UK Finance Students Pitch a National Winner

SPC Champs
(Left to right) Tyler May, Joseph Back, Joy Gilfillan and Quint Tatro.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 6, 2018)University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics senior finance majors Tyler May, Joseph Back and Joy Gilfillan brought home the grand prize at this year’s national stock pitch competition hosted recently by the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. The competition brings students together with leaders from the investment community to showcase their skills in equity research and fundamental analysis, and to pitch stocks and get industry pros to evaluate them and give feedback on their work.

The students participated in Gatton’s fall 2017 Finance 485 class pitch competition, moving on to represent the class within the national competition, which accepted submissions from over 40 private and public universities throughout the U.S. The competition required an in-depth analysis of a publicly traded equity complete with a Wall Street quality pitch deck and a 15-minute verbal presentation.

The UK group was invited to Georgia for the semifinals, along with only 11 other schools, and was one of just three teams to move on to the finals. The students beat out such schools as University of North Carolina, University of Virginia, Emory University and University of Notre Dame to take home the championship and the cash prize of $7,000.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these students,” said Quint Tatro, faculty advisor to the team and Gatton adjunct professor of finance. “They all worked so incredibly hard and it was nice to see them take home the victory. I love what we’re seeing happen within the walls of Gatton — it’s very exciting.”