Mays team wins regional round of Deloitte’s FanTAXtic case competition

A team of five students representing Mays Business School won 1^st place in the Houston regional round of the 2013 Deloitte FanTAXtic case competition. The team was comprised of graduate student Cameron Doe, senior PPA students Will Cummings and Shawn Morgan and sophomore honors students Sam Richter and Andrew Winker.

In advance of the competition, the students spent nearly three weeks analyzing a rigorous tax case and formulating recommendations for a hypothetical company. The team engaged in extensive tax research, delegated responsibility for each case topic among themselves and frequently met to discuss their progress and share ideas. Accounting Professor Dennis Lassila served as the team’s faculty advisor during this research phase.

As the team members worked on finalizing their actual presentation, accounting Executive Professor Kevin Roach advised the students on presentation techniques and helped them prepare for the question-and-answer component of the presentation.

However, there was a twist on the day of the competition: the teams were given a major new piece of information and had one hour to revise their strategies before delivering their final presentations to a panel of Deloitte partners. The students were unable to receive help from faculty advisors during this final phase.

The Texas A&M team competed against teams from several other schools, including the University of Houston and former national winner University of Texas, before taking the top prize. “Our team members did an excellent job presenting their recommendations in a very compelling way,” said Roach. “After the presentation and during our team debrief, the students knew that they had done an excellent job.”

The Mays team, along with eight other regional winners, will progress to the national round of the competition in January 2014. Other teams advancing to the national round represent schools including Brigham Young University, University of Southern California and University of Wisconsin.

The event will be held at Deloitte University, Deloitte’s learning and leadership development center located in the Dallas area. The winning teams will receive financial rewards for themselves and their schools.

“I believe that our team from Texas A&M will do very well in this competition, as every member of the team has very strong analytical and presentation skills,” said Roach. “They also have a team chemistry that is outstanding.”

Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries work with clients in four key business areas — audit, financial advisory, tax, and consulting. The company maintains a strong presence at Texas A&M and recruits numerous Mays interns and graduates each year.

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.