Excelerate finale showcases future finance leaders
On December 28th, the Finance and Accounting Club of Brac University (FINACT) hosted the grand finale of Excelerate 2025, a flagship finance-based Excel competition. The competition saw an overwhelming response, with over 650 teams representing various universities across the country. After multiple rigorous rounds of analytical testing and data visualisations, only six teams secured their spots in the final stage to compete for the ultimate title. The final round was judged by a panel of experts that included Arief Hossain Khan (Executive Director, Bangladesh Bank) and Jayed Ahmed(Head, Financial Operations, UCB). The panel also featured Dr. Mosttafa Shazzad Hasan (Senior Partner, Chowdhury Shazzad Monowar Chartered Accountants) and Dr. Syed Abdullah Al Mamun (Professor, ESS) from Brac University.
The final round, titled “The Dashboard Duel,” required finalists to build interactive dashboards and visualise complex data using Microsoft Excel and Power BI. A team from Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP), The Godfathers, emerged as the champions. They impressed the judges with their deep analysis of sales data and long-term success strategies. Team Godfathers explained that sales are the most important factor in a business. They demonstrated how their worksheets and entries effectively visualised data that is often difficult to track manually.
The first runner-up position was secured by Absolute Reference, a cross-institutional team from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka, and North South University. Data Dominators, representing Brac University, claimed the second runner-up position. Anika Shikder (Senior, BBS), a member of Data Dominators, shared her experience of the competition. She noted that despite having back-to-back quizzes and assignments in her final semester, the support of her team was instrumental in navigating through the rounds. She specifically highlighted the intensity of the second round, “All network connections were disabled, forcing us to solve cases on the spot without external help. It was challenging but also
really fun.”
The Chief Guest, Md. Anwar Hossain (Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology) shared some concluding anecdotes to close the ceremony. He shared his professional experiences from his service and encouraged students to embrace technological innovation. Dr. Md. Arif Hossain Mazumder (Assistant Professor, BBS) emphasised the rising importance of fintech and technical skills in the modern corporate world. He stated,“Going forward, these problem-solving skills in such high-stakes situations will definitely be the bridge to the rising fintech sector.”
