Application Deadline: February 1st 2019
The Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge seeks to identify outstanding proposals offering novel investment strategies to meet some of the most pressing global challenges ahead.
The Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge harnesses the power of capital markets and student creativity to create positive impact in a world of perpetual resource scarcity and continued population growth. Every year, the Kellogg School of Management and Morgan Stanley partner to host the challenge where teams of graduate students from around the globe develop and pitch creative financial approaches to tackle our world’s most pressing challenges.
Contestants must propose and defend a strategy that uses finance and investment tools rather than an operating enterprise to address an environmental or societal challenge. The competition is an opportunity to apply core finance principles to target the economic, social and environmental challenges that drive the field of sustainable investing. Pitches might focus on areas like water, energy, food, social mobility, climate change, education or healthcare, among others. Contestants are encouraged to apply the entire spectrum of investment tools, styles and asset classes.
The Challenge seeks to identify the next generation of sustainable finance practitioners, connect emerging leaders with industry professionals, and foster even greater emphasis on sustainability at graduate schools around the world.
This competition requires you to propose and defend a sustainable impact investment strategy that uses finance and investment tools to create an innovative solution to an environmental or societal challenge. Integral to this competition are first, that you are creating a financial vehicle, and second, that your financial vehicle will have social impact.
Institutions seeking investments may include but are not limited to:
- University Endowments
- Retirement and Pension Funds
- Family Foundations
- Family Offices
The proposal must be a fit for an institutional investor who is seeking:
- Both competitive returns and positive social and/or environmental impact
- Risk management that is commensurate with the target returns
- Transparent performance metrics for both the financial and social return
- Clear linkage between program outcomes and social impact
The institutions are open to multiple asset classes, including but not limited to:
- Private equity/venture capital
- Real assets
- Public equities
- Fixed income securities
- Microfinance lending and investing
Benefits:
The Organizers will provide airfare and two nights lodging for the ten finalist teams.
Eligibility
Graduate students from around the world are invited to participate in the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge.
Teams are limited to a maximum of four members, all of whom must be enrolled in a graduate program at the time of the prospectus submission, and the team cannot include more than one member who is pursuing an Executive MBA.
A team may include members from different graduate schools.
All ideas must be the original ideas of the team members.
Each team is required to submit a two-page prospectus outlining their proposal. From the submitted prospectuses, ten teams will be selected to present at the finals competition. At least one team member should be available to present at the finals competition, if the team is chosen to advance to that round, and all team members attending the finals competition should plan to stay for the entire event. Please note that any team member not in attendance at the finals competition will not share in any prizes awarded to that team.
Student Prospectus Submission
Please click on “Submit a Prospectus” to submit your two page prospectus. Remove all identifying student name and school information from the prospectus before submission.
Finals Competition
The ten teams selected from the previous round will convene on April 12, 2019 at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong for a day-long competition. Each team will have 10 minutes to present its pitch to a panel of judges and will be expected to answer 10 minutes of questions from the selection panel. Presentation suggestions are provided below.
The selection panel will be composed of experienced institutional investors and officers of foundation funds and endowments, as well as other professionals in the field. The same selection criteria will be used in the first and second rounds of competition.
Awards:
$15,000 in prizes will be awarded to the winning teams. Awards will be made for the overall quality of the proposals based on the judging criteria.
- Overall First Place: $10,000
- Overall Runner-Up: $5,000
Along with the overall first place prize money of $10,000, the winning team will be invited to attend and present on a panel with Dave Chen, CEO and Principal of Equilibrium Capital and co-founder of the Challenge at the Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles. The conference convenes approximately 3,500 of the best minds in the world to tackle the most stubborn challenges.
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable investing Challenge 2019
