Ideas with Impact
UNB Faculty of Management

A team of students completing UNB’s Student Investment Fund (SIF) class just won the top prize in the Atlantic Canadian CFA Ethics Challenge.

Ethical decision-making and conduct establishes trust between investors and their clients. Investors cannot operate without trust, so as part of their yearlong training to become investment professionals, SIF students complete an online course in ethical decision-making offered by the CFA Institute. After completing the course this year, the SIF team, along with students from four other universities in Atlantic Canada, tested their knowledge in the 2022 CFA Atlantic Ethics Challenge.

The winning SIF team included three MBA students, Junfeng Chen from China, Shashirekha Bhattiprolu from India and Subomi Ishola-Lemomu from Nigeria. Don Wishart, director of the Centre for Financial Services and President of Seamark Asset Management, along with Shashank Gupta, the program officer for the SIF class, were mentors for the students as they completed the course and prepared for the competition.

Offered through the CFA Institute’s Learning Lab, the Ethical Decision-Making course exposes students to the CFA’s ethical framework and real-world cases. In the Ethics Challenge, students work in teams to evaluate a case, then submit an executive summary and present their analysis and recommendations to a panel of judges selected by the CFA Institute. The judges select a winning team based on the quality of their analysis, presentation and response to questions.

Ishola-Lelmomu said, “The ethics challenge exposed me to real-life day-to-day ethical issues in the business world, and required me to consider the diverse cultural backgrounds that often come into play in the workplace. I enjoyed learning how to approach and identify these problems according to the CFA Standard of Professional Practice and ethical code.”

Bhattiprolu noted the competition allowed her “to get familiar with ethical issues and to hone my skills in dealing with them. I learned how to recognize specific violations, as well as how to address the issues.”

The 2022 Ethics Challenge took place virtually on February 5^th. In addition to exposing students to real-world ethical dilemmas and gaining ethical decision-making skills, the competition aims to improve students’ professional presentation and teamwork skills and help them build their professional networks.

The strong collaboration among her team members and the real-life experience were the biggest take-aways for Chen. “This not only provided us with experiential learning as portfolio managers, it also offered us many opportunities to learn and challenge ourselves.”

As they announced the winners, the judges said the SIF team’s presentation was succinct yet thorough, and that they handled the question-and-answer segment very well. In addition to receiving a $400 cash prize each, the three team members will compete in the CFA Institute’s national round on May 6.

Photo: MBA students (L-R) Shashirekha Bhattiprolu, Subomi Ishola-Lemomu and Junfeng Chen are members of the Student Investment Fund team that just won first prize in the 2022 CFA Institute Atlantic Canadian Ethics Challenge.

Learn more about UNB’s faculty of management and the Student Investment Fund class. Contact: Liz Lemon-Mitchell