BYU Team Wins MBA ACG Cup Competition

PROVO, Utah – May 22, 2013 – Outperforming finalists from across the state, a team of MBA students from Brigham Young University won first place and $5,000 in the Association for Corporate Growth Cup Competition. This is the second year in a row BYU has earned top honors at the annual event held in Salt Lake City.

“The teams were given a very complex mergers and acquisitions case with international twists and complex valuation issues,” says Grant McQueen, finance professor at the Marriott School of Management and team mentor. “We received high marks for both the thoroughness of the analysis and the quality of the presentation.”

The ACG Cup is a case study competition providing MBA students the opportunity to create and present strategic financial advice concerning capital markets and M&A to local professionals in the ACG community. Teams first compete in preliminary rounds held at each school, then advance as finalists to pitch their analysis and defend their recommendations through an in-depth question and answer session with the judges.

BYU’s team consisted of first-year MBA students: Ben Dailey from Salt Lake City; Mike Hanson from Shelley, Idaho; John Holbrook from Salt Lake City; and Jake Lewis from Orem.  

“Our team was unique with four very distinct backgrounds,” Dailey says. “By pooling our knowledge and experiences we were able to process and organize information very well as a team. Each person added an individualized aspect that set us apart.”

The competition was sponsored by the Utah chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth, an organization of local business executives who meet regularly to network and engage in professional training opportunities. ACG Utah awarded $8,000 to universities in the case study competition, including first-place money to BYU and $1,000 each to the other three finalists: the University of Utah, Utah Valley University and Westminster College.

“I think BYU's success in the competition demonstrates the quality of our MBA program,” Hanson says. “Our team felt a lot of pressure to bring the ACG Cup back to BYU, and we were happy to do so, especially with such high competition from other schools.”

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems, and entrepreneurship. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.