ACG Denver
ACG Member Articles Headlines
ACG Member Articles
And the Winner of the 2010 Denver ACG Cup Competition Is….
A team of MBA students at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business won the Associaion for Corporate Growth’sregional case competition.
ACG Denver joined more than 24 ACG chapters around the country in sponsoring the ACG Cup in 2010. Ted Leonard, Chris Lathrop and Jud Whiteneck made up the DU team. A team from the University of Colorado at Boulder Leeds School of Business came in second. The CU team included James Hathorn, Vy Nguyen, Jared Weber and Adam Wyatt.
The ACG Cup is a case study competition designed to give students from leading MBA programs valuable insights into mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, financial advisory and private equity. The first place prize for Denver’s Cup is $2,000, and the University of Denver team will be formally recognized and presented with a trophy at ACG Denver’s April 6th luncheon at the Denver Athletic Club. DU may keep and display the trophy for one year. Second place prize is $1,000, which goes to the University of Colorado team.
2010 is the first year for the Denver ACG Cup, although other ACG chapters around the country have been participating in the ACG Global competition for the past several years. The long-term vision is to create a national competition among winning teams from each ACG chapter. Rick Fort, ACG Board Member and CEO of ESM, initiated and managed the competition for ACG Denver. “Next year we hope to expand the regional competition to include CSU, UNC and CU Denver,“ says Fort. “The ACG Cup is a great learning opportunity for students and furthers ACG’s mission to support growing Colorado businesses by preparing the next generation of business leaders with a real-life scenario.“
In addition to the recognition and monetary awards, students benefited from exposure to leading finance professionals and organizations in the region; an opportunity to learn about corporate finance transactions from various perspectives; and a highly realistic case study providing unique and relevant experience in a team-oriented setting.
Students competed on an intra-school basis in the first round, held in early February. The winning teams from each school then competed against each other in late February and early March. Each team consisted of three to five MBA students. The case study was prepared by Houlihan Lokey with contributions from other ACG finance professionals. Houlihan Lokey is one of the nation’s leading middle market investment banks, headquartered in Southern California.
Guest judges for the competition were: Adam Fiedor, Vice President St. Charles Capital; Patrick McFarlen, Senior Manager EKS&H; Angie MacPhee, Vice President O’neal Steel; Sean Odendahl, Holme Roberts & Owen M&A Partner; Jose Garcia, Associate with Green, Manning & Bunch, Ltd.; Murray Smith, Chief Marketing Officer ESM; Bill Heck, Managing Principal Harlon Group; Chris Wagner, HRO; Tony Carroll, Vicorps; and Jay Edgington, Green, Manning & Bunch.
DU’s administrative representatives included: Patrick Orr, Director Graduate Student Operations and David Cox, Assistant Dean at Daniels College of Business. The CU administrative representatives were: Anne Sandoe, Director of MBA Programs; and Tracee DeAntoni, Assistant Director Student Services, MBA Programs.
About ACG. Founded in 1954, the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) is a global association for professionals involved in corporate growth, corporate development, and mergers and acquisitions. Today ACG stands at more than 12,000 members from corporations, private equity, finance, and professional service firms representing Fortune 500, Fortune 1000, FTSE 100, and mid-market companies in 53 chapters in North America and Europe. ACG-Denver was awarded Chapter of the Year in 2007. For more information, please visit www.ACG.org/Denver.
ACG Denver announces Intern Exchange for college students
In this competitive job market, what employers look for first is relevant experience. This means internships can be the best line to a job for the growing number of young people competing in today’s market.
ACG Denver’s new Intern Exchange will serve as a clearinghouse to match opportunities for paid and unpaid internships and jobs with the needs of small- and middle-market companies and nonprofit organizations. Undergraduate and graduate college students, as well as just-graduated students, are eligible to participate in the program.
Intern Exchange was the brainchild of ACG Chairman, David Mead, after many years of helping clients of The Mead Consulting Group identify opportunities to use college students as interns. Says Mead: “These interns have made big contributions to our client companies and, in a number of cases, have been hired by the companies after graduation. I saw a role in this for ACG to serve the business community in a new way.“
Indeed, findings from a December 2009 poll from The Washington Center show that 96 percent of organizations polled are “more likely to hire a recent college grad with internship experience,“ and many are creating a pipeline of potential employees through intern programs. “It’s becoming clear that getting an internship can be a critical success factor in the hunt for jobs,“ according to Mead, “not to mention a way for organizations to increase their comfort level when investing in a new employee.“
While many Colorado university business schools have excellent structured-internship programs, there are a number of highly qualified graduate and undergraduate students that are looking to connect with the local/regional business community. Members of the ACG Denver Intern Exchange committee will help companies identify and develop positions appropriate for college interns. ACG Denver will post available intern/job opportunities for companies and facilitate an exchange where interested companies, colleges/universities and students can connect online at: http://chapters.acg.org/denver/internexchange.aspx.
