Chaifetz School Graduate Students Place Third in National Competition

A team of graduate students from the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business recently took home third place in Texas Christian University’s annual Graduate Supply Chain Case Competition.

The event, which was hosted February 3 - 5 by TCU’s Neeley School of Business, challenges MBA and Master’s in Supply Chain Management students from some of the top business schools in the country to analyze a case study for a well-known company and present their findings to a panel of supply chain experts serving as judges. This year’s competition featured teams from 18 schools including Georgia Tech, the University of Michigan and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

SLU’s team consisted of three students: Constantin Heider (M.S. in Supply Chain Management), Rio Pimentel and Lindsey Teague (both One-Year MBA students). The students analyzed a case study involving American Airlines. Justin Goodson and Yulia Vorotyntseva served as faculty advisors for the team. 

“[Our students] performed a great case analysis and delivered an outstanding presentation,” Vorotyntseva said in a LinkedIn post. “The competition was fierce, and all of the teams were strong, but our Billikens did it.”

On top of the challenges of the competition itself, the SLU team had to overcome a number of obstacles leading up to their presentation date. Due to a string of weather-related flight cancellations, the team was unable to travel to Fort Worth for the competition and had to give their presentation virtually. Additionally, a fourth Chaifetz School student was scheduled to participate in the competition, but had to withdraw at the last minute, leaving SLU’s team unexpectedly shorthanded. 

Still the Chaifetz School students persevered, leveraging the skills they've learned in their graduate programs to achieve a third place finish and win a $6,000 prize from the competition. 

“I’m very proud of our students,” Goodson said. “They represented what we teach at SLU. They transformed data into insight and coupled it with strategy.”

This is the third time the Chaifetz School has participated in this event. In 2020, a team of four graduate students placed fifth overall in the challenge. In 2021, the Chaifetz School was ranked by US News & World Report as a Top-20 school in the country for graduate supply chain management programs.

Learn More About Supply Chain Education at the Chaifetz School

Founded in 1910, the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business at Saint Louis University has shaped the future of industry for more than a century as one of the oldest business schools west of the Mississippi. Today, SLU's business school continues to build on its reputation as a leader in business education through its commitment to inclusion, innovation and impact. The Chaifetz School’s undergraduate and graduate programs have been nationally recognized by U.S. News & World Report, Poets&Quants and The Princeton Review.