UCLA Sharpe Fellows Case and Stock Pitch Competition: Maximizing the Impact of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles - Final Round and Reception

To capture the excitement of the upcoming Olympics and Paralympic games in Los Angeles and the UCLA Strategic Plan, the UCLA Alumni Association and the City of Los Angeles are proud to announce the inaugural UCLA Case and Stock Pitch Competition: Maximizing the Impact of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles will be taking place on Friday, Feb. 23, at UCLA.

We are extending the opportunity for you to view the fresh perspectives of the Sharpe Fellows, which are some of the best undergraduate students going into business at UCLA. You are invited to attend the final round of either the case or stock pitch competition and the reception to follow.

Light appetizers and non-alcoholic beverages will be served during the reception from 3:05 to 5 p.m. at the James West Alumni Center. Admission is complimentary. Space is limited.

UCLA Sharpe Fellows Case Competition

2 – 3:05 p.m. Final Round

The Case competition is for the consulting and technology track of cross-functional teams. Teams are to pitch a social impact partnership involving a major brand, the City of Los Angeles and LA28 to achieve at least one of the following goals:

1. Increase the economic benefit to local and underrepresented business
2. Maximize public benefit to the local workforce, including low-wage workers, historically underserved populations, students, young adults, veterans, formerly foster youth, justice-impacted communities, people experiencing homelessness and/or immigrant communities
3. Advance the City's sustainability goals

UCLA Sharpe Fellows Stock Pitch Competition

2 – 3:05 p.m. Final Round

The Stock Pitch Competition is for the investment banking and finance track of cross-functional teams. Teams are to pitch a public company to buy stock in that the team believes will benefit the most from LA28. Special consideration will be given in judging to pitches that address the following:

1. Director benefit to the Los Angeles region
2. The company's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) metrics

The reception includes the announcement of the winners and remarks by the following speakers:

Meet the Speakers

Lizzeth Rosales, MBA ʼ20, is the director of environmental justice at the City of Los Angeles Office of Mayor Karen Bass. In this role, she develops strategies to reduce cumulative impacts and prioritize benefits for under-resourced communities. She currently co-chairs the L.A. City/County Just Transition Task Force and represents the Mayor’s Office in the LA28 Sustainability Working Group. Prior to joining the Mayor’s Office, Rosales was a FUSE executive fellow at the Los Angeles County’s Anti-racism, Diversity, and Inclusion Initiative, supporting the creation of the County’s first Racial Equity Strategic Plan. She has over two decades of experience working in partnership with impacted communities to increase access to social determinants of health, bringing a racial equity lens to her public policy work. Rosales holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a B.A. in Government from Harvard University.

Matt Kaczmarek ʼ04 is a managing director and head of private debt market strategy and sustainable investing at BlackRock. He leads a team positioning BlackRock to drive the rapid growth of global private debt markets by growing and expanding investment strategies and capabilities, and developing investment solutions to meet evolving investor needs. His team also aligns BlackRock’s leadership in sustainable and transition investing and strong track record in private debt to deliver innovative sustainable investment solutions, market-leading ESG integration, and technology-enabled sustainability data and reporting. Kaczmarek received a B.A. from UCLA in 2004 and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins in 2009. He currently serves as a board member for the UCLA Alumni Association.

John Larson '08, M.S. '11, is an associate partner in McKinsey’s Los Angeles office whose work focuses using cloud software and AI in customer and service operations to improve customer experience, increase employee productivity and maximize lifetime value. He works with public and private sector clients on strategy, planning, and implementation and investors and technology companies on due diligence, value creation and growth strategy. He is the 2024 winner of McKinsey’s global knowledge award, the Gluck Award, for his work on generative AI which includes leading the first fully scaled production client deployment of an LLM and co-leading McKinsey’s Generative AI Labs R&D client assets council. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from UCLA.

Shalom Staub is assistant dean and executive director of UCLA's Center for Community Engagement. He has been involved in collaborative, community-engaged program development, pedagogy and research over his multi-sector 42-year professional career in state government, the private nonprofit sector and higher education. At the Center since 2018, he oversees community-engaged course development at UCLA's study away program in Washington and Sacramento, the Mellon Social Justice Curriculum Initiative, AmeriCorps service programs Jumpstart and Justice Corps, and services for L.A. youth in workforce development and afterschool programs. Shalom has been leading the planning and implementation of Goal 1 of UCLA's new Strategic Plan: Deepening UCLA's Engagement with Los Angeles. He received his B.A. and M.A. in anthropology from Wesleyan University, and a Ph.D. in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania.

Abinet Abate, MBA ʼ17 - Product Management, Microsoft

Carolyn King '02, MBA ʼ12 - Head of Marketing, Chronosphere

Dean Florez ʼ87 - President and CEO, Balance Inc.

Elizabeth Obershaw ʼ81 - Managing Director (Retired)

Felipe Cusnir, MBA ʼ13 - CEO, Swell Capital Inc.

Forbes Bainou ʼ16 - Vice President, Investment Banking, Bank of America

Gary Fraser - Associate Dean, Full-Time MBA Program, UCLA Anderson

Jay Raval, MBA ʼ22 - Product Manager, TikTok

Joel Lanzaga, MBA ʼ16 - Finance Manager, Amazon Ads

John Larson ʼ08, M.S. ʼ11 - Associate Partner, Digital & Service Operations, McKinsey & Company

Lizzeth Rosales, MBA ʼ20 - Director of Environmental Justice, City of Los Angeles Office of Mayor Karen Bass

Matt Kaczmarek ʼ04 - Managing Director, BlackRock

Mike Sanghvi ʼ15 - Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Standifer Capital

Ron Mass ʼ87 - Managing Principal, Almitas Capital

Shalom Staub - Assistant Dean and Executive Director of UCLA's Center for Community Engagement

Steph Lee, MBA ʼ19 - Senior Manager, Business Development, Amazon

Teodoro (Ted) Ramirez ʼ83, M.A. ʼ92 - Owner, Echo Park Capital Advisors

Toby Mills ʼ14 - Product Manager, Apple

Vaibhav Ajmera, MBA ʼ23- Vice President of Finance and Business Intelligence, Fidelity National Financial

Contact us at ace@support.ucla.edu to learn more about our offerings or to partner with us.