Ourso College News

A team of LSU students gained real-world experience through one of the world's premier finance competitions. Students in finance and mathematics at LSU won first place in the Louisiana sub-regional of the CFA Institute Research Challenge, a global equity research competition that brings together more than 1,100 university teams from over 100 countries.

Long before she taught students at LSU, Holly Peterson developed skills that rarely come from a textbook. Thanks to her experience in public affairs and nonprofit healthcare administration, Holly Peterson, assistant professor in the LSU Department of Public Administration, understands the challenges students face in their careers.

In the new age of zero-click searches and AI assistance, what happens when buyers no longer need salespeople to buy, but instead need them to decide? Academics, sales practitioners and LSU Department of Marketing students recently united for the annual LSU Sales Symposium, hosted by the LSU Professional Sales Institute, to unpack this complex question.

What exactly goes into enforcing our nation's complex financial laws? One LSU alumnus was perfectly positioned to answer that question: Jordan Anderson (ACCT, '11), special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who recently returned to campus to share an inside look at how accounting, law, and federal criminal investigations intersect.

Smartective, a documentation platform for field-heavy industries that uses AI to replace paperwork with voice-driven document completion and automated quality checks, won first place in the 2026 J Terrell Brown Venture Challenge and received a $25,000 award.

LSU’s influence reaches beyond Louisiana, sometimes showing up in the most unexpected places. For Katie Le, the journey started with a simple hallway moment and a conversation sparked by a coworker’s school pride.

Three businesses founded by LSU students and recent graduates have been selected to present in a live pitch competition for a share of $50,000 in the 15th annual J Terrell Brown Venture Challenge to be held on Tuesday, April 14, at the LSU Business Education Complex.

Since the first commercial AI products broke onto the scene just a few years ago, the technology has reshaped how businesses of all sizes and functions connect with customers. A recent study from Assistant Professor Viktor Jarotschkin and PhD student Mostofa Wahid Soykoth in the LSU Department of Marketing analyzed decades of academic literature to identify the AI-driven themes that will define the next era of sales.

Read the latest issue of Ourso on the Geaux, the official e-newsletter of the E. J. Ourso College of Business. This month, we announced the latest Rucks Fellows, saw the state budgeting process in action, aimed high at the SEC MBA Case Competition, and more.

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