L to R: Amy Kraft (PwC), Sanaz S. Aghazadeh (senior), Daniel J. Fontenot (sophomore), Colton J. Fontenot (junior), Barbara A. Apostolou (faculty mentor), Bonnie E. Dye (Senior), Michael A. Blue (JPMorgan Chase VP and LSU instructor/technical advisor to team), Mattie L. Pourciau (sophomore)

LSU TEAM TAKES TOP NATIONAL PRIZE IN PWC XACT COMPETITION

January 28, 2005

LSU News

The Producers Too, a team of five accounting students from LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business Administration, were named national winners of the xAct competition, sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The team earned a $16,500 cash prize, as well as sterling silver Tiffany & Co. trophies.

PwC brought its xAct competition to LSU in October 2004, looking for a solution to the fictional Panadrevia's quandary over implementing fair value accounting in its financial markets. Seven teams from LSU competed; teams had two weeks to develop their solutions and a presentation for a panel of judges from PwC. The Producers Too came out on top.

For the second round of competition, The Producers Too made a video of their presentation, which was put into competition with xAct winners from 30 other universities around the country. The LSU team was named one of the five national finalists, earning $16,500 and an opportunity to bring its presentation to New York.

In January, the Producers Too and teams from SUNY-Binghamton University, Indiana University, Marquette University and Saint Louis University went to PwC offices in New York and gave their presentations to senior executives from PwC. The LSU team was declared the national winner. In addition to the $16,500 they'd already been awarded, the team earned high-end trophies.

PwC named LSU one of 26 key recruiting schools in 2003, making students in the accounting department eligible for competitions such as xAct.

E.J. Ourso College of Business Senior Bonnie Dye, Senior Sanaz Aghazadeh, Junior Colton Fontenot, Junior Daniel Fontenot and Sophomore Mattie Pourciau made up the team. Aghazadeh led the team and Accounting Department Chair and Professor Barbara Apostolou served as the team mentor, with accounting instructor Michael Blue serving as technical advisor.

For more information on the E. J. Ourso College, please visit http://www.bus.lsu.edu.

[LSU Press Release]

[PricewaterhouseCooopers Press Release, April 21, 2005]