When the inaugural UVA CRX Credit Pitch Competition launched this spring, it did more than establish a new arena for financial analysis. The event revealed a striking shift in how students approach credit and restructuring: a move toward deeper collaboration that defies traditional institutional boundaries. This shift was best embodied by the winning team, a group of students whose membership stretched from the East Coast to the Pacific.
Organized by the UVA CRX Club executive team of Commerce fourth-years Arjun Jagannathan, Zach Marshall, Alexandra Ofsie, and Max Rudikoff, the competition was designed as a two-round marathon to bridge the gap between academic theory and the high-stakes reality of credit markets. By opening the field to schools like the University of Pennsylvania, UT Austin, and Claremont McKenna, the organizers moved McIntire beyond Grounds to create a national crossroads for credit and restructuring talent.
The first-place honors went to a team that personified this borderless approach: UVA Economics major Rishi Jain (A&S ’27), Eric Li (UC Berkeley), and Simone Rothaupt and Brenner Thornton (UNC Chapel Hill). Rather than staying within their respective school bubbles, these four students built their team through mutual friends and professional networks, forming a cross-country collective.
“The best part was connecting with other undergraduates who are genuinely passionate about credit and restructuring,” says Eric. “It is a small corner of finance, and it was energizing to find a community around it.”
The team’s formation was as much about shared interest as it was about technical ability. “I met Eric through a mutual friend at UVA, and he later introduced me to Brenner and Simone through their work leading UNC’s credit and restructuring organization,” Rishi explains. Brenner adds that the group was built from a desire to learn from peers with varied viewpoints. “We developed a team from our friends and built a friendship from there,” he notes.
The group approached their pitch on global chemical company Tronox with a depth of research that stood out in a highly competitive field. But they didn’t just model financials; they analyzed Chinese export data on titanium dioxide and interviewed former employees of the firm’s competitors. “We invested significant time in primary research and data analysis,” says Eric. “That groundwork really showed during the Q&A, where we spoke confidently about everything from free cash flow mechanics to macro-level dynamics driven by global events.”
The complexity of the case was met with equal intensity by the judging panel. By bringing in industry heavyweights, the CRX Club raised the stakes from a student exercise to a professional defense. The judges included Steve Tesoriere (McIntire ’00), Managing Director, Oaktree Capital Management; Kevin Mahony (McIntire ’10), Senior Managing Director, Centerbridge Partners; Ed Testerman (McIntire ’06), Partner, King Street Capital; Jamie Baird, Partner, PJT Partners; and Lauren Bilzin, Partner, Paul, Weiss.
The CRX executive team managed every facet of the national event, from coordinating travel and hotel accommodations to drafting prompts that would challenge a diverse range of finalists. “As organizers, we had to both think through how participants would interpret the prompts and evaluate their work from a judge’s perspective,” the executive team says. “It required a greater level of clarity and attention to detail than we initially anticipated.”
For Simone, the experience was a full-circle moment in institutional growth. “Our CRX Club at UNC was modeled off of distressed investing clubs at other universities such as UVA,” she says. “It was great to meet the students who started the club and hear about their experiences.”
“This was a fantastic launch to the UVA CRX Credit Pitch Competition,” adds Professor David C. Smith, adviser to the UVA CRX Club. “The execution by the executive team was perfect, the judging panel was phenomenal, and the cross-country participation by student teams attested to the national exposure of our CRX Club. But the fun surprise was that the winning team itself consisted of a group of four students representing three different schools. I love seeing that groups of students with a passion for credit and restructuring are popping up around the country and sharing this passion through both collaboration and competition.”
Hosted by McIntire’s Center for Investors and Financial Markets (CIFM) and supported by corporate sponsors Oaktree Capital, Octus, and The Pulse, the competition concluded not only with the presentation of a trophy, but also with the creation of new professional networks. By prioritizing shared expertise over school rivalry, the inaugural CRX Credit Pitch Competition made clear that in the modern credit landscape, the most valuable asset is a national network.
