Associated Bank is proud to support colleagues as they grow their careers through both internal training and external professional development opportunities.

Marilka Vélez, senior director of marketing at Associated Bank, and her Executive MBA team from the Corporate Finance class in the Marquette University EMBA program achieved first place in the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Cup competition in Wisconsin.

This highly competitive contest pits teams from three of the state's top business programs (UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee and Marquette University) against one another. The private equity and investment banking case study competition provides students with the opportunity to showcase their knowledge on valuations, capital markets and M&A strategy to a panel of established M&A leaders from the ACG Wisconsin membership.

With the help of their instructor, professor David Bauer, chief investment officer at Lubar & Co., Vélez and her team spent many hours analyzing the case, preparing their presentation and practicing before the competition. Their hard work paid off and they brought home the trophy.

“I am grateful for the opportunity that the ACG Cup competition gives to MBA students to experience a real-world view into the corporate growth, mergers and acquisitions environment,” said Vélez. “My team and I had the opportunity to work with a local mentor working in the industry before tackling the case competition on our own. We put our all into this experience and are happy to make Professor Bauer proud, represent our respective companies and bring the ACG cup win to Marquette University.”