UT Austin Wins Third Annual UC Davis-Financial Times Biz Quiz

What monetary measure is China likely to take to offset Trump’s planned tariffs on Chinese products?

This was just one of over 180 global business news questions posed to nine teams from business schools throughout California and the nation that went head-to-head in the third annual UC Davis-Financial Times Biz Quiz hosted by the Graduate School of Management on Nov. 15-16. (See the answer below)

Held at the UC Davis Conference Center, the Jeopardy-like buzz-in quiz contest challenged the graduate business students and spectators alike to test their knowledge of the global news cycle. Answering questions drawn from Financial Times content required both quick reflexes and speedy recall of current events in business, economics and politics from the previous six weeks.

Team and Individuals Winners

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After four rounds of head-to-head competition, the team from the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business came out on top, winning $3,000; the Rutgers Business School team took second and $2,400—after a nail-biting tiebreaking written test—and the Sacramento State team placed third to take home $1,800 in prize money.

Two teams of UC Davis MBA students joined competitors from California business schools from Cal Poly Pomona, CSU Fullerton, Sacramento State, UC San Diego's Rady School of Management and University of San Francisco, in addition to Rutgers Business School in New Jersey and the University of Texas at Austin.

The final round and awards ceremony was livestreamed by the Financial Times, bringing the excitement of the competition to a national and international audience.

As a warm up with cash prizes on the day before the team competition, each of the team members took a 45-minute written test with 60 questions from FT content. The individual winners were Rafael Perez of Sacramento State and Michael Brick of Rutgers who shared first place, each winning $1,000. Karan Kanatala of UT Austin took home second place and earned $800, while UC Davis' Priti Rumde secured third place with a prize of $600.

For the first time, this year's Biz Quiz allowed individuals to log in and take the same timed written test as the team members. Sakeet Kopparapu emerged as the individual online winner and took home $600.

All total, The Financial Times awarded $11,200 to the teams and individual winners.

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Insider's View on the Evolution of Impact Investing

The Biz Quiz event kicked off Friday evening with an exclusive, livestreamed interview with Silicon Valley venture capitalist Nancy Pfund, founder and managing partner at DBL Partners. Stephen Morris, the San Francisco bureau chief at Financial Times, led a spirited conversation with Pfund, who shared about her background, career path and her success in impact investing. 

Pfund spoke about the influence of her parents—her father, a patent attorney, and her mother, a political activist. She said the exposure to the worlds of inventions and community outreach were influential in her journey.

She worked at Intel Corporation, the State of California, Stanford University and the Sierra Club before joining investment bank Hambrecht & Quist, later acquired by Chase/J.P. Morgan. She then spun off her own firm, DBL (Double Bottom Line) Partners, headquartered in San Francisco.

She said DBL invests in early stage ventures that have the potential to deliver top-tier venture capital returns (first bottom line) combined with social, environmental and economic improvement (second bottom line).

Pfund shared the backstory about her early investment in Tesla in 2006 when others ridiculed the idea of electric cars transforming the auto industry—which has since grown into a portfolio of ground-breaking companies led by Elon Musk, including battery storage, solar power, automation, AI, social media, rocket boosters and space exploration.

Cultivating Informed Business Leaders—and FT Readers

Near the end of the Biz Quiz, the FT's Stephen Morris praised the competition's nationwide reach and the students' impressive performance.

"For a publication like The Financial Times, we rely on these students, people in business, to become our next generation of readers."

— Stephen Morris, San Francisco Bureau Chief for The Financial Times

Morris emphasized the importance of seeing graduate students actively engaging with global business news, adding that sponsoring events like the Biz Quiz is "not only a privilege, but a necessity to make sure journalism like ours continues to thrive."

(Now, to answer that question—China is expected to depreciate its currency to offset Trump’s planned tariffs.)

View Photos

Click to enlarge gallery with more information.

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Full-time MBA students were divided into two teams for UC Davis in the third annual Biz Quiz (pictured left to right): Peijie Liao, Adeyemi Olalemi, Shabdita Pareek, Professor Ayako Yasuda, Priti Rumde, Oyindamola Odunmarayo, and Dinesh Chowdary Nettem.

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Anugrah Singh, Ankit Shingala, and Michael Brick from Team Rutgers react during a tense moment in a quiz competition.

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UC Davis' Priti Rumde earned third place in the individual winner competition, taking home a $600 prize.

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Teams from UC Davis, Cal Poly Pomona, CSU Fullerton, Sacramento State, UC San Diego's Rady School of Management and University of San Francisco, Rutgers Business School and the University of Texas at Austin participated in this year's Biz Quiz.