Global Challenge Won By UConn Grad Students, With 1 From Branford

STAMFORD, CT — Gov. Ned Lamont, UConn Interim President Radenka Maric and School of Business Dean John A. Elliott honored five graduate students whose investment prowess beat almost 500 teams worldwide, capturing the top award in the 2021 Bloomberg Global Trading Challenge.

And Matt Ciaburro, of Branford is one of them.

Using the lessons learned through their academic program, their trading portfolio for the competition surpassed a Bloomberg benchmark by more than $467,000 and topped the second-place finishers by more than $100,000.

The graduate students are all in the Financial Risk Management program at UConn’s Stamford campus, include: team leader Sayem Lincoln; Jayabhushan Nallakannu, Varun Katari, Keish and Matt Ciaburro, of Branford. The team adviser was finance professor Michel Rakotomavo.

Lamont told the students that their achievement was remarkable, and that he was impressed by their strategy of investing in promising, underdog companies with expertise in everything from vaccines to electric vehicles to cryptocurrency. He said they bring a youthful perspective to identifying promising investments.

"We really want young people like you to stay in Connecticut," he said at the ceremony in Stamford. He encouraged them to meet with the state treasurer to discuss investment strategy and to consider establishing their careers here.

The students said they were honored and humbled by the attention.

"This is exciting. You don’t get to see the governor, in person, every day," Lincoln said.

"Or to be the reason why he’s here," Keish added.

Maric also praised the accomplishment of the students, three of whom also earned their undergraduate degrees at UConn.

"At UConn, we don’t only produce the best basketball players, but also those who compete internationally in academics," she said. “We have students who want to innovate, who want to do research, and who want to stay in Connecticut.”