Fourth Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition draws fifteen student teams
Ithaca, NY, November 7, 2012 - Students from fifteen of the top undergraduate real estate programs in the world will compete for a share of $16,000 in prize money at the fourth annual Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition on November 15, 2012. The competition, organized by the Center for Real Estate and Finance at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, will be held at the TIAA-CREF headquarters in New York City.
Ithaca, NY, November 7, 2012 - Students from fifteen of the top undergraduate real estate programs in the world will compete for a share of $16,000 in prize money at the fourth annual Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition on November 15, 2012. The competition, organized by the Center for Real Estate and Finance at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, will be held at the TIAA-CREF headquarters in New York City.
"In just four years, the Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition has grown to be the largest such competition in the world. The caliber of the teams—their analyses, presentations, and professionalism—gets better every year, and we now have student teams from five different countries," said competition organizer Daniel Quan, Singapore Tourism Board Distinguished Professor in Asian Hospitality Management at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration.
Five days before the presentations, the teams will receive information regarding a real estate case that is based on an actual transaction. In that five-day period, the six-member student teams must analyze and make recommendations on the case. They will present their conclusions before a panel of judges who are distinguished real estate professionals. After a preliminary presentation round, three remaining finalist teams will present their case solution to the full panel of judges.
Participating schools are the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Cornell University, Indiana University, Maastricht University, New York University, Pennsylvania State University, Remin University of China, University of Cambridge, University of Connecticut, University of Guelph, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Villanova University.
"The industry has been very supportive of the competition from the start, and this has helped us provide an outstanding educational and professional opportunity for the students," said Jan A. deRoos, executive director of the Center for Real Estate and Finance. "Our sponsors and judges represent some of the top firms in international real estate, and we are grateful for their support."
Sponsors for the competition are Archon Hospitality/Goldman Sachs, AREA Property Partners, BlackRock, Clarion Partners, CreXus Investment Corporation, GTIS, National Realty and Development Corporation, New York Women Executives in Real Estate, Prudential Real Estate Investors, Sawyer Realty Holdings, TIAA-CREF, and Westbrook Partners.
Judges for the competition are John E. Beaman, head Claros trader, AREA Property Partners; Greg Fay, CFO, Archon Group and Goldman Sachs; Sally Gordon, managing director, Risk and Quantitative Analysis Group, BlackRock; Joanna Mulford, principal, Prudential Real Estate Investors; John G. Orrico, president, National Realty and Development Corp.; Thad Paul, managing director, The Carlyle Group; Michael Profenius, senior partner, Head of Business Development, Grove International Partners; Kevin Riordan, president and CEO, CreXus Investment Corp Annaly Capital Management; Paula Schaefer, New York Women Executives in Real Estate; Sush Torgalkar, chief operating officer, Westbrook Partners; Robert Vahradian, senior managing director, GTIS; Tim Wang, senior vice president, Head of Investment Research, Clarion Partners; and Shannon Wright, director of global real estate strategy and research, TIAA-CREF.
Established in 2009, the Center for Real Estate and Finance provides a platform for educating students, creating new knowledge through research activities, and exchanging information about real estate with a broad set of audiences. CREF is at the forefront of research in all areas of commercial real estate, from the study of the behavior of real estate assets in investment portfolios to an understanding of real estate capital markets to the science of hedging real estate risk. To learn more about CREF, visit www.cref.cornell.edu.
CREF Friends: AREA Property Partners • BlackRock • Clarion Partners • Commercial Mortgage Alert • GTIS Partners • Mid-America Management Corp • TIAA-CREF • Westport Capital Partners LLC • Westbrook Partners