University of Maryland Alumni Are Finalists in BusinessWeek’s America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs Contest – Vote Now for Delta Produce

University of Maryland Alumni Are Finalists in BusinessWeek’s America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs Contest – Vote Now for Delta Produce

Recent alumni of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business Christos Marafatsos and Kosta Dionisopoulous launched Delta Produce in 2009 with a strategic detailed approach to penetrate and innovate in the perishable food industry – a sector valued at over $2 billion in the Washington, D.C., metro area alone. Delta Produce was selected by BusinessWeek as one of 25 promising companies started by young entrepreneurs under 25. They need our help to win this contest. Voting ends Oct. 20.

Vote Now!

Delta Produce distributes fresh fruits and vegetables to restaurants, country clubs, franchises, hotels, and food service establishments throughout the D.C. metro area. The company employs 18 people, including a full-time engineer who helps customers build websites and market on social networks.

With revenue in 2010 of over $1.9 million and projected revenue in 2011 of $2.6 million, Delta Produce continues to not only threaten all competition, but prospers as a dominant figure in an industry where its products – perishable commodities – are always needed, no matter the economic climate.

Delta Produce was a finalist in the annual Cupid’s Cup: The University of Maryland Business Competition last year, hosted by the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. Cupid’s Cup is sponsored by alumnus Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Baltimore-based sports apparel maker Under Armour.

What was the inspiration to start Delta Produce?

“Do you eat? Exactly, of course you do, everyone does,” says Marafatsos. “Eating is not a luxury but is a necessity to our existence and my products will always be needed and used no matter the economic climate.”

“In any economy, people will always eat,” adds Dionisopoulous.

Read more about the contest at the BusinessWeek website.

Vote for Delta Produce Now!

Alissa Arford, Office of Marketing Communications

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University of Maryland Business Professor Honored with Prestigious Accounting Award

University of Maryland Business Professor
Honored with Prestigious Accounting Award

College Park, Md. – August 26, 2010 — The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced Stephen E. Loeb, the Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Accounting and Business Ethics, was honored with the 2010 Accounting Exemplar Award for his notable contributions to professionalism and ethics in accounting education. The award is given by the Public Interest Section of the American Accounting Association. Loeb received the award at the Accounting Exemplar luncheon on August 1, during the association’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

The American Accounting Association’s Public Interest Section recognizes and honors an accounting educator or an accounting practitioner who has made notable contributions to professionalism and ethics in accounting education and/or practice. Previous winners of this prestigious award include two former comptroller generals of the United States and a former chairman of the SEC.

Loeb is an internationally known scholar in the area of accounting ethics. His authored and/or co-authored work has appeared in many journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, The Journal of Accountancy, Issues in Accounting Education, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of Business Ethics, and Accounting Horizons.

Loeb has served as a regional vice president of the American Accounting Association. He chaired several national committees of the American Accounting Association. Loeb chaired the accounting faculty from 1973-1982 and 1987-1995. 

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 13 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, executive MS, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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University of Maryland Expands Lineup of Spring Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competitions

For Immediate Release
February 8, 2012
Contacts: Eric Schurr, 301.405.3889, or schurr@umd.edu

Nearly a Quarter-Million Dollars in Prizes to be Awarded at Four Events Encompassing Startups, Business Plans, Healthcare and Clean Energy

College Park, Md. - February 9, 2012 - The University of Maryland will host four business competitions this spring, including two new, nationwide competitions focused on healthcare and clean energy.  Prizes totaling $230,000 will be awarded across the four competitions spanning just over three weeks from March 30 to April 25, 2012.  This new series of competitions is a collaborative effort among multiple schools and departments and aligns with UMD President Wallace Loh's strategic priority of entrepreneurship and innovation and the university's goal of creating 100 new companies over the next decade.

