April 28, 2017 -- Trusted Insight is pleased to announce that Eric Masters, Frank Trager, Carlos Gomez and Clarisa Bonilla from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management are the grand prize winners of the Trusted Insight Venture Capital Fund Development Competition, or VCDC. The winning team was awarded a $4,000 cash prize.

Five finalist teams competed on Thursday, April 27 at the Cooley LLP law offices to prove that their mock venture capital funds are worthy of institutional capital. The students were assessed on their venture fundraising and deal selection skills.  

Finalists included teams of MBA students from Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management, University of Washington - Foster School of Business, University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School, Dartmouth College - Tuck School of Business and Harvard University - Harvard Business School.

The judges selected Northwestern’s group for the diverse skill sets represented among its team members, their extensive research and their ability to articulate their investment strategy.

“I thought you did a particularly good job of demonstrating where you were going to find deals, how you were going to work with different people who will contribute value and how you were going to bring the strategy to life,” Jason Klein, VCDC judge and chief investment officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said to the Northwestern team moments before announcing the winner.

Klein was joined at the judges panel by David Chiang, managing director of private equity at Soros Fund Management, and Kim Lew, the chief investment officer at Carnegie Corporation.  

The team from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was a close runner-up. For their hard work, the team was awarded a $1,000 second place cash prize.

The finalists were selected from an initial group of 25 teams from some of the world’s top business schools. Trusted Insight would like to extend a special thank you to the MBA student competitors, our esteemed panel of judges and Cooley LLP for making this event possible.