Oct. 4, 2006
Berkeley Team Wins National            Energy Finance Challenge
By Andrea Ferdinand

MBA students from 15 of the nation's top business schools received practical experience in the rapidly growing energy industry last week as they competed in the McCombs School’s second annual National Energy Finance Challenge, Sept. 29.

Each team member assumed a role in a corporate negotiating team for McKween, a fictional company located in the imaginary island of Nirvana off the West African coast. Until recent advancements in technology and the increased need to meet rising energy demands, natural gas was an underappreciated energy source in Nirvana.

The recent discovery of gas in the ground has revealed opportunities but also created many challenges for the energy industry.

The teams were asked to address these challenges while maximizing shareholder value and monetizing its natural gas resources efficiently. Each team discussed its solutions in a 25-minute presentation followed by 20-minute question and answer sessions with the judges.

“You guys are performing and competing on par with our analytical shops in house,” said Wayne Borduin, who authored the case and does financial forecasting and business planning with Chevron's  International Upstream Finance organization.

The Haas School of Business at Berkeley took first place and won $5,000. Its members included Nathan Cope, Irem Karacagil, Sheldon Kimber, Matthew Price and Nicolas Spicer. Harvard took second place and garnered $2,500 while Northwestern came in third and received $1,500.

The Haas School of Business at Berkeley team took first place in the National Energy Finance Challenge hosted by the McCombs School of Business.

“The competition was a fantastic opportunity to apply skills from a broad range of MBA classes to a very realistic business problem,” said Berkeley team member Sheldon Kimber. “The networking with other MBAs and recruiters was certainly very helpful. I fully expect to see some members of the other teams throughout my career in energy.”

While the competitors gained practical experience, the competition was not without its challenges. Both Kimber and teammate Matthew Price note the added pressure of time constraints made analyzing the complicated financial and strategic data more difficult.

“The time constraint of the competition reinforces the need to identify roles for each team member and trusting their capabilities,” Price said.

Eduardo Fernandez-Moran, manager of finance MBA development program for Chevron, the lead sponsor for the competition, hopes this experience will prove beneficial in the participants’ future careers as they become leaders in the energy industry.

“Our industry in general is facing a demographic issue with our senior executives retiring,” Fernandez-Moran said. “We’re glad to see there are so many talented individuals in our industry.”

The Texas Energy Finance Group, a McCombs MBA student organization, hosted the challenge. Chevron, Tesoro, Peabody, Simmons & Co. International, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Merrill Lynch, TXU and the McCombs School Center for Energy Finance Education and Research sponsored the challenge.