March 30, 2012 - Cupid's Cup, a business competition for student and alumni entrepreneurs, began in 2006, thanks to the generous support of one of UMD's most successful entrepreneurs, Kevin Plank '96, founder and CEO of Under Armour.  The competition is designed to identify and support students and young alumni who have already started their own businesses and will be held at the Stamp Student Union.  A total of $25,000 will be awarded as part of the annual UMD Entrepreneurship Invitational.  The application deadline is Feb. 19, 2012.  Candidates must have generated at least $5,000 in revenue, won funding through a university-sponsored business competition, or have a completed product and proof of traction. April 20, 2012 - The University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition, now in its 12th year, will be held at the Riggs Alumni Center.  The competition encourages UMD students, faculty, researchers, and recent alumni to leverage their talent and ideas to create compelling business plans for tomorrow's leading companies.  Since its founding in 2001, $627,000 in prizes has been awarded, and five previous winners are now multi-million dollar ventures, including two Inc. 500 companies, Squarespace and Lurn. Executive summaries are due Feb. 26, 2012.April 20, 2012 - The inaugural Innovate 4 Healthcare Challenge inspires students nationwide to develop solutions that radically improve healthcare outcomes by using information technology to improve patient engagement with health care providers.  Universities nationwide have been invited to enter teams of as many as five members to compete for a $20,000 first prize and a pair of $5,000 runner-up prizes.  The final round of presentations will be at the University of Maryland's Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center campus in Washington, D.C. Competitors have until Feb. 24, 2012 to register and March 6, 2012 to submit a plan for a patient-centered, healthcare business model.April 25, 2012 - The inaugural $100K ACC Clean Energy Challenge is a result of UMD's selection by the Department of Energy to be part of its National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition to support and empower the next generation of American clean energy entrepreneurs.  The ACC Clean Energy Challenge is open to students from all Atlantic Coast Conference schools, as well as other universities in the southeastern U.S.  Executive summaries and a video of an investor pitch are due March 23, 2012.  The ACC Clean Energy Finals will be held at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center with the winner receiving $100,000 and moving on to the DOE Grand National Finals in Washington, D.C., in June 2012. http://www.accnrg.org/

About Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Maryland

The University of Maryland educates the next generation of entrepreneurs, creates successful ventures, and connects Maryland companies with university resources to help them succeed.  UMD is ranked as one the nation's top schools for entrepreneurship and innovation as a result of 25 years of collaborative effort from the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship in the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) in the A. James Clark School of Engineering. Highlights include: three experiential entrepreneurship learning programs and 30 entrepreneurship and innovation courses serving more than 1,200 students at the pre-college, undergraduate, graduate and executive education levels; monthly entrepreneur office hours and mentoring/pitch programs with experienced entrepreneurs-in-residence; a global entrepreneurship program with partnerships in China and Israel; a technology incubator/accelerator startup program with more than 100 graduates including billion dollar companies such as Martek Biosciences and Digene; and an on-campus angel network of more than 40 active, accredited angel investors and venture capitalists for early-stage capital. UMD has had a $25.7 billion impact on the Maryland economy and helped create or retain more than 5,300 jobs. Top-selling products such as MedImmune's Synagis®, which protects infants from a deadly respiratory disease, and Hughes Communications' HughesNet®, which brings satellite-based, high-speed Internet access to the world, were developed through or enhanced by UMD programs.

Media Contact
Eric Schurr
Director of Communications
Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute
University of Maryland
301 405 3889
schurr@umd.edu

Greg Muraski
Media Relations Specialist
Robert H. Smith School of Business
University of Maryland
301-405-5283 (Office) 
301-892-0973 (Cell)
gmuraski@rhsmith.umd.edu

Lee Tune
Associate Director
Office of Public Affairs
University of Maryland
301-405-4679
ltune@umd.edu

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University of Maryland Health IT Seed Grant Program: Investing in Research & Innovation to Accelerate Health Transformation

University of Maryland Health IT Seed Grant Program: Investing in Research & Innovation to Accelerate Health Transformation

April 18, 2011 - The University of Maryland Center of Excellence in Health Information Technology Research (COEHITR) is pleased to announce the launch of the inaugural Health IT Seed Grant Program. The University of Maryland is committed to investing in research and innovation that accelerates the transformation of health care. The objective of this program is to foster teams of investigators crossing disciplinary boundaries working to establish specific research foci and generate preliminary data with the ultimate goal of submitting research proposals to funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ), the National Science Foundation (NSF), or other federal or private funding agencies. The program is also intended to foster collaborations between junior and senior investigators and provide mentorship for new investigators in the art of grant writing and research. Three thematic areas are the focus of this year’s program:

The Patient-Centered Medical HomeElectronic Health Information Exchange: A Core Foundation for Healthcare TransformationHealth IT Applied to Public Health Priorities

The COEHITR Seed Grant Program is currently accepting grant applications for the 2011 – 2012 funding period. Proposals must be received by 11:59p, Wednesday, May 18th, 2011, for consideration.

