Meet the three unique women who made up the top Stock Pitch team in Canada
Keira Hennigar, Katelyn Abriel, Laura McAleese and coach/faculty advisor Ross Hallett
A team of three Sobey School of Business women are the top stock pitching team in Canada after competing in Virginia, USA, in March.
Laura McAleese graduated from the Sobey School of Business in 2025 with her Bachelor of Commerce in Finance. She “landed at Saint Mary’s after hip-hopping around a bit,” knowing that the Sobey School was where her mother had gotten her accounting degree. She says she toured SMU when she was a little girl and “vividly remembers the Atrium with the plant wall.”
From her BComm, she applied to the Sobey Master of Business Analytics “on a whim,” although she adds that the future-facing AI-focused curriculum appealed to her.
Laura is an active participant in the Impact Fund program, which deepened her passion for, as she calls it, “the technical aspect of finance.” Last year, in her first year on the Impact Team, she competed at the Stock Pitch.
Keira Hennigar is a third-year BComm student majoring in finance. She is a member of Saint Mary’s Equestrian Club and the Investment Society. Katelyn Abriel is also a third-year student, majoring in finance and accounting and aiming to get her CPA designation and pursue a career in accounting. Both are current Research Associates with the Sobey School Impact Fund, Keira for real estate investment and Katelyn for consumer staples.
In March, Keira, Katelyn and Laura entered the women-only Bianca Caragliano Stock Pitch Competition.
So what is a stock pitch competition?
Participants are tasked with choosing the stock that they hope will beat the market over the next year. “After choosing a stock, we basically do equity research on that stock,” says Laura. “We look at the company, we look at its competitors, industries, and then we try to come up with an implied share price for the stock and see whether or not it's mispriced in the actual market. Then, we give a buy or sell recommendation.”
This preparation paid off. The team competed at William & Mary in Williamsburg, against 21 teams from across Canada, the US and beyond. They landed at number four, topping teams from the Ivey Business School, Memorial University, UBC and University of Regina, making them the highest-scoring Canadian team.