SIU’s winning Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) team (left to right): Nick Dean, Reagan Basso, Tim Marlo (clinical associate professor and adviser), Caitlin Czubernat and Louis Vicari. Photo by Russell Bailey
March 05, 2025
SIU business students win ‘gold standard’ financial analysis competition for St. Louis region
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Thousands of hours of hard work and preparation and more than a few sleepless nights paid off recently for a quartet of Southern Illinois University Carbondale students when they claimed the top prize in a major equity analysis competition.
College of Business and Analytics students Reagan Basso, Caitlin Czubernat, Nicholas Dean and Louis Vicari recently won the St. Louis CFA Institute Research Challenge, besting stiff competition from the likes of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Washington University, St. Louis University and the University of Missouri St. Louis.
“The CFA Institute is the gold standard in financial analysis, so this is a huge accomplishment for the team,” said Tim Marlo, a clinical associate professor and distinguished teacher in the School of Analytics, Finance and Economics, who serves as adviser for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) team.
The students each received special recognition, trophies and $500 cash as well as a $500 scholarship voucher for the CFA exam. The Salukis will go on to the subregional competition later this month, with the ultimate goal of participating in the Global Final in Chicago in May. SIU previously won the St. Louis competition in 2021 and has claimed multiple runner-up honors.
This year, the SIU students analyzed the company Core & Main, a leading nationwide, St. Louis-based distributor of water, wastewater, storm drainage and fire protection products and related services. During the challenge, the teams had to analyze the company, prepare a detailed report and a buy/sell or hold presentation, and answer questions from finance professionals.
Extensive preparation
SIU’s team started preparing for the competition early last fall, said Reagan Basso, a junior business analytics and finance major from Sesser, Illinois, and Nicholas Dean, a senior finance major with an investments concentration from Wheaton, Illinois.
They put in an “immense amount of effort” in the report and the presentation and met with Marlo and Matt Arnold, an SIU alumnus and senior equity analyst with Edward Jones who assists as their industry mentor, Basso said.
“The most difficult part was the sheer amount of work that is required to do an adequate job,” Basso said. “I have never done a project this big that entailed this much work in my life. We created a detailed schedule with tasks and deadlines. Performing every week for the five months of the challenge to meet the deadlines with quality work while still keeping up with all of our other typical student duties was hard. But the most satisfying part of the whole process was seeing the end product; looking at this 10-page report and 15-plus slide presentation and knowing that my team and I created all of the content, every graphic and layout to tell our stock’s story was wonderful. And winning was extremely satisfying and rewarding.”
Managing a real investment fund helped
Louis Vicari, a senior finance major from Elmhurst, Illinois, said he and his Saluki teammates easily spent more than 1,000 hours on the project.
And SIU’s team had a great head start on its competitors, Vicari said, because three sector leaders from SIU’s student-run Saluki Student Investment Fund (SSIF), which manages more than $4 million in assets for the SIU Foundation, brought expertise in stock analysis and reporting along with presentation skills.
For Vicari, just getting to participate in the competition fulfilled a dream. He’s been part of SSIF since coming to SIU and attended the last two CFA competitions. Through taking a finance class with Marlo and his involvement with SSIF, Vicari has learned much about financial analysis, looking at different types of companies, the industries they operate in, what drives specific company performance and valuing companies. They are lessons he “will keep forever.”
In truth, Dean said, preparations for this competition began long ago, in the classroom courtesy of SIU’s curriculum and especially working with Marlo and SSIF.
“It delivers a unique combination of theory and practical experience,” Dean said. “SSIF was instrumental in preparing me for the CFA Challenge by providing real-world applications of fundamental analysis and introducing concepts well before they were covered in the traditional classroom curriculum. This proactive approach allowed me to obtain a deeper understanding of the material ahead of schedule.”
Marlo agreed that the SSIF experience was beneficial.
“Their presentation is what ended up being the factor that earned them the win,” Marlo said. “They learn and practice presentation skills in SSIF, and it was visible during the competition, giving the SIU team an obvious advantage over other universities.”
Dean said participating in the CFA challenge has in turn been an incredible tool for additional development of his analytical process. He is interested in career opportunities in the regional banking sector because he’s drawn to the community focus.
“It has pushed me to break down complex financial information, construct data-driven valuation forecasts and condensed my rationale into a concise report,” Dean said. “Ultimately, this has led me to produce a deeper analysis of key trends in operations and the wider industry.” He said feedback from Marlo and Arnold was critical to the team’s success and actually presenting their work to the judges was the most satisfying part of all.
“Matt Arnold, our industry mentor and former and founding member of the Saluki Student Investment Fund, was a great leader for us,” Vicari said. “Having over 20 years of professional experience at your fingertips also gave us a definite edge over our competition and helped us greatly.”
Vicari has already secured a position as a trade execution specialist with Fast Market Options LLC, a strategies and execution group specializing in listed interest rate options and futures, and he’ll be working in the secured overnight financing rate options pit at the historic Chicago Board of Trade Building.
For Caitlin Czubernat, a senior finance major from Plainfield, Illinois, all of the research, writing, formatting, designing, proofreading, late nights and time invested with her teammates pushing to perfect their presentation became all the more difficult when her beloved mother passed away in December.
“The win for me means so much, but also personally on a different level, it shows that even with everything that has been going on in my life, with everything crashing and burning around me, if I continue to work and put my best foot forward, I can prove to myself and everyone else that the best can come out of it,” she said. “This is something I will be talking about in future interviews because it shows a lot about the kind of person and employee I am and will be.”
She said the teammates encouraged one another and the adviser and mentor provided guidance and constructive criticism. Their desire to see the students succeed was obvious.
“This win validates what we learn in our classes and student organization and shows that we do know what we are talking about and how SIU sets us up to succeed in life,” said Czubernat, who plans to move to South Carolina after graduation and work in human resources or accounts payable.
Growing in the profession
Basso, who has already secured a summer internship with NISA Investment Advisors in St. Louis, said her work with SSIF helped with fundamental stock analysis and in honing her presentation skills while working with Arnold, who analyzes stocks on a daily basis, gave her added insights and perspectives.
“I grew as a leader, teammate, analyst and presenter,” she said. “I gained valuable connections in the industry and learned even more about the work of security analysts.”
Winning in St. Louis demonstrates the quality of an SIU education, the students say.
“This victory shows that SIU has great opportunities, educators and students,” Basso said. “We competed against schools that some may consider more prestigious, yet we were victorious.”