Review complete program details at: www.hit.umd.edu/resources/Grant.php.

About the Center

The University of Maryland Center of Excellence in Health Information Technology Research (COEHITR) is an interdisciplinary initiative with a mission to accelerate health promotion and health care transformation through the research, design, development and integration of health information and decision technologies. The initiative will address the issues of health care quality, cost, patient safety and access, as well as health literacy, health equity and health promotion.

The University of Maryland, between its College Park and Baltimore campuses, has a wealth of research capabilities and resources that are collectively coming together in this effort. The initiative is being co-led by the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the School of Public Health along with a broad Steering Committee representing all partners and an external Board of Advisers.

For more information contact Kenyon Crowley at kcrowley@rhsmith.umd.edu.

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, executive MS, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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University of Maryland Partners with PRSA to Advance Public Relations Instruction in MBA Program

University of Maryland Partners with PRSA to Advance Public Relations Instruction in MBA Program

Pilot program aims to create better understanding of corporate communication strategy,
methodology and value among current and future business leaders

College Park, Md. – June 12, 2012 — The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is one of five business schools selected by The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) to participate in a groundbreaking pilot program aimed at enhancing the strategic communication and reputation management education provided to the nation’s MBA candidates.

The schools selected by PRSA have demonstrated a commitment to teaching the strategic value of public relations at the MBA level, and currently offer or have previously offered public relations classes or coursework in their MBA and/or Executive MBA programs. Under the pilot program, the Robert H. Smith School of Business will integrate a new, turn-key public relations course into its MBA curriculum for the 2012-2013 academic year.

“Communication and reputation management are necessary skills for executives and all leaders,” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School. “We have always stressed the importance of these competencies to our students by delivering workshops and short courses. Our students will benefit further from this semester-long format.”

The Smith School will work collaboratively with the other business schools in the pilot on identifying and documenting best practices in terms of subject matter and teaching methods, and on incorporating its findings into a formal report to be released at the pilot program’s end.

“Being a part of this pilot gives us the opportunity to positively influence business education across the country,” said Ken White, assistant dean of Marketing Communications, who will teach the course. “We will work together with the other pilot schools and PRSA to offer a best-practices guide for the public relations course curriculum to business schools nationwide.”

The other institutions taking part in the pilot include Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business; Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management; Quinnipiac University’s School of Business; and the University of Texas at El Paso’s College of Business Administration.

“We’re extremely proud of the quality and diversity of the university programs that showed interest and were selected to take part in our MBA pilot program,” said PRSA Chair and CEO Gerard F. Corbett, APR, Fellow PRSA. “Our aim was to identify schools that were best-in-class in their respective categories and representative of various geographies, sizes and specializations, and I’d say we exceeded those goals, given the caliber of the institutions selected.”

PRSA Study Underscores Need for Public Relations Training

In October 2011, a Kelton Business Leader Study commissioned by PRSA surveyed 204 American business leaders (vice president and above) to gauge the organizational value that U.S. business executives place on corporate communications and reputation management, and on senior managers having advanced knowledge and grounding in those areas.

The survey results showed that many American business leaders view recent MBA graduates as being under-prepared in the areas of strategic communication and reputation management. The results also showed that many of the business leaders surveyed believe MBA programs lack sufficient emphasis on communications strategy and related leadership skills.

To help address this lack of training, PRSA’s MBA initiative is a multi-year, collaborative effort to advocate the value of including foundational communications strategy in MBA programs. Ultimately, the program is intended to give MBA candidates a better appreciation of public relations’ strategic value and help them understand the communications methodologies required for success in the future.

The program has the support of the Arthur W. Page Society, Council of Public Relations Firms and International Association of Business Communicators. Initial funding was provided by the PRSA Foundation, and ongoing financial and material support is being provided by MWW Group, Kelton Research, Hilton Hotels Corporation and Southwest Airlines.

