Yale SOM Team Wins MIINT Impact Investing Competition

A team of Yale SOM students won the MBA Impact Investing Network & Training (MIINT) competition at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania on April 14.

The team pitched a company working to help municipalities better handle the challenges of storm water, the top source of water pollution in urban areas. The students won a $50,000 investment in the company.

MIINT, created by the Wharton Social Impact Initiative and the Bridges Impact Foundation, aims to give students at top business schools hands-on training in impact investing. At Yale SOM, 25 students in five teams participated in the student-run chapter. Starting in the fall, they learned key skills through online modules and prepared a pitch. In February, they competed for the right to represent the school at the MIINT finals.  

The Yale SOM team includes Class of 2018 co-leaders Brendan Lehan ’18 and Kate Murphy ’18 and Class of 2019 co-leaders Susannah Burrage ’19 and Jake Harris ’19, as well as Carlos Mancera ’19, Marina de Melo Sa Roriz ’19, Sophie Tyack ’19, Megan Cain ’19, and Katie Sierks ’19. Tyack and Sierks are joint degree students at Yale SOM and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

The finalists also included teams from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University,  and Harvard Business School.  

“MIINT was one of the highlights of my first year at SOM,” said Sierks, one of the team’s presenters. “It helped me synthesize much of what I learned in the core and also pushed me to expand my understanding of how to value an early-stage company. Moving outside of my comfort zone, I expanded my presentation and leadership skills.”