The first-ever Irvine Investment and Trading Group Stock Pitch Challenge featured Cal State Fullerton College of Business and Economics Titan Capital Management finance students Mateo Garcia ’26 and Kishan Patel ’25 taking the top spot. The event featured 33 teams of investment-focused students from 17 schools in Southern California and across North America, including teams from Duke University and University of Waterloo. A UCLA team took second place, with UC Davis coming in third.  

The Titan Capital Management students only learned of the event in late February. They submitted a pitch deck, models and a recorded 10-minute presentation by late March, becoming one of the 20 teams making it to the finals. The teams pitched to industry judges as one of six student cohorts, with only three teams advancing to the finals. Garcia and Patel earned a $3,000 combined first-place award. Industry judges were from such well-known financial firms as Bank of America, Fidelity and Apollo, providing invaluable expertise and insights to the contestants.   

“The win is a credit to our students. The professors like me mentor and teach, but the students do the work and execute it. This shows the character, the humility and the skillset they have,” says Kelly Ko, director of the equity branch of Titan Capital Management. “There isn’t a better time to represent and be a Titan. We can compete at a very high level with any other very good universities. I think we’ve proved that in these kinds of competitions because of the kind of students we have. It’s a family culture. It’s hard not to root for them. Our students are so humble and work so hard and are such nice people to be around. It’s nice to win, but the real objective is to do your best when it counts. The students have proved they can do that.” 

Mateo Garcia ’26, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Colombia, testifies to the impact of the Titan Capital Management program on his career and life. “TCM has enabled me to do something I’m passionate about every day. Some of the highlights are having professors I’m close to whom I can talk to and freedom in class structure. Not to mention having the chance to compete and having a résumé and job references that stand out along the way.”  

Garcia, who has completed a corporate development and strategy internship in his native Colombia and an investment management firm in Washington D.C., is looking forward to an investment banking internship with UBS this summer.  

Patel, who was part of this year’s winning  team at the Chartered Financial Analyst Society Investment Research Competition that made it to the Western subregional round, is a longtime leader in the Titan Capital Management program.  

Jeff Van Harte ’80, the primary supporter and founder of the Titan Capital Management program, recognizes the energy and commitment of Garcia, Patel and the other students, as well as the faculty who lead them. “Their pitch was in a league of its own. One of the best I’ve ever seen us do. And I note how many of our students who weren’t presenting showed up to support them as well as students that pitched and stayed around for the result. TCM has a very nice culture of camaraderie which is a credit to the current professors that took this program to new levels.”

The Titan Capital Management program enables students to manage a real-world portfolio of stocks and bonds, benefiting the college’s student programs and helping to supercharge these students’ finance careers. Over the past decade, the Titan Capital Management identity has become a coveted status in Big Four accounting firms, Wall Street investment houses and boutique companies in Southern California. For more on Titan Capital Management, read more of our articles on applied investment education at Cal State Fullerton.