About the Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, MS in business, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

About the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
PRSA is the largest professional organization serving the U.S. public relations community. With a mission to “advance the profession and the professional,” PRSA provides news and information, thought leadership, continuing education and networking opportunities; sets standards of professional excellence and ethical conduct; and advocates for the business value of public relations and greater diversity among public relations professionals. Based in New York, PRSA comprises 112 local Chapters; 14 Professional Interest Sections that focus on specific industries and practice areas; and the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), which is active at more than 320 colleges and universities.

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University of Maryland Ranks Among Nation’s Best in Entrepreneurship for Undergrads and MBAs

University of Maryland Ranks Among Nation’s Best in Entrepreneurship for Undergrads and MBAs

College Park, Md. – September 21, 2011 – The University of Maryland is among the top in the nation for its leading entrepreneurship programs for undergraduate and graduate students, ranking No. 18 and No. 22 respectively by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. The Robert H. Smith School of Business is a major driver of entrepreneurship education at the university, with its 25-year-old Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship championing programs university-wide for students, faculty and regional entrepreneurs.

The rankings were released in the October issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

The Dingman Center, located at the Smith School, helps lead the university’s entrepreneurship efforts and is recognized nationally for its innovative teaching methods that combine classroom activities, practical experience and cultural immersion programs. The center’s programs include:

Dingman Center Angels: The region's leading angel network connecting entrepreneurs seeking seed and early-stage funding with angel investors. Technology Commercialization: In conjunction with the Clark School of Engineering’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute and the Office of Technology Commercialization, a program that has MBA students helping to create businesses out of university research and technologies. Pitch Dingman Program: Weekly sessions that invite students campus-wide to pitch business ideas for immediate feedback from seasoned entrepreneurs-in-residence. The program hosts competitions twice per semester where students compete for funding. Cupid’s Cup Business Competition and BB&T Invitational: The culmination of the Pitch Dingman Program, this annual competition has students vying for $25,000 in funding provided by Under Armour founder and Smith alumnus Kevin Plank ’96. Dingman Jumpstart: An intensive weeklong program to help students create business plans and kickstart a viable venture.China Business Plan Competition: An annual business plan competition that has Smith MBA students traveling to Beijing to compete against their counterparts at Peking University for the best business plan to incorporate the China market. Israel Global Technology Entrepreneurship Fellowship: A summer program that has Smith MBA students working on technology commercialization at the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel.

In addition to taking MBA and undergraduate courses in entrepreneurship, Smith students are active in several student entrepreneurship clubs. Undergrads can participate in Smith’s Entrepreneurship Fellow Program, which offers courses and co-curricular activities that explore venture creation and innovation.

MBA students participate in experiential learning programs through the six-credit, required, Smith Experience program, which includes entrepreneurship consulting experiences through the Dingman Center and the Center for Social Value Creation, opportunity to work with a venture capital fund through the New Markets Growth Fund, and global study trips that focus on entrepreneurship abroad.

The Princeton Review surveyed 2,000 schools for the rankings, which are based on key criteria in the areas of teaching entrepreneurship business fundamentals in the classroom, staffing departments with successful entrepreneurs, excellence in mentorship, providing experiential or entrepreneurial opportunities outside of the classroom, as well as non-traditional, distinguishable aspects of their programs. The University of Maryland rankings are attributed to strong programs at both the Smith School and the A. James Clark School of Engineering and fruitful collaborations between the schools.

The University of Maryland’s rankings can be seen at www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges and www.princetonreview.com/entrepreneur. Additional information about the Smith School’s entrepreneurship programs and initiatives through the Dingman Center.

About the Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, MS in business, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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University of Maryland Ranks No. 16 in the World for Business, Economics Faculty and Research

University of Maryland Ranks No. 16 in the World
for Business, Economics Faculty and Research

College Park, Md. – November 11, 2009 – The University of Maryland was recognized as No. 16 in the world for the strength of its faculty and quality of research in business and economics in the 2009 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) released Nov. 4. The rankings are compiled by the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. The University of Maryland also ranked No. 17 in the broader field of social sciences, which includes business and economics.
The overall rankings identify the leading 500 universities around the world and are widely referenced by the global university community. Institutions and broad fields have been ranked since 2003. This year the organization introduced subject rankings in chemistry, computer science, mathematics, physics and economics/business.

