4 Chinese students look to take 'risk'

Four Chinese students at the University of Chicago are representing the US Midwest in a global competition on risk management.

Leng Linge, Lin Wuhan, Li Yangfan and Xu Wenze were set to participate in the global finals of the 2015 Risk Management Challenge of the Professional Risk Managers' International Association (PRMIA) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday. PRMIA's risk management competition is regarded as one of the best in the world.

The team, all of whom are graduate students in financial mathematics, is the first all-Chinese team in the US to make it to the international final. They will compete with other teams from Dublin, London, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and New York City for a prize of $10,000.

Participants will be asked to present a 20-minute case study on JP Morgan's private bank and prepare a 10-minute question-and-answer session. Prior to the final presentation on Friday, they have to submit an executive summary and other documents within three days' time.

"We had to get up very, very early for meetings and stayed up until late at night," said Li, "from 8 a.m to 12 or 1 a.m."

But they were "having very good chemistry," said Leng. "Other teams were founded in a hurry because of the competition, but we had been best friends before that while members in other teams might not be very familiar with each other yet."

The team stood out among the 97 teams representing 35 universities from the Midwest during the competition's regional championship in January. During that competition, they were asked to work on a case study on China's peer-to-peer lending in 64 hours.

"Whether the peer-to-peer case was in the US, Brazil, or China, they worked together to solve and present the best answers to the questions presented to them," said Edonna Larkins, director of career development at the financial math department at the University of Chicago. "They won because they are smart and savvy about the world of finance."

What made them different, according to Larkins, was their versatile backgrounds and ability to work in a rigorous environment.

Xu is the president of the university's club for traders and has a wide social network, so he is in charge of collecting information. Lin and Li have been doing extensive research since college and therefore are good at more technical problems. Leng used to work in investment banking and is good at designing the overall presentation.

"We have always networked with alumni and joined extracurricular activities and workshops, so we know more about risk management," said Lin.

Those efforts have paid off well, as during the competition, they have been consulting other professionals for help.

The four are now looking for summer internships and are on track to graduate in December.

"Participating in competitions, particularly for English as a Second Language speakers, helps to build one's knowledge and confidence for presenting data and facts to a wide range of listeners," Larkins said.

Lu Huiquan in New York contributed to this story.