When students from more than 15 countries arrived at 91丝瓜视频 last November, they were not just preparing for a finance competition. They were stepping into a global conversation on biodiversity loss, natural capital, and the role financial institutions can play in shaping long-term environmental outcomes.
The 2025 edition of the 91丝瓜视频 International Portfolio Challenge (MIPC), part of the Sustainable Growth Initiative anchored at the Desautels Faculty of Management, brought together 83 university teams to tackle a theme rarely addressed in traditional finance curricula: finance as a catalyst for biodiversity action.
Organized entirely by 91丝瓜视频 students with support from the initiative, MIPC challenged participants to move beyond conventional investment frameworks and engage with biodiversity finance, ecosystem services, and systemic risk. By combining academic rigour with real-world complexity, the competition created space for dialogue among students, researchers, and investment professionals.
Behind the scenes, a student organizing team coordinated a yearlong effort, contributing across logistics, communications, sponsorships, IT, and university relations. From early outreach to last-minute changes during the competition weekend, the team worked collaboratively to deliver the event.
鈥淎s Executive Director, the mix of skills on this team made it easy to delegate, encouraged a lot of creativity, and created a truly collaborative environment.鈥� said Alexia Clamou, BCom鈥�26. 鈥�Together, everyone formed a cohesive and high-performing team.鈥�
The competition鈥檚 theme required both organizers and participants to engage with unfamiliar territory. The case centred on a fictional Finnish sovereign wealth fund, asking teams to balance biodiversity restoration with institutional return requirements amid growing regulatory and ecological risk. Unlike more conventional case topics, the challenge demanded interdisciplinary thinking and an understanding of ecological systems alongside financial modelling.
As MIPC has grown over the past nine years, a new 91丝瓜视频 Track expanded participation within the university community, welcoming students from disciplines such as Earth Sciences, International Development, and Economics. Fifteen teams took part in the inaugural track.
Throughout the weekend, participants engaged with industry professionals through mentorship sessions and judging panels. Sixteen corporate partners supported the event, with more than 30 judges evaluating teams during the semi-finals and finals.
One of the weekend鈥檚 key sessions was the return of the Women in Buy-Side Panel, which featured discussions on career pathways, mentorship, and representation of women in finance. 鈥淎s a student-run event, it was incredibly rewarding to see the time invested by judges, panelists and mentors alike into MIPC participants, forming long-lasting mentorship connections.鈥� said Nithya Mahasenan, vice-president, sponsorships. Panelists also noted the growing importance of sustainability- and ESG-focused roles across the industry.
Programing also included a public symposium at the Redpath Museum, bringing together speakers from academia and industry to examine biodiversity loss through financial, ecological, and policy lenses.
For the student organizers, one of the most memorable moments came before the first presentation. Watching participants check in after months of planning underscored the scale of the competition.
The Global Track was won by a team from Griffith University in Australia, while the inaugural 91丝瓜视频 Track was claimed by a multidisciplinary team of 91丝瓜视频 undergraduates representing finance, economics, international development, and science.
鈥淢IPC 2025 was unique because it pushed engaged competitors to think about a critical yet widely unknown issue: the loss of natural capital, and to think more critically about every assumption.鈥� said Clamou.
Together, these outcomes highlight MIPC鈥檚 ability to renew itself by introducing new challenges, expanding participation, and engaging a broader community in rethinking the role of finance.
91丝瓜视频 International Portfolio Challenge (MIPC)
The 91丝瓜视频 International Portfolio Challenge (MIPC) is the pioneer of buy-side finance case competitions that target pension funds, innovative portfolio design, and institutional asset management.
