Auburn FMA claims national victory, earns global top 5 finish

Financial Management Association students from business and engineering excel in high-stakes competitions.

The Auburn University Financial Management Association (FMA) has distinguished itself yet again in two separate student competitions, winning first place at a University of Michigan real estate-focused case competition and finishing among the top five teams at a prestigious international stock pitch competition in London.

Hail to the victors

At the 2025 Leaders & Best REIT Challenge Case Competition teams from across the country assumed executive leadership roles to assess a struggling publicly traded REIT and presented strategic recommendations before a panel of leading REIT industry judges.

The winning Auburn FMA team of Grady Marshall (finance), Joseph McElroy (computer engineering), Matthew Hajazin (chemical engineering), and Parker Duncan (finance), were tasked with creating a 24-month operational plan to enhance performance for Sun Communities, a leading manufactured housing REIT.

The Auburn team’s depth of analysis and boardroom-ready presentation earned them unanimous approval from the judges and $12,500 in first-place prize money.

“This case was the perfect blend of finance, strategy, and real estate,” said FMA senior Marshall, who plans to pursue a career in commercial real estate. “We had just one week to learn a new sector, build a thesis, and defend it in front of industry executives. That pressure pushed us to perform at our best—and it’s what FMA trains us for.”

The win marks another national victory for Auburn’s FMA program, highlighting the students’ ability to translate rigorous classroom and investment fund training into real-world success.

Competing with the world’s best investment talent

Another FMA team made the finals of a second competition in October—the Oxford Varsity Pitch Competition, which is one of the most selective undergraduate investment competitions in the world and allows students to research, analyze and select a specific stock for investment firms.

Seventy-five teams began the competition by submitting full investment pitch decks and written analyses supporting their stock picks. From that global pool, judges ultimately selected five teams to compete in the finals for £3,000 pounds in prize money at the Oxford and Cambridge Club in London on Oct. 29.

Computer engineering major Joseph McElroy and his teammates Anna Spencer Lawley (finance), Hamilton Kehoe (finance) and Pete Stavros (finance) squared off against teams from Rice University, University of Singapore, University of Oxford and London School of Economics.

Their investment strategy centered on Chemours, a U.S.-based company that specializes in chemical products for refrigeration, high-performance computing and coatings.

According to McElroy, the market for refrigerants is shifting from a large commodity market with about 50 players to a duopoly between Chemours and Solstice Advanced Materials due to government regulatory changes in the refrigerant field.

“Chemours has a lot more earnings potential, pricing power and market share,” explained McElroy about their strategy for recommending Chemours in the Oxford finals.

McElroy and his three teammates all hold leadership positions with the Auburn Student Investment Fund, a student-managed portfolio valued at more than $950,000. The rigorous training they complete with ASIF prepared them well for the Oxford event.

“We do stock pitches through ASIF, which gave us a strong foundation for this competition,” said McElroy.

According to Tracy Richard, FMA faculty advisor and executive director of the Harbert Investment Center, this was Auburn’s first appearance at the competition, which is hosted by Oxford Alpha Fund in partnership with the Cambridge University Finance and Investment Society.

“The competition’s format is designed to mirror professional investment management, including discretionary stock selection, fundamental analysis, and direct questioning from portfolio managers,” said Richard. “Making the finals places our Auburn team among peers from globally renowned programs such as Harvard, Oxford, the London School of Economics, Warwick, and the University of Chicago, who have made the finals in prior years.”

“It was incredible to travel to London and compete on an international stage with some of the top global finance programs,” said McElroy. “Representing Auburn in a room full of world-class talent really showed how far our training had taken us—and how well it stacked up against anyone, anywhere.”

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Learn more about: 

• Auburn Financial Management Association (FMA).
• Auburn Student Investment Fund (ASIF).