The ICF plays a major role in supporting the training of MBAs and doctoral students who have focused on issues important to society. Among the past fellows and graduates affiliated with ICF are a number of young scholars who have had a disproportionate influence on the role and regulation of mutual funds in the world.
Contributing to this case is a capstone project for me; it truly is the culmination of my time and learning at SOM.
Jonathan Lucas ’16
Connecting Students with Practitioners
Practitioners provide students with valuable insights from the various sectors of finance. The ICF connects faculty with practitioners to participate as guest speakers in their classes. The ICF also collaborates with student clubs and groups to connect them with practitioners to participate in their student-run events.
Guest Speakers
Recent guest speakers include:
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Seth Brody, Partner & Head of Operational Excellence Practice, Apax
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Adil Rahmathulla ’04, Co-Founder and Partner, I Square Capital
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John W. Rogers Jr., Chairman, Co-CEO, CIO, Ariel Investments
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Robert J. Shiller, Sterling Professor of Economics, Yale University
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David Swensen, Chief Investment Officer, Yale Investments Office
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Sandra Urie ‘85, Chairman Emeritus, Cambridge Associates, LLC
Working with Students
Collaborating with the Women in Management Club
In partnership with the Women in Management Club, the ICF developed a panel of distinguished female SOM alumni who talked about their career paths and experiences in different areas of the finance sector.
Women in Management Club Professional Development representative, Clairine Runtung ‘20, details her experience assisting the ICF in organzing the event and expresses the value of hearing from alumni as a source of inspiration as students shape their future career in the industry. Read more.
Impact Investing Conference
The ICF worked with MBA for Executive students to host two Yale Impact Investing Conferences. This event gathers speakers and conference attendees to engage in meaningful conversations, presentations and interviews about impact investing.
2019 Impact Investing Conference
2018 Yale Impact Investing Conference
Shaping a Creative Future Conference
Strudents in Professor Jessica Helfand’s Design Practicum course studied The Prada Group and worked with global teams of design and MBA students to envision what the Prada store of the future might look like. The ICF worked with Professor Helfand to bring her students to Milan, Italy to pitch their business plans in person with their teammates at the Politecnico di Milano School of Management. Students were then invited to attend the Shaping a Creative Future Conference which was organized in partnership with Yale School of Management, Politecnico di Milano School of Management, and Prada to explore new possible connections between creativity, sustainability and innovation.
Alex Bigler ‘17 details her experiences working on a global team combining her business administration skills learned at Yale SOM with that of the design students’ skills at the Politecnico di Milano School of Management to present their designs and business plans for the Prada store of the future. Read more.
ICF Executive Fellows
ICF Executive Fellows are practitioners that visit the Yale School of Management to collaborate with students and faculty, conduct research, host conferences, create case studies, and teach independent courses or electives in an area of their expertise.
- Several Yale SOM students collaborated on a project with former ICF Executive Fellow, Andrea Levere ‘83, President Emerita of Prosperity Now, which explored how we might “chart the next wave of equitable finance” to support strategies to advance social, economic and environmental equity. Read more.
- ICF Executive Fellow, Steve Kasoff YC ‘93, spoke to Yale SOM students about his 27-year career in finance. At Elliott Management Corp., he was a Partner, member of the Management Committee, and global head of investments in real estate, structured products, commercial and residential mortgage backed securities, and CLOs. Steve then participated in a Q&A session, answering many of the student’s questions about his experiences and industry. Read more.
Global Network Investment Competition
ICF partnered with the Global Network for Advanced Management to host a one-of-a-kind contest dedicated to equity investments sourced from top business students around the globe. Each team submitted a portfolio of five investment ideas from their school’s region, accompanied by pitches for each of the selections. Each year, the ICF sponsored $5,000 in prizes for both the quality of the security analysis as well as the actual performance of the investment ideas presented.
Past Global Network Investment Competitions
2019-2020 Global Network Investment Competition
October 31, 2019 – April 30, 2020
Performance Prize 2019-2020
Winners: GSB from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business
Runners up: Wujiaochang Alliance from Fudan University School of Management
Security Analysis Prize 2019-2020
Winners: Alpha from Business School, Renmin University of China
Runners up: Big Brothers from Yale School of Management
2018-2019 Global Network Investment Competition
October 31, 2018 – may 31, 2019
Performance Prize 2018-2019
Winners: Big Six from Renmin University of China
Runners up: FinBr from FGV-EAESP and Golden Unicorn from Fudan University School of Management
Security Analysis Prize 2018-2019
Winners: Team Capital Y, Yale School of Management
Runners up: Team MBA 44, SDA Bocconi
2017-18 Global Network Investment Competition
November 1, 2017 – April 30, 2018
Performance Prize 2017-18
Winners: CALiforniaflation from Haas, UC Berkeley
Runners up: Bhinneka Investment Group from the Universitas Indonesia
Security Analysis Prize 2017-18
Winners: Incatraz Investments from INCAE Business School
Runners up: Alpha Omega from the National University of Singapore Business School
2016-17 Global Network Investment Competition
November 1, 2016 – April 30, 2017
Performance Prize 2016-17
Winners: Yellow Jackets from Universitas Indonesia
Runners up: Value Investors from FGV-EAESP
Security Analysis Prize 2016-17
Winners: Intelligent Investors from NUS Business School
Runners up: Profit Paranoids from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Bangalore
2015-16 Global Network Investment Competition
November 1, 2015 – April 30, 2016
Performance Prize 2015-16
Winners: ESMT Berlin
Runners up: Business School, Renmin University of China
Security Analysis Prize 2015-16
Winners: Koç University Graduate School of Business and NUS Business School tied.
