July 23, 2004 for immediate release


UNBC students have placed first in a BC competition that tests their ability to gain the maximum return from investments.

TheBC Universities Portfolio Challenge ran from October, 1993, to March,2004, and required that teams make a hypothetical $1,000,000 investmentinto a portfolio that could comprise of common shares, options, and/orcash. A total of 105 teams participated this year, involving about 250students from UBC, the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University,Royal Roads University, and UNBC.

UNBC placed first with a final portfolio of just over $1.11 million,representing an 11.1% increase. UVic placed second after achieving anaverage return of 11%. The top three teams from UNBC were led bystudents Richard West, Dustin White, and Abdirahman Mohamed.

"The excellent results shown by the UNBC teams are a good indication ofthe overall quality of UNBC's Commerce students," says professorCharles Schell. "Our program isn't the biggest or the best known, butour students can compete with the best. The successes of our alumniprove it: our grads have found employment with most of Canada's leadingfinancial institutions, including all of the chartered banks, privateequity providers, and investment banks."

The BC Universities Portfolio Challenge is sponsored by the BCSecurities Commission, Odlum Brown Limited, Leith Wheeler InvestmentCounsel Limited, and the Canadian Securities Institute. The annualcompetition began 10 years ago.

In 2002, UNBC's Finance students placed first in a national investmentchallenge sponsored by TD Waterhouse. This competition was open toteams from universities across Canada.

Caption for photo
UNBC students Abdirahman Mohamed, Richard West, Matthew Vigue, andDustin White, with Mike Bernard of the BC Securities Commission.