Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

PwC analyst wins top prize in New York

Updated at 11:32 pm on 4 December 2012

An advisory senior analyst from the accounting firm PwC has won a top prize at an international competition in New York.

Alex Gordon, 24, got into the top 16 at the 2012 World Financial Modelling Championship, and then came first, after being tested by three global judges.

He will return to Wellington on Thursday with the $30,421 prize.

Mr Gordon's manager and mentor at PwC, Richard Longman, says financial modelling is a mathematical or computer tool that's used to represent what a business or investment opportunity might look like in the future.

"You input a whole lot of assumptions - you build that tool and then test the outputs of it."

Mr Longman says it's a very varied application and can be used, for example, to model a city council's future rate burden.

He says Mr Gordon has been involved in some of New Zealand's most complex assignments, such as assisting in advising the Crown over the Wiri public private partnership. He's also been involved in merger and acquisition transactions and in advising a large energy company.

Although only 24, Mr Longman says the young man has packed a lot into his career, and is a self starter who's well known for the passion he brings to the job.

"The whole team at work are phenomenally proud of him, it's an enormous achievement."

Listen to Richard Longman on Checkpoint

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