Find the best and brightest MBAs with a passion for investing, deepen relationships with industry peers and amplify your brand through the Alpha Challenge, the pre-eminent investment pitch competition! Please join us for the 22nd annual event which includes the equity and credit pitch competition, Buyside for All, Director of Research Roundtable, Judges Dinner and Interview Day.
Held annually the week after Thanksgiving, the Alpha Challenge is UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Business School premier MBA event in the investment management industry. The Alpha Challenge pits three-person teams from top MBA programs against one another in a competition focused on long equity and credit investment strategies. An internal competition determines the equity and credit teams representing UNC Kenan-Flagler. Each team is required to have at least two first-year students and one female student.
UNC Kenan-Flagler has a great track record at the event, winning in 2017, taking second and third positions in 2020, and finishing second in both equities and credit in 2021. In 2022, UNC Kenan-Flagler students had their most successful year taking first place in both equities and credit. In 2023, UNC Kenan-Flagler placed second and third in credit. In 2024, our team placed first and third in the equity bracket. Last year in 2025, our UNC Kenan-Flagler equity team came in third place.
The Investment Management for All: Wealth & Women is our newest event, launched in 2024. The Investment Management Industry can be intimidating from the outside, particularly for underrepresented groups. Join us in breaking down those barriers to introduce the different career paths within the industry and the nuances of each. Together, let’s make Investment Management for ALL.
What to expect: this event will include speed networking, vertical specific workshops, networking lunch and reception, and small group pitch coaching and informational chats. All Investment Firms welcome such as public equity & credit, private equity & credit, sell research, asset owners, private wealth and capital allocators, quant firms and consultants. Investment Management for All Event Agenda.
Alpha Challenge
Student Leadership Committee
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Paraag Megharaj, IM Club President
Paraag Megharaj, IM Club President
Paraag Megharaj is President of the Investment Management Club and a member of the AIM student-managed fund at UNC Kenan-Flagler. In the summer of 2026, he worked as an Equity Research Summer Associate at William Blair in Chicago. During his first year at Kenan-Flagler, he competed in the Alpha Challenge Stock Pitch Competition, one of the nation’s premier investment competitions, where his team placed third.
Prior to business school, Paraag spent eight years as an Embedded Software Engineer, working at leading consumer electronics companies including Roku and Garmin.
Athreya Ramkumar, Alpha Challenge Equity Chair
Athreya Ramkumar, Alpha Challenge Equity Chair
Athreya Ramkumar is the Executive Vice President and Alpha Challenge Chair (Equity) of the Investment Management Club. During his first year at Kenan-Flagler, he competed in the equity bracket of the Alpha Challenge, where his team secured a third-place finish. Prior to business school, Athreya worked as an Equity Research Analyst at ithought, a boutique investment management firm in India.
Princy Chhajed, Alpha Challenge Credit Chair
Princy Chhajed, Alpha Challenge Credit Chair
Princy Chhajed is the Alpha Challenge Credit Chair for the Investment Management Club. She has competed in the Credit bracket of UNC’s Alpha Challenge and participated in UCLA’s Credit Pitch Competition.
Prior to her MBA, Princy worked as a buy-side research analyst at Axis Asset Management Company, where she focused on private credit and private equity investments.
She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from HR College of Commerce and Economics. She is a Chartered Accountant (India’s equivalent of a CPA) and has completed all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Program.
Karly Burton, Alpha Challenge PWM Chair
Karly Burton, Alpha Challenge PWM Chair
Karly Burton is Chair of the Private Wealth Management bracket of the Alpha Challenge and Vice President of Alumni Relations for Carolina Women in Business at UNC Kenan-Flagler. Karly is currently a second-year MBA candidate in the Class of 2027. She also serves as PWM/Asset & Wealth Management Lead for the Investment Management Club. In the summer of 2026, she worked as a Summer Associate at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in New York, where she will return full time as a Senior Associate upon graduation. Prior to business school, Karly was a professional ballet dancer.
Harshita Vadlamudi, IM4A Chair
Harshita Vadlamudi, IM4A Chair
Harshita is the VP of Learning and Development for the 2026-27 Investment Management Club. In Spring 2025, she worked with Coolpact Capital Advisors and Training the Street. Harshita is building her alternative investments expertise through her MBA, placing with a family office through the PRIME Program where she performed due diligence on Venture Capital and Private Equity funds as a student consultant. She began her career at JPMorgan, where she worked in Derivatives valuation, and then at HSBC, where she worked in sell side rates research.
The Center for Excellence in Investment Management at UNC Kenan-Flagler inspires a passion for investing within our students through real-world experiences, creating leaders uniquely empowered to take the industry into the future. Our primary goal includes creating a community of professionals engaged in lifelong learning and career development in all investment management disciplines: public and private equity and credit, capital allocation, private wealth management and quant.