Members of the winning Kelley team, from left, Bao Nguyen, Jack Buchenberger and Sayer Birch. (Photo courtesy: Balyasny Asset Management)
NEW YORK – A team of three students from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business finished in first place in the prestigious Balyasny Asset Management Winter Stock Pitch Competition, which attracts top talent from business schools across the country and provides them with invaluable experience they will use in the future.
In mid-January, students at more than 30 business schools received details about the competition and information about the stock they were pitching. On Feb. 11, the Kelley team learned they had made the top 10 based on their written stock recommendations. They then were asked to provide a video explaining their stock pitch by Feb. 17.
Two days later, they learned they had been selected as one of five finalists.
The three sophomores — Sayer Birch, Bao Nguyen and Jack Buchenberger – traveled to New York City to make their pitches before a panel of judges on Feb. 28 at Balyasny Asset Management’s New York offices on the 35th floor of the General Motors Building.
Kelley student Bao Nguyen makes a point during the presentation. (Photo courtesy: Balyasny Asset Management)
Birch, Nguyen and Buchenberger emerged as the winners, along with a team from the University of Alabama, besting teams from Duke University, New York University and the University of Tennessee. Each first-place team shared a $3,000 prize.
BAM’s contest provides an extraordinary opportunity for students to demonstrate their investment prowess, gain invaluable feedback, and network with industry experts. The top teams in the final round also were given an opportunity to interview with the firm’s equities business for summer 2026 internship opportunities.
“Our presentation stood out because of the proprietary research we conducted,” said Buchenberger, who is from Fishers, Ind. “While all the groups had great pitches, the proprietary research really differentiated us.”
“We received praise for our creative research, and a judge even came up to us asking to see our code after the event, “added Bao Nguyen, who is from Hanoi, Vietnam. “Furthermore, our preparation and composure also set us up for success. The projector turned off during our presentation, forcing us to present without slides for two minutes. We stood tall, smiled at the audience and kept going like during the countless practice runs we did leading up to the event.”
Birch, Nguyen and Buchenberger are part of Kelley’s Investment Management Workshop, which prepares students for successful careers in equity research, sales and trading, and private wealth management. They also are enrolled in Kelley’s highly selective Knall-Cohen Fund course, where they how to analyze industries and individual stocks. In the class, they write a report complete with an analytic model and present their stock idea to a board composed of investment professionals.
The students credited the guidance they received from their advisors, Robert Jennings, a professor emeritus of finance who has been associated with the Kelley School for 44 years, Dan Aron, a 1983 Kelley alumnus who has more than 35 years of Wall Street experience, including stints as partner and head trader at Levin Capital Strategies and as a vice president at Salomon Brothers; and Eric Crigler, finance lecturer and director of the Knall-Cohen Fund.
“The Investment Management Workshop and Knall-Cohen do an excellent job of preparing students to research and pitch stocks and that definitely shined through throughout the entire competition process,” said Birch, who is from Brooklyn, N.Y. “We have one of the best educational programs specifically for stock pitching. I’m very grateful to Bob, Dan, Eric and others for their part in helping to develop that over the years.”
Balyasny Asset Management’s competitions — held twice a year — are viewed by the firm as a regular part of its recruiting pipeline. (Photo courtesy: Balyasny Asset Management)
For the three students, the competition was a return trip to the Big Apple. Every January, students in the Investment Management Workshop visit 15 firms over a whirlwind three days.
“This gave us a first taste of Wall Street’s intensity and dynamism. We were also taught professional communication and how investment research worked. Everywhere we went, we knew to ask specific questions to the firm and communicated professionally at every turn,” Nguyen said. “As we’ve been told, the workshop turns us from students to colleagues and there’s no second chance at giving a first impression.”
“I knew BAM was inviting senior leaders and professionals to the networking dinner (the night before the competition) and felt both nervous and excited,” he added. “There, we met the head of equities, director of research and several portfolio managers, who were very down-to-earth and welcomed any questions we had. It was fascinating to learn about the research and decision-making process behind their past investments.”
Balyasny visits Kelley, shares insights with students
Coincidentally, on Feb. 20 the Kelley School welcomed Dmitry Balyasny, BAM’s managing partner and chief investment officer, for a fireside chat with students.
Balyasny is the firm’s founder, chief investment officer and managing partner. Balyasny Asset Management, L.P. began as a single, small office in Chicago trading mostly long/short equity and has grown into an institutional global platform with investment strategies spanning across equities long/short, macro, equities arbitrage, credit, commodities, systematic, and growth equity. He chairs BAM’s Investment Committee.
He began his trading career with Schonfeld Securities in 1994. Balyasny holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Loyola University Chicago. He is involved in a variety of philanthropic activities in Chicago, Illinois.
In a conversation with Josh Perry, executive associate dean for academic programs, Balyasny discussed his journey as a founder, how his firm identifies talent, and the skills that he believes are most important for an investor.