Coached by the People Who Move Markets
“The thing that separates a defended thesis from a guess is hearing — directly from someone who has done this for a living — exactly which sentences won’t survive an MD review.”
SIC mentors and judges are practicing buy-side and sell-side investors, ACME-affiliated academic economists, and program alumni now working in finance. They govern the four-axis rubric, hold weekly office hours during the Regional Stage, judge submissions at Global Stage, and run the Omaha Dialogue Summit each May.
Who Coaches SIC Participants
The mentor network is deliberately small and high-quality. Mentors are selected by ACME academic governance and SIC program leadership; the goal is not the largest list, but the most engaged. Every active participant gets meaningful mentor contact during the Regional Stage.
A Look at the Desk Behind the Rubric
Below are anonymized profiles of six S15 mentors and judges, chosen to illustrate the range of backgrounds the network spans. Full names, institutions, and credentials are disclosed in the active participant portal at the start of Regional Stage; many mentors prefer not to be publicly named on the open web before the season opens.
Senior Equities PM, Asia
Twenty-plus years running long-only and long/short Asian equity mandates at a top-five global asset manager. Co-author of the rubric revision that introduced ESG as a scored axis in S13. Hosts a recurring Regional Stage office hour focused on consumer-sector thesis building.
Macro Strategist, Independent
Former central-bank economist; now runs an independent macro research practice serving institutional allocators. Leads the annual Omaha Dialogue panel on rates, currency, and global capital flows. Office hours lean heavily toward Senior Division teams writing macro-thesis strategy reports.
Sell-Side Equity Analyst
Lead analyst covering European industrials at a major investment bank. Particularly focused on coaching Senior teams on the mechanics of writing a defendable initiation note — what a Wall Street MD will and won’t sign off on. Bilingual English / Mandarin.
Faculty Economist, ACME
ACME-affiliated faculty economist; co-governs the four-axis rubric. Particularly involved in the annual rubric calibration — making sure axis weights and scoring guides remain consistent across seasons. Reviews all Global Stage Featured Cohort submissions personally.
Hedge Fund Research Director
Heads fundamental research at a regional hedge fund. Particularly tough grader on Axis 03 (Risk Articulation) — known for asking submissions “what would have to be true for this to be wrong, and how would you know?” earlier than most readers. Returning S15 judge.
S05 Alumna, Now Buy-Side
Participated in SIC as a Senior Division team captain in S05. Now a junior portfolio manager at a Hong Kong asset manager. Bridges the participant-to-practitioner journey for current Senior teams; runs the annual “what I wish I’d known” alumni panel at Omaha.
The Season as a Mentor Sees It
A look at the mentor contact a typical S15 participant gets, across the four-stage season. Junior and Senior contact patterns differ slightly; the schedule below is the Senior Division version. Junior Division participants receive equivalent contact but in a weekly-thesis-log format rather than a draft-review format.
Intake review & division selection
The WhatsApp program desk loops in the mentor coordinator if a team’s profile suggests they’d particularly benefit from a specific mentor’s background. Most pairings happen automatically; some are hand-matched.
Onboarding & rubric webinars
Mentors lead the four rubric-axis webinars in the opening month — walking through what differentiates a 5/5 score from a 3/5 on each axis. Recordings stay available throughout the season.
Office hours & mid-stage draft review
Weekly mentor office hours in three time zones. Senior teams file a mid-stage research draft for written rubric feedback from a dedicated mentor. This is typically the highest-impact mentor touch of the season — many teams pivot thesis structure based on this review.
The Dialogue Summit
Mentor-led panels on macro, sector themes, ESG materiality, and “what the rubric really rewards.” Small-group dialogues paired with alumni. The schedule is intentionally light on broadcast keynote and heavy on conversational format.
Regional final & mentor feedback
Regional Stage submissions reviewed and scored on the four-axis rubric. Each submission receives a written mentor scorecard — what was strong, what would not survive a MD review, what to fix before Global.
