BİLGİ students won first place in the 2025 CFA Institute Research Challenge Local Finals, earning the right to compete in the regional round

The research team composed of BİLGİ students, led by academic mentor and faculty member Faruk Ziya Fırat, PhD from the BİLGİ Business Administration Department and industry mentor Alihan Gürleyen, won first place in the 2025 CFA Institute Research Challenge Local Finals. Competing against 36 university teams from Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, they became one of the two teams eligible to advance to the regional round.

This prestigious global competition, hosted by the CFA Institute, involves around 1,000 universities worldwide. Participants conduct financial research and analysis to value a publicly traded company in their country. They present their findings in a professional report before a panel of judges with CFA titles and extensive industry experience. This challenge allows students to integrate academic knowledge with practical training and gain valuable experience as equity research analysts.

Our team has won the local challenge and successfully progressed to the next stage, and will now compete against other Southern European universities in the Sub-regional round. The results will be announced at the end of March. If they advance, they will compete with the universities in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (the regional finals) and potentially in the global finals in Chicago.

We wish the team continued success in their journey.

İstanbul Bilgi University Research Team: 

• Sezer Çelik 
• Elif Ayşe Biber 
• Ahmet Sefa Taşkın 
• Ahmet Durmuş