The ‘Drive for Five’ is now on!
- Date: Fri, Feb 28, 2025
Share this article
CFA Ireland Research Challenge Champions 2025; UCD Smurfit.
Pictured (L-R) Front: Fanny Menardo, & Nell Breathnach; Back: Tomás O’Ceallaigh, Sam Crean & Conor Schmidt.
The CFA Ireland Research Challenge 2025 was hosted by Mercer (Cork) and sponsored by Nearwater Capital. The UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School Team comprised of students from the MSc in Finance and the MSc in Quantitative Finance. Students included MSc in Finance student Nell Breathnach, and MSc in Quantitative Finance students Sam Crean, Fanny Menardo, Tomás O'Ceallaigh and Conor Schmidt.
UCD Smurfit School competed against Trinity College, Dublin City University, Queens University, Belfast, University of Galway and University College Cork.
The focus company CRH, a leading provider of building material solutions that build, connect and improve our world. The team’s report and presentation concluded with a BUY recommendation.
We are delighted to congratulate UCD Smurfit School on winning the competition and are now the CFA Ireland Research Challenge Champions 2025, having already won the competition in 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2018.
The team was ably mentored by Dr. Cormac Mac Fhionnlaoich, and Marie Gillespie, CFA, ESG Research Lead, AIB. Together Cormac and Marie have mentored UCD Smurfit School to an impressive four championships.
We also wish to acknowledge the tremendous work of CFA Ireland Volunteers in organising the annual CFA Research Challenge. This is a fantastic opportunity for students wishing to deepen their knowledge of equity analysis to add an important line to their CV in their career development.
The UCD Smurfit School team will now go on to represent the School, UCD and Ireland at the Northern Europe Sub Regional Final during the month of March, where they will compete against National CFA Research Championship Teams from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
We wish them well in the next step of this global competition!
CFA Ireland Research Challenge Champions 2025: UCD Smurfit.
Pictured (L-R) Front: Nell Breathnach, Fanny Menardo, & Marie Gillespie (Professioanl Mentor). Back: Sam Crean, Dr. Cormac Mac Fhionnlaoich (Academic Mentor), Tomás O’Ceallaigh & Conor Schmidt.
Learn more about the CFA Research Challenge here.
Discover our Rankings and Accreditations
