A big congratulations to CBS for taking both 1st and 2nd place in the ABI Corporate Restructuring Competition!
The $6,000 first place was awarded to Colin McCarthy '16, Mark Reynolds '16, Wariz Anifowoshe '16 and Andrew Longley '16, and the $3,500 second place was awarded to Ari David '16, Catalin Cibu '16, Robert Dellinger '16 and Adam Yoran '16. Two teams of Columbia Business School students earned the top honors at the American Bankruptcy Institute Corporate Restructuring Competition, besting 10 other schools at the 11th annual event hosted by The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on November 7.
Students were given just a week to solve a hypothetical complex business restructuring case and present their proposed solutions to judges representing key industry stakeholders. Other top schools competing this year were Northwestern University (Kellogg School), NYU (Stern), Duke University (Fuqua), University of Virginia (Darden), defending champion University of Pennsylvania (The Wharton School), University of Chicago (Booth) and Yale School of Management, which also sent two teams.
In addition to the case presentations, the competition featured a sponsored networking dinner keynoted by Dr. Edward I. Altman, the Max L. Heine Professor of Finance at New York University Stern School of Business. An awards reception also followed the final round of the competition. This year's competition was chaired by Will Sudgen (Alston & Bird LLP), who was assisted by Steve Darr (Mesirow Financial Consulting), Sage Sigler (Alston & Bird LLP) and chair-emeritus Tom Morrow (AlixPartners LLP). Others serving as competition judges of both the oral presentations and the written deliverables included Robert Axenrod (CRG Partners), Eric Blake (Mesirow Financial Consulting), Suzanne Boyd (Alston & Bird LLP), Mort Branzburg (Klehr Harrison), Mark Buschmann (Blackstone), Kathryn Coleman (Hughes Hubbard & Reed), Dan Dooley (MorrisAnderson), Joe Fallon (Blackstone), Eric Fromme (Jeffer Mangels), Kevin Hembree (Alston & Bird LLP), Tom Kirby (Deutsche Bank), Teresa Kohl (SSG Capital Advisors), Lisa Poulin (Deloitte), Charles Reardon (Asgaard Capital), Suzanne Roski (Protiviti), Gary Schildhorn (Eckert Seamans), Russ Silbergleid (Richards Layton & Finger), Pat Tinker (Office of the U.S. Trustee), Lowell Thomas (AlixPartners LLP), David Vanaskey (Wilmington Trust Company) and Spencer Ware (AlixPartners LLP).
ABI thanks the major sponsors of this year's competition, including AlixPartners LLP, Alston & Bird LLP, Blackstone, Deloitte and Mesirow Financial Consulting.