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The University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management was awarded the winning title of the 2019 CFA Society Toronto Local Ethics Challenge on Feb. 14, the not-for-profit organization announced Wednesday.

Student champions Neil Keohane (team captain), Nabih El Masri, Denesia Nichols, Mourad Ben Rejeb and Nicolas Tosi demonstrated their ability to expertly negotiate ethical dilemmas in a real-life investment scenario, CFA Society Toronto says in a news release.

The challenge aims to increase students’ awareness of the ethical dilemmas they may encounter as future investment management practitioners. Student teams are given an ethics case to study and evaluate. Each team then presents its analysis and recommendations to a panel of investment professionals. Following a question and answer period with each team, the panel then selects a winner based on the team’s understanding of the ethical issues involved, quality of analysis, presentation and responses to the panel’s questions.

“It was a pleasure to see how prepared and thorough the entire team from University of Ottawa was in their compelling presentation. Their analytical skills in combination with their commendable presence on stage were very impressive. I look forward to seeing how this team and its team members will succeed in the future,” says panellist Anna Nepravishta, partner at Toronto-based EdgePoint Wealth Management Inc.

This year’s competing teams include students from University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management, Ryerson University Ted Rogers School of Management, Queen’s University Smith School of Business, and George Brown College School of Accounting and Finance.

The University of Ottawa team will be advancing to the national level of the competition at the 2019 CFA Societies Canada Ethics Challenge on May 1 in Calgary, which will include local winners from chapters of CFA Societies across Canada.

CFA Society Toronto is affiliated with CFA Institute, the global body that administers the chartered financial analyst curriculum and sets voluntary, ethics-based performance-reporting standards for the investment industry.