Global Stage judging
Final Senior reports and Junior portfolio reviews scored by a multi-judge panel. Featured Cohort recognition reflects rubric scores, not quota; multiple submissions can earn Featured status in the same season.
Recent Years at the Dialogue Summit
The Omaha Dialogue Summit’s speaker roster rotates each year and is confirmed in the final months before the May summit. Below: a representative sketch of past-season topics and the kinds of panelists who have spoken. Full S15 lineup announced in March 2026.
Conversation Formats, Not Keynotes
The Summit is built for small-group conversation. Past sessions have ranged from a 30-minute “Q&A with a long-horizon allocator” format to a structured rubric workshop where participants score anonymized past submissions alongside the judging desk.
Speakers in recent seasons have included practicing portfolio managers, ESG research directors, sell-side senior analysts, alumni-turned-practitioners, and ACME academic economists — typically 8 to 12 speakers across three days, scaled to the cohort size.
The Summit is open to all active S15 participants; attendance details — including any travel logistics, alternate virtual sessions, and recordings — are confirmed during the WhatsApp intake conversation.
Past Session Themes
- What a defensible thesis looks like under a senior MD review
- Rates, currency, and the macro overlay for student portfolios
- ESG materiality: scoring the unscorable
- From SIC to a real desk: alumni panel
- Mistakes I made early in my career (panel)
- How to write a one-page investment memo people actually read
For Practicing Investors & Academic Economists
SIC actively recruits practicing investors and academic economists into the mentor network each year. Time commitment is modest (4 – 8 hours per season for office-hour mentors; more for rubric governance roles) and onboarding is handled by the SIC program desk.
If you’d like to mentor SIC S15 — or future seasons — reach the program desk.
The mentor coordinator handles all new-mentor intake, briefings on the rubric, and pairing with appropriate participant cohorts. Buy-side, sell-side, academic, and alumni practitioners all welcome.
SIC does not list a public mentor application form. All mentor onboarding is one-on-one through the program desk — this lets us scope the right kind of contribution (office hours, judging, rubric governance, or Omaha panels) before commitment.
About Mentors & Judging
Why aren’t mentor names listed publicly on this page?
Most SIC mentors hold roles at institutions with strict media policies — pre-season publication on the open web creates compliance friction for them. Full names, institutions, and biographies are listed in the active participant portal you access after WhatsApp intake. This is standard practice for student programs that work with practicing professionals.
Am I guaranteed a specific mentor?
No — mentor allocation is by cohort, not individual pairing. Junior Division participants share office hours with all mentors holding a session in their time zone. Senior Division teams get a dedicated mentor for the mid-stage draft review. Specific name pairings are not guaranteed and are not, in our experience, what determines a participant’s outcome.
Do mentors also judge submissions?
Some do, with a firewall. A mentor who coached a specific team during Regional Stage does not score that team’s submission at Global Stage — the panel is structured to avoid that conflict. The pool is large enough to enforce this cleanly even at scale.
How are mentors compensated?
SIC mentors serve on a volunteer or honorarium basis depending on role (the heaviest-commitment rubric-governance roles carry an academic honorarium; office-hour mentors typically serve pro bono). No mentor receives commissions tied to participant outcomes.
Can I meet a mentor before applying?
No structured pre-application mentor introductions are offered — the program desk handles that conversation during WhatsApp intake, where they explain the typical mentor contact pattern in detail. If you’re trying to assess fit, the rubric webinars (recorded each season) are the best preview of the mentors’ analytical style.
Applications Close June 1, 2026.
2026.03.20 — 2026.06.01 · Open now
SIC operates a WhatsApp-only intake. Scan the code at right to reach a real program advisor — they walk you through eligibility, division selection, and any consent paperwork your school may need.
There is no online registration form, and no third-party brokers. SIC is operated by SKT, endorsed by CEE, and academically supported by ACME.