Finance



Gov. Lamont Honors Grad Students Who Won Global Investment Championship

UConn Today – Gov. Ned Lamont, UConn Interim President Radenka Maric, and School of Business Dean John A. Elliott on Friday, Jan. 21 honored five graduate students whose investment prowess beat almost 500 teams worldwide, capturing the top award in the 2021 Bloomberg Global Trading Challenge.


UConn Redesigns MBA Programs to Offer More Flexible Course Options

UConn Today – The UConn School of Business announced plans on Thursday, Jan. 20 to redesign its Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs, a decision reflecting growing student interest in more flexible educational options.


Top Financial Experts Identify Risks, Opportunities During Well-Attended SPAC Conference

group of people in a conference setting collaborating. UConn SPAC Conference logo bottom right
Istockphoto.com

With Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) exploding in growth and professional intrigue, the School of Business offered a financial conference to explore the business model, its advantages, and challenges.

Some 275 people participated in the UConn SPAC Conference, believed to be the first university-sponsored conference of its kind in the nation.Continue Reading


Business Graduate Students ‘Turned on the Jets,’ Topped Nearly 500 Teams to Win Bloomberg’s First Global Trading Challenge

UConn Today – A team of Stamford-based UConn business graduate students won the highly competitive 2021 Bloomberg Global Trading Challenge, topping almost 500 teams from around the world.

The winning team credited its success to a professor’s advice to make smart and bold decisions, an investment strategy that identified underdog companies that were responding to market demands, and their UConn education that prepared them for thorough assessments of prospective investments.


UConn SPAC Conference Will Address the Hottest Topic in Financial Markets

IMage of conference attendees applauding, SPAC conference logo is inset.
(istockphoto.com)

The UConn School of Business will host a half-day conference on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), which are seeing a dramatic spike in interest in the financial and investment communities this year.

“This is the topic of the year in the financial markets,” said Professor Yiming Qian, the Toscano Family Chair in Finance at UConn. “SPAC is not new, but was not popular until last year. Before 2020, the annual numbers of SPAC IPOs were in one or two digits. In 2020, however, the number jumped to 248 (compared to 165 traditional IPOs). The number for 2021 already exceeded 500.” Continue Reading


Retired Professor Offers $100K Matching Gift to Save Veterans’ Entrepreneurship Program

UConn Today – United States Marine Corps veteran Tony Audette builds custom motorcycles for celebrities, business titans, and other enthusiasts who want a bike that’s unlike any other. His exclusive motorcycles sell for upwards of $130,000.

After two years in business, Audette Motorcycles, in Canton, is thriving. Audette credits much of his business knowledge and expertise to the School of Business’ Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV). The startup accelerator steered him away from several costly business mistakes, he said.



Strong Backgrounds, Proven Scholarship Are Hallmarks of School’s New Faculty Members

New faculty members include (left to right): Rachel Chambers, Xiang Zheng, Sami Ghaddar, Mary Vernon, and James Warren (Contributed photos)

The incoming cohort of new business faculty includes a consultant on human rights for the United Nations, an award-winning researcher focused on fintech, two enthusiastic accounting experts, and a management professor who researches corporate governance, innovation and performance.Continue Reading


Prestigious AACSB International Re-Accredits School of Business, Accounting Program

(Nathan Oldham / UConn School of Business)

The prestigious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), considered by many to be the ‘gold standard’ of accrediting organizations, has re-accredited the School of Business and, separately, its Accounting program.Continue Reading