and agile-thinking skills, an experience that will benefit them as they enter the professional world after graduation.
Deloitte Case Study Competition
PwC Extreme Tax
On Friday, November 18, 2011, Deloitte hosted a case competition in which 18 accounting students presented the results of their research and analysis of Deloitte Trueblood Cases. A Deloitte professional and a faculty member advised each student group. A judging panel comprised of Deloitte partners Kevin Ringel and Brian Mallaro and Professor Larry Rittenberg selected a group consisting of students Xiaolin Bi, Kan Dong, Mengwen Jiang, DaeHo Shin, and Zhenyi Xia as the winning team. Each member of the group won a flip camera.
Led by Senior Lecturer Al Talarczyk, 25 students competed in PwC’s Extreme Tax (xTAX) competition. Competing in teams of five, students were presented with an actual tax issue and had to use teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving skills to develop a solution. Teams presented their solution via video to local judges, who then send a local winner to a competition at the national level. Despite already earning three national championship titles, the University of Wisconsin-Madison was not selected as a representative in the 2012 national competition. Al is excited to bring students together again this fall and bring the trophy back to Wisconsin!
This is the eighth year that the Andersen Center has worked with Deloitte on this program, and it is a unique opportunity for applied learning, providing students the chance to work on real-world accounting issues with accounting professionals. Thank you to all who participated in this case competition, including faculty advisors Gary Hecht, Kristen Fuhremann (BBA ’99, MAcc ‘00), Brian Mayhew (BBA ’89), and R.D. Nair, as well as Deloitte advisors Teddy Wegner (BBA ’05, MAcc ‘06), Adam Christianson, Kevin Scheibel (BBA ’05, MAcc ‘06), Kyle Bab, and Linards Strauss.
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