How companies expand their business and what role should the bank take in making this happen? That was the question being analyzed at the 2nd Annual Credit Risk Competition this weekend held at the Kenneth C. Rowe Management building in Halifax.
Seaview Fabricators a fictitious family-owned car parts manufacturer in Cape Breton was requesting more bank financing to expand its operation into Poland. The scenario incorporated a wide variety of risk elements, from the state of the automobile industry, to global competition, the company's management practices, the financial health of the company, and all of the risks associated with setting up in a foreign country including currency fluctuations.
Teams of student credit officers were given the case to review, and within 3 hours present their analysis and recommendations to a group of judges. These included: David McLeod of CIBC Toronto; Carl Holm, Wickwire Holm; David Boyd, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Marg Hamlyn, BMO Bank of Montreal. According to the judges, "the teams' evaluations and presentations were professionally done, leading to stiff competition."
First place ($2500) went to the team from Wilfrid Laurier University (Veeral Khatri, Michael Kielty, Adam Rivers, Stephen Simpson), Second place ($1000) to Dalhousie School of Business students (Travis Cramb, Richard McCormick, Kevin Buchan, Jonathan Chase Hart), and Third place ($500) to Saint Mary's Business Team 2 (Tammy Milbury, Nancy Althouse, Tanya Jones, Joann Lawless.) Other teams that participated included University of Western Ontario, University of New Brunswick, University of Manitoba, Saint Mary's Team 1, McGill University (2 teams), Loyola University Chicago.
Sponsors of the competition were the RBC Centre for Risk Management at Dalhousie University led by Ron Pelot, PhD, the Risk Management Association (Atlantic Chapter) and CIBC. Financial assistance was provided to Ontario and Manitoba teams by their local RMA chapters.
Preparation primers for the competition sessions were held on Friday, Feb 10 featuring Rick Nason, PhD, CFA,: who discussed "Credit derivatives: A heaven-sent Pandora's box". In addition, a panel of credit professionals discussed "War Stories from the Front". Human resource professionals from the Big 4 banks and PricewaterhouseCoopers talked about careers opportunities with their institutions.
A banquet Friday evening at the Prince George Hotel was well attended by businesspeople from local financial organizations. Keynote speaker: Stephen Plummer, BSc, MBA, President & COO, I.M.P. Group International Inc. who discussed their multi year experiences in doing business in Russia
Media inquiries, contact:
John MacDonald,
Faculty of Management
john.j.macdonald@dal.ca
Phone: (902) 494-2542
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