A team of University of Washington, Bothell master’s of business administration (MBA) students, representing the Pacific Northwest, placed among the top five teams in the Americas Investment Research Challenge, held March 18 in New York City.

Nearly 200 university teams from North and South America participated in the Americas Challenge, with a total of 28 teams selected from across the two continents representing their local regions and societies in New York for the semifinals.

In its semifinal round, the UW-Bothell MBA team, consisting of students Teddy Lin, Patrick McShane, Ahmed Khalil, Shau Phang and Ashnapreet Nagi, faced off against teams from the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania), Indiana University, University of Houston, Bryant University and the University of Denver.

After the first round of presentations, the UW-Bothell team was selected as the winner and moved on to the finals in the evening alongside teams from MIT, Georgia State and Brigham Young.

During the finals, Brigham Young University bested the locals and will represent the Americas at the Global Challenge in Hong Kong this month.

The UW-Bothell team had been working on its project, an investment advisory report on Fisher Communications, since October 2009, first presenting its report to the organizers of the inaugural Pacific Northwest Investment Research Challenge in January 2010.

After one round of judging at that event, UW-Bothell’s students were invited to present their report to a panel of investment experts in the Seattle CFA society along with teams from Washington State University, UW-Seattle and Seattle University at a society event at the Rainier Club Feb. 5. The UW-Bothell team won this round and was selected to represent the Pacific Northwest at the New York-held Americas Investment Research Challenge.