CASE COMPETITIONS
Each year students have the opportunity to compete in case competitions, where they’re able to polish their analytical, teamwork, research, and presentation skills, network with professionals, and get a feel for the issues they will face upon entering the profession. Our students performed well in several competitions, including the PwC Extreme Tax competition, KPMG International Case Competition, and the Deloitte Audit Case Competition, and had notable finishes in the NABA National Case Competition and Deloitte FanTAXtic Case Competition.
NABA JUNE 2014 NATIONAL CASE COMPETITION A group of UW–Madison pre-business students took second place in the 2014 KPMG/NABA Case Study Competition at the national conference of the National Association of Black Accountants in Washington, D.C. The team, comprised of freshmen Risharda Bond, Noro Datiri, and Alex Esuoso as well as sophomore Lauren Wundrock, was the first from UW–Madison to participate in the competition.
(L to R) Alex Esuoso, Risharda Bond, Kristen Fuhremann, Lauren Wundrock, and Noro Datiri celebrate the team’s second-place finish
“This group of students came together as a true team and delivered a compelling and creative solution to a very complex case,” said Kristen Fuhremann, the students’ faculty advisor. “They demonstrated poise and professionalism in their delivery and overall represented the University of Wisconsin in a very positive way.” The students had three hours to prepare a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation with their solution to the given case. After their presentation and a 10-minute Q&A, the team advanced to the next round and presented their solution to a new panel of judges. Final results were revealed at the NABA Awards Gala, and each member of the team received a $300 scholarship from KPMG.
12
DELOITTE JANUARY 2014 FANTAXTIC CASE COMPETITION Students Cole Bjornstad and Laura Rudolph (sophomores), Troy Henkel, Scott Papez, and Emily Rosenbaum (MAcc students), along with faculty advisor Stacie Laplante, represented the Wisconsin School of Business at Deloitte’s National FanTAXtic Competition at Deloitte University in Dallas. After winning a regional competition in Milwaukee this fall, the team competed against eight other teams from around the country and took home first place!
(L to R) Scott Papez, Emily Rosenbaum, Troy Helkel, Laura Rudolph, Cole Bjornstad, and Stacie Laplante celebrate their first-place finish
The team’s ability to work together was crucial in the two-day competition that included writing a technical memo and presenting recommendations to the president and chairman of the board of a fictitious client. Professor Laplante notes: “One of the most rewarding observations I had was seeing how the senior students helped the sophomores get up to speed in such a technical area, and then seeing them all perform so well. In fact, after the competition, the judges said that they could not really tell which team members were sophomores.”