Zicklin Grad Students Win Silver in Neuberger Berman Sustainable Investing Challenge
January 2, 2025It was Friday, December 13th in a chilly conference room on the 14th floor of the Newman Vertical Campus, but for a quartet of Zicklin graduate students, it was a very lucky day.
SJ Beaumont, Esq. (MS Finance, ’25), Samuel Pereira Bueno (MBA, ’26), Pankaj Lamkhade (MS Finance, ’25), and Yash Sabhani (MBA, ’26) faced challengers from an array of fancy B-schools—Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, NYU, Northwestern, and London Business School—in the final round of the Neuberger Berman Sustainable Investing Challenge.

From left: Lamkhade, Pereira Bueno, Sabhani, and Beaumont
This year’s theme? Circular investing (not to be confused with circular reasoning). The first round had required teams to propose a “long” investment in a sustainable public company that offers financial promise. The Zicklin team chose TOMRA, a Norwegian high-tech recycling company that employs innovative solutions like reusable packaging, sensor-based technology for separating plastics and metals, making plastics out of recyclable raw materials, and more.
For the final round, the Zicklin team had to pitch TOMRA virtually from that frigid, 14th-floor conference room to three Neuberger Berman judges, showcasing their research, strategy, and commitment to sustainable finance.
Perhaps it was their global reach—Zicklin’s team members have roots in Great Britain, the Americas, India, and Africa—or the fact that they were the only team to be physically present together in one room. Or maybe it was that 75 percent of the team sport Magical Millennial Mustaches. (Kidding!) Whatever it was, when the dust had settled, only Columbia Business School scored higher.
The team thanked their academic advisor Alicia Hermida, assistant director of the Full-Time MBA Program, and Justyn Makarewycz, deputy director of employer relations at the Graduate Career Management Center, for support with their presentation.
“We are grateful to Neuberger Berman for including our stellar Zicklin graduate students in this unique case competition for the fourth year,” added Makarewycz. “Huge congrats to SJ, Samuel, Pankaj, and Yash for making it to the finals and for representing Zicklin.”
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