2019 - 2021 FMA Magazine

DUFF DYNASTY
YOUniversity Deal Challenge national
champions for the second consecutive year,
and 2021 winner of the international title.
Students in Harbert College’s Financial Management
Association (FMA) are Duff & Phelps YOUniversity Deal
Challenge national champions for the second consecutive year.
But they didn’t stop there. The 2020 – 2021 team elevated their
game this year and brought home the international title, beating
out the regional winners from Europe, India, and Asia.
38 FMA 2019-2021 MAGAZINE
In February 2020, Jenny Herrell, FMA vice president and
ASIF CIO led the team that included fellow FMA members,
Jonathan Hu and Kennedy Jarvis to Auburn’s first national
title. The final round presentation was held before judges in
Chicago. “Working in teams, students apply technical reasoning
and critical thinking through key stages of the deal-making
process. Together, we put these skills to work as we solved a
complex transaction related to a key stage in business dealmaking,”
Herrell says. Jonathan Hu attributed the success
to team dynamics: “Going into Chicago and pitching our
recommendation to a panel of judges who each had decades of
experience in the industry was definitely a tall task for a few
undergraduate students,” he said. “However, each of us made
sacrifices and put forth our best effort in the months leading
up to the competition. Our team dynamic, along with proper
training and advice from the FMA organization and alumni
ensured that we went into that room confident and prepared.”
Duff veteran, Kennedy Jarvis, went on to lead the team this year,
with Sam Colvin, a junior in mechanical engineering, and Nick
Thompson, a sophomore in accounting and finance. The pitch
wowed industry professional judges with their pre-COVID and
post-COVID valuations of a multi-chain restaurant company in