Building Financial Modeling Skills While Playing an E-Sport Game with Professor Eric Kelley

In this episode of Financial Modeler’s Corner, Paul Barnhurst sits down with Dr. Eric Kelley, finance professor, Microsoft Excel MVP, and financial modeling educator, to discuss how financial modeling education is evolving through Excel Esports and hands-on learning. Eric shares how he uses competitions, real-world cases, and structured modeling techniques to help students build stronger financial modeling skills, think in systems, and create models that support better decision-making.

Dr. Eric Kelley is a finance professor at the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business, where he teaches finance at the undergraduate, MBA, and PhD levels. He is a Microsoft Excel MVP and faculty fellow with the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge. Eric focuses on developing integrated financial modeling education, helping students build scalable models through innovative techniques and competitive Excel-based learning.

Expect to Learn:

• Why communication skills are critical for financial modelers
• How to build models as flexible systems instead of one-time solutions
• How Excel Esports helps students develop real-world modeling skills
• How competitions can improve financial modeling education

Here are a few quotes from the episode:

• "At the end of the day, we've got to be able to communicate. We've got to be able to tell stories." - Eric Kelley
• "You're not trying to find a loan payment. You're trying to build a system that is going to take in a flexible set of inputs and generate a loan payment as an output." - Eric Kelley

Eric Kelley shares how financial modeling education can move beyond traditional instruction by combining technical skills, communication, and competitive problem-solving. Through Excel Esports and structured case-based learning, he helps students understand that strong models are not just about getting the right answer, but about building systems that can adapt, scale, and support decisions.

Follow Eric:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekkell/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@erickelley5900

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In Today’s Episode:

[00:00] – Trailer

[04:33] – The Importance of Communication Skills

[09:12] – Discovering Excel Esports

[11:35] – Competing Under Pressure

[13:01] – Coaching Future Financial Modelers

[16:36] – Bringing Financial Modeling Into the Classroom

[23:51] – Building Excel Esports Cases

[32:00] – Students’ Biggest Modeling Breakthroughs

[36:23] – Advice for Aspiring Modelers

[38:10] – Excel Rapid Fire Questions

[43:33] – Final Advice on Learning Financial Modeling