After three candidates were fired at Tuesday's Associate meeting, the spring competition comes down to only two finalists and one final case study.
Five candidates sat in the Stephens Hall boardroom as they have since February, listening to an introductory speech from head judge Frank Bramble.
Then, based on interviews the students had with top executives from five Baltimore companies (SunTrust Bank, Bank of America, Constellation Energy, Merrill Lynch, Boyden International) on Tuesday, April 10, Bramble fired candidates Ankur Ponda, Erica Barry and Courtney Anderson. Only Santiago Hernandez and Brandon Mabry remain to win the competition. Mabry said finding out he was a finalist was "an honor."
"I did a lot of hard work and it's paid off," he said. "I feel like I put a very good effort into it so it's a reflection of my hard work and commitment."
But it's been a long two months for the candidates, who are also balancing their schoolwork.
"All group projects are coming up now in classes and you still have to do this," Mabry added. "It's a lot of juggling of schedules back and forth but the amount of people I've networked with, met, it's been great. I've never talked to so many people that were high up in the Baltimore area than I have in the last couple months."
Barry felt similarly and said she's "relieved" now that she's leaving the competition.
"I can get my life back in order, and focus on my GPA," she said. "It's an even balance, there's only one more case. I didn't think I'd make it this far."
But the competition still has one week remaining for the finalists. After the announcement of who would leave the competition, a coin toss took place to determine which finalist would pick first to bring a candidate back into the competition, though only Hernandez and Mabry can win at this point.
Co-judge Robert Caret, Towson's president, handed Bramble a penny â€" and Art Casserly, regional director for Bank of America in Hunt Valley and co-judge, joked about a low budget college.
As Bramble threw the coin in the air, Hernandez called heads, losing the toss. Mabry was able to pick first, bringing Pete Sclafani, the third fired Associate, back to help him with the case study. Then Hernandez made his pick, bringing Anderson back to the table.
Then the second surprise was revealed, allowing the finalists to pick one more candidate each to return to the competition. Reversing order, Hernandez picked first. He chose Ponda, and then Mabry chose Matt Haggerty, the first fired Associate.
With only a couple seconds to think, each finalist was able to quickly choose whom he wanted to work with on the case study.
"It's just the strengths of the two people," Mabry said. "Pete's a very diligent worker, dedicated, he's good at talking to people. And Matt's great with numbers, financials, ideas. I just thought they're both compliments to my style."
Hernandez focused on tactics.
"It's really strategy," he said. "I'm not going to get into it too much right now because I am going to hope it plays out, but I think Brandon had his strategy and once I saw what he was going to go for I knew how to adapt to make sure that strategy was going to come on top."
After the meeting, the four candidates that were brought back into the competition all said they were happy to return and will help in any way they can, even though they cannot win.
"It's definitely hard to hear that you're leaving the competition," Ponda said, "but everything happens for a reason and I'm sure everything will play out in the long run."
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