Ateneo bags championship in 17th CFA Institute Research Challenge Philippine local finals

Students from Ateneo de Manila University won the 17th Local Finals of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute Research Challenge held virtually last February 21, 2025.

Ateneo’s Research Challenge team, called Team Zeus Investment Research, is composed of Management Economics seniors Lance Mackenzie S Go (Team Captain) and Francine Elisha C. Manzana, Applied Mathematics major in Mathematical Finance masteral student Albert Matthew C. Alejo, Applied Mathematics major in Mathematical Finance senior Frances Jojielyn S Espiritu, and Management Engineering senior Jerica Charity A Ruiz. 

They were supported in their efforts by Beatrice Marie D Chan (faculty adviser, BS ME ’23) and Alfonso Miguel Sevidal (BS ME ’17) from the Finance and Accounting Department, and Jose Enrique F. Fausto (industry mentor, BS ME ‘15) from IFE Management Advisers.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge (IRC) is a global investment research competition that provides students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. For this year’s local IRC, participants were asked to write an initiation report for the stock of Citicore Energy REIT Corporation (CREIT PM). 

26 teams participated across the country and the top six teams from the written report round advanced to the Local Finals, where they gave a ten-minute presentation to a panel of judges, followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer portion.

The panel of judges included Security Bank Vice President and Head of Equities Basil Jason Go, CFA, ATRAM Group Portfolio Manager and Head of Equities Research Donil Ferdinand Jamil, Philippine Stock Exchange Business Development Department Head Connie Lacanilao, and PwC Philippines Deals and Corporate Finance Partner Darwin Saribay, CFA. 

Team Zeus bested teams from De La Salle University, the University of the Philippines Diliman, the University of San Carlos, and the University of Santo Tomas.

They took home a cash prize of Php 100,000 and will be one of two teams representing CFA Society Philippines in the Asia Pacific Sub-Regionals this March.

Team Zeus’s victory last February 21 marks Ateneo’s tenth overall title in the CFA IRC Philippine Local Finals, including its ninth championship in the last 11 years. The Ateneo was also crowned Asia Pacific Regional Champions three times in 2015, 2016, and 2019 and Global Champions in 2019.

The 17th Local Finals for the CFA Institute Research Challenge was made possible through the competition’s sponsors: Security Bank, CTS Global, Metrobank, BDO Unibank, FTI Consulting, and PwC Philippines.