Spring 2024 Stock Pitch Competition winners receive award for their Johnson & Johnson pitch

At the end of each semester, students participating in the Portfolio Management course at the Mike Ilitch School of Business prepare pitch decks and try to sell their stock choices to the advisory board of the Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) during the biannual Stock Pitch Competition.

The Spring 2024 winning team consisted of Rozella Ndrejaj, Jordan Bonzelaar and Fadi Salan whose pitch for Johnson & Johnson won over the advisory board.

This course was created in 2015 with initial seed funding from Fifth-Third Bank and was later grown to include a $2 million fund established by the Kresge Investment Office in 2018. The fund regularly outperforms the S&P 500 over its ten-year lifespan.

The pitches were heard by advisory board members, including Professor Julie Hollinshead, instructor of the Portfolio Management course, Kresge investment team professionals and local investment industry executives.

Ndrejaj was very excited about their victory, saying that: "I cannot explain the countless hours [Hollinshead] spent with my group and I this semester to help us achieve success. I was never afraid to ask a question about not understanding a concept, because I knew my question would be met with a genuine response until I understood the answer. Professor Hollinshead's dedication to this class is astonishing and admirable. I am leaving this class with an expansive amount of knowledge"

This course is offered at the graduate and undergraduate level in both the winter and fall, and anyone interested in trading real stocks while learning about the market is encouraged to enroll in FIN 5220 or FIN 7990.