A Schulich MBA student team has placed second in Wharton’s MBA Impact Investing Network and Training (MIINT) case competition. They are the first team to represent Canada in the contest.
Impact investing is the term used to describe investments meant to produce tangible social or environmental benefits as well as a financial return.
The Schulich team – made up of Sara Salamat, Sana Hanif and Sameer Rashid – won $25,000 U.S. to invest in Toronto-based LegWorks, a for-profit social enterprise that the team pitched as a worthwhile investment during the competition.
LegWorks “helps people walk with confidence” by producing high-quality and affordable prosthetics for amputees around the world.
This is the first time a team from a Canadian school has competed in Wharton’s five-year-old international impact investing case competition. Schulich tied for second place with London Business School, which also received $25,000. A team from MIT’s Sloan School of Management won first place, and earned a prize of $50,000.
“I congratulate the enterprising MBA students who successfully represented our School at Wharton’s international impact investing competition,” said Schulich Dean Dezsö J. Horváth. “Global competitions are just one of the ways we provide our MBA students with valuable opportunities to network with their peers and to hone their business skills and expertise before graduation.”
Twenty-five teams from U.S.-based schools, including Harvard, Kellogg and Chicago Booth, as well as European schools, such as London School of Economics and SDA Bocconi School of Management, participated in the MIINT finals at Wharton’s campus at the University of Pennsylvania on April 9.
“The Wharton MIINT competition has provided our students with an exceptional occasion to pitch a vital social innovation investment opportunity to real potential investors,” said team advisor, Jonathan Hera, a Schulich International MBA (’10) and senior portfolio manager at Grand Challenges Canada, an existing investor in LegWorks, who teaches a social finance and impact investment course at Schulich. “Schulich’s MBA impact investment team has proven that they can hold their own among their peers from the best business schools in the world.”
The Schulich team’s participation in the competition was supported by Schulich and Schulich’s Social Impact Management Association, a graduate student club.
For more information on MIINT, visit www.themiint.org.