Click here to find out more about the Global Network Investment Competition.
Doctoral Students
The ICF supports Yale SOM doctoral students by hosting PhD student conferences, purchasing data, and providing financial support to attend and present their research at conferences.
Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation Student Fellows & Graduate Student Conference
Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation Student Fellows (formerly Whitebox Advisors student fellows) are selected by a committee of Yale faculty and receive funding to help with their research in the areas of behavioral economics, behavioral finance, and behavioral marketing. These student fellows are required to host a yearly graduate student conference. Funding for this project is provided by the Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation. View past student fellows.
The Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation Graduate Student Conference (Formerly the Whitebox Advisors Graduate Student Conference)
The annual Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation Graduate Student Conference, typically held in conjunction with the Behavioral Science Conference, draws top doctoral students from around the world to present their research in the fields of behavioral economics, behavioral finance and behavioral marketing. The goal of the conference is to foster an environment to promote interaction amongst doctoral student researchers, and to provide feedback for students presenting their work in these fields. Find out more.
Yale Summer School in Behavioral Finance
The Yale Summer School in Behavioral Finance, which has been led since its inception in 2009 by Nicholas Barberis with support from the ICF, is a one-week intensive course in behavioral finance for PhD students. The summer school was started because it became clear to SOM faculty that, while graduate students are very keen to learn about behavioral finance, few universities offer a systematic, graduate-level introduction to research in the area. The school is held every two years in the last week of June. Find out more.
ICF Visiting Assistant Researchers (VAR)
ICF Visiting Assistant Researchers (VAR) are Ph.D. or postdoctoral students from other universities who spend six to eighteen months visiting the Yale School of Management to collaborate with faculty, conduct research, attend seminars and present papers. Find out more.
Doctoral Student Reflections
Several students reflect upon the resources and opportunities provided by the ICF that allows doctoral students to continue their research:
- Chen Wang ‘20 was able to travel to Sweden to present his research paper with financial help from the ICF. Read more.
- PhD Candidate Kaushik Vasudevan organized an academic conderence for doctoral students to listen to, present, and give feedback on their latest research. Read more.
- Martijn De Vries (Tilburg University) and Marina Gertsberg (Maastricht University) write about the benefits of participating in the VAR program at Yale SOM.
Turner MBA Impact Investing Network & Training (MIINT)
The Yale ICF provided sponsorship to Yale SOM student teams to participate in the 2018 and 2019 Turner MBA Impact Investing Network & Training (MIINT), an experiential lab designed to give students at business and graduate schools a hands-on education in impact investing. The Yale SOM students faced teams from more than 30 other business schools in this global competition and won the competition two years in a row.
Past MIINT Competitions
2019: Yale Team Wins Impact Investing Competition for Second Straight Year
2018: Yale SOM Team Wins MIINT Impact Investing Competition
Click here to find out more about the MIINT Impact Investing Competition.
Hedge Fund Case Study
The International Center for Finance at Yale School of Management with the support of the Center for Alternative Investment Education, Case Research and Development Team, and four students from the MBA, EMBA and MAM programs, constructed a business school case study concerning the “Role of Hedge Funds in Institutional Portfolios: Florida Retirement System.” Through the research and examination of several public and private retirement plans, including one primary “protagonist”, the case explored the decision making process of CIOs when considering the inclusion or exclusion of the asset class in their portfolios. The case is used as a teaching tool in the MBA and EMBA classes.
Student Reflections
Jonathan Lucas ‘16 provides a student’s perspective of the independent study class and his experience working on this case study. Read more.
McGill International Portfolio Challenge
The Yale ICF sponsored a team of four MBA for Executives students to participate in the 2019 McGill International Portfolio Challenge (MIPC), the world’s premier buy-side university finance competition, hosted by McGill University in Montréal, Canada. The students placed in the top 5 finalists out of over 100 teams.
Student Reflections
Gbenga Omosuyi ‘20 details his team’s experience competing at the McGill International Portfolio Challenge at McGill University and the excitement of placing in the top 5 finalists. Read more.
Click here to find out more about the McGill International Portfolio Challenge.
Real Estate Case Study Development
With support from the International Center for Finance, Professor William Goetzmann worked with 19 Yale SOM students from the MBA and EMBA programs on a unique case writing project. The students met weekly throughout the Fall 2017 semester with Professor Goetzmann and Yale SOM case writers to develop nine new real estate case studies. Each of the case studies would later be used in Professor Goetzmann’s MGT 849 Cases in Commercial Real Estate course.
Student Reflections
Two students write about their experiences working on the real estate case study development project:
Low Carbon Case Competition
Climate change has become a pivotal issue for many investment managers in addressing client concerns, especially surrounding risky or controversial investments in the highest carbon-emitting companies. But how can managers utilize existing data to satisfy reduced-carbon client demands while still meeting a return, liquidity and risk standards? The Annual Low-Carbon Case Competition, sponsored in part by ICF, invites talented finance students from across the country to figure out innovative ways to move the field forward.
Past Low Carbon Case Competitions
2015: National Low Carbon Case Competition
2014: National Low Carbon Case Competition