VILLANOVA, PA, 21 April 2008—Villanova School of Business (VSB) Master of Science in Finance students took first place, ahead of The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Drexel’s Lebow College of Business, and Temple’s Fox School of Business, in the annual Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Philadelphia Cup. VSB congratulates MSF students Elisabeth Albertus, Robert Diamond, Sanjay Khindri, and Scott Williams. The foursome—all of whom are 2008 degree candidates—took home the first place trophy and a grand prize of $10,000 in the ACG Business Case Competition.

The ACG Cup was launched in 2007 and seeks to bring together the best and brightest MBA and MSF candidates of the Philadelphia region. This year, each team was charged with analyzing and presenting their recommendations to a complex buy-side investment banking case which required a combination of corporate strategy, finance, and valuation skills. A panel of distinguished faculty and senior-level private equity/investment banking professionals served as judges and determined the winning teams from each school.

In addition to the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and Temple University, students from Penn State, St. Joseph’s, and LaSalle also participated in the challenge. Second and third place prizes were awarded to Temple and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively.

Simone Pollard, Villanova School of Business Assistant Dean of Graduate Business Programs, expressed her gratitude to VSB’s winning team. “We are extremely pleased with our MSF students’ success in this competition. This first place ranking underscores VSB’s standing in the local region as a premier institution for graduate business education.”

The Villanova School of Business serves more than 2,500 students across its graduate and undergraduate business programs. The campus is located on Philadelphia’s Main Line, just 12 miles west of center city. In addition to its MBA programs, the school offers graduate programs in accounting, technology management, church management, and finance. The VSB Part-Time MBA Program is ranked #11 in the nation. More at www.business.villanova.edu.

Founded in 1954, the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) is a global association for professionals involved in corporate growth, corporate development, and mergers and acquisitions.

ACG Philadelphia, which is one of the largest of ACG's 53 chapters in North America and Europe, hosts high-quality educational programs and the networking opportunities to meet the needs of the corporate growth and M&A community in the Greater Philadelphia region. These include monthly Executive Briefings, Corporate Executive Dinner Series and semi-annual Private Equity Deal Makers' Workshops along with the annual M&A East Conference attended by more than 1,100 executives from across the country. More at www.acg.org/philadelphia.