KPMG Cup Teams Tackle Business Challenges 

The Consulting Field Projects at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business is an experienced-based learning initiative where teams of graduate students develop actionable recommendations for their assigned client organization facing real-world business issues.  

This for-credit course culminates with competition among the six teams. In the fall semester of ’22, the global consulting and accounting firm of KPMG stepped up in support of the course’s end-of-term competition by providing the KPMG Cup, their prize for the best among the six student teams competing. 

The FedEx team came in first place while COE Distributing was the runner-up.  Chia-Yu Lee, a member of the PPG team, was named the best presenter. The names of the winning students are engraved on this perpetual cup, along with their faculty advisor, coach, and client organization. 

KPMG Community Impact Efforts 

“At KPMG, our Community Impact efforts focus on education and lifelong learning as we believe that is the key to unlocking potential and creating a foundation for future success,” says Chad M. Polen, managing partner at KPMG. “For KPMG this was a tremendous opportunity to partner with a number of premier local institutions and support students with real-life learning experiences to help them become better problem solvers, strategic advisers, and trusted partners who are prepared to make a difference when they graduate.” 

Associate Professor Bud Smith, Katz’s responsible faculty member, added that “At Katz, we believe real-world experience is the best teacher. This competition gives students an opportunity to apply the analytical tools and concepts learned at Katz, in addressing real business challenges. Given KPMG’s professional services breadth, we have every expectation that this prestigious firm will take our experiential learning initiatives to new heights.” 

Rigorous Competition Judged by Executives 

The inaugural KPMG Cup competition was rigorous; the three strongest of six Katz teams presented to a panel of executive judges: KPMG’s Chad Polen, former Vitro strategic planning executive Mukesh Rustagi, and Advanced Environmental Monitoring’s CEO Rodney Smith. The judges evaluated these teams based on problem identification and recommendations, value added to the client, and presentation delivery.  

First Place: FedEx Supply Chain 

Advisors: Brad Bozeman (lead executive), Blair Pomeroy (faculty advisor) and Charles Kannair (coach) 

Students: Ryan Bullett, Chia-Yi Liu, Rachel Sheridan, and Yuanzhe Ye 

Second Place: COE Distributing 

Advisors: David Thompson (executive coach) and Jennifer Shang (faculty advisor) 

Students: Daria Osiian, Xuebing Yang, and Shuying Yin

Other Teams: 

MSA 

Advisors: Ben Mauti (lead executive), Whit Little (faculty advisor) 

Students: Max Cherepinsky, Zongwei Shen, Chin-Jung Tung, and Jingsi Zheng 

PPG 

Advisors: Paul Lopez (lead executive), Bud Smith (faculty advisor) and Ron Herring (coach) 

Students: Wen-Che Hung, Chia-Yu Lee, Shayne Allan Simon and Ziwei Zhao (students) 

US Steel 

Advisors: Rob Kopf (lead executive), Ravi Madhavan (faculty advisor) and Jack Brice (coach) 

Students: Marlon Deangelo Brown, Woohyuk Choi, Jacob T LaMorte,  Katsuhiko Yamamoto  

Vox Mobile 

Advisors: Zach Fleitman (lead executive), Tom Davis (faculty advisor) and Don Wieczenski (coach) 

Students: Yuyi Ma, Chang Wang, Zichun Wang, Geng Yuan Zhang 

To learn more about the Consulting Field Project course, click here.