“We’re honored to be recognized in this influential ranking, and certainly share the credit with our colleagues in the department of economics at the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. “Our faculty are working on relevant, world-leading research that has big impact both in the classroom and in practice to tackle current issues in business and the economy.”

The Smith School has been widely recognized as a world leader in research and faculty strength, ranking No. 9 globally for faculty research in the 2009 Financial Times executive education rankings, published in October.

The ARWU ranks institutions according to their academic or research performance. Ranking indicators include alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes, Fields Medals and Turing Awards, highly cited researchers, papers indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), and the percentage of papers published in the top 20-percent academic journals in each field.

Beginning this year, the rankings were published by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. A complete list of the annually updated rankings can be found at the Academic Ranking of World Universities Web site. 

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 13 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, executive MS, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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University of Maryland Smith School of Business Faculty Named Top Scholar of Management

University of Maryland Smith School of Business Faculty
Named Top Scholar of Management

College Park, Md. – March 15, 2012 – Hui Liao, associate professor of management and organization at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, was honored with the 2012 Cummings Scholarly Achievement Award. The prestigious award is one of the highest professional honors in the field of organizational behavior, given annually by the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management to recognize outstanding early- to mid-career scholarly achievement.

Liao is a prolific researcher in the areas of organizational behavior, leadership and human resources. This is not the first time her work has been recognized – in 2010, she won the similar award “Scholarly Achievement Award” from the Academy of Management’s Human Resources Division, and in 2009 she was recognized with the “Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award” from the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology.

“Professor Liao has quickly become one of the top researchers in her field and a tremendous contributor to the strength of the management faculty at the Smith School,” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business. “Our faculty are truly shaping the future of business with their research, which they translate to the classroom to help our students leave here to become leaders armed with the latest management knowledge.”

Liao’s work has appeared in the field’s top journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Organization Science, and Personnel Psychology. She has conducted field research with small businesses and multinational corporations in various cultural settings, including the United States, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Europe and the UAE.

Liao currently serves as an associate editor for Personnel Psychology, a top-tier journal in management and applied psychology. In addition to her research accomplishments, she has also been consistently recognized for her exemplary teaching by the Smith School.

Before joining the Smith School, Liao was on the faculties of the Rutgers University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her PhD with concentrations in organizational behavior and human resources from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, and her BA in international economics from the Renmin University of China.

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, executive MS, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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University of Maryland Smith School of Business MBA Program Ranked No. 24, No. 2 for Student Satisfaction, Teachers and Career Services

University of Maryland Smith School of Business MBA Program
Ranks Among Nation’s Best
No. 2 for Student Satisfaction, Teachers and Career Services

College Park, Md. – November 15, 2012 – The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business offers one of the best MBA programs in the nation and ranks No. 2 for the quality of its teachers, its career services and overall student satisfaction, according to a ranking published today by Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. The Smith School ranks No. 24 in the nation and No. 9 among public universities.

“We’re so pleased to see our commitment to our students and our investments in our programs recognized with this ranking,” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business. “We have been focused on strengthening the learning experience for our students. We have some of the best researchers in the world who truly excel at translating their work in the classroom for our students. And we’ve made significant investments to transform our career services offerings to help our students develop as strong leaders.”

Students rated the Smith School “A+” across the board for career services offerings, the quality of teachers, leadership skills they acquired in the program and the caliber of their classmates.

The Smith School completed a multimillion-dollar revamp of its Office of Career Services in fall 2011, introducing a host of new student programs and a state-of-the-art physical space for interviews that have attracted many additional employers to campus. The office’s innovative offerings include a series of improvisation workshops led by a Broadway actor and soft-skills leadership training.

The MBA student experience is a top priority for the school, both in the classroom and through the six-credit, required Smith Experience program. Renowned researchers serve not only as top teachers, but as mentors and leaders for the experiential learning program’s consulting projects and global study trips.

The Bloomberg Businessweek rankings published November 15, 2012. The list appears every two years and is based on three main sources of data: a survey of MBA students, a survey of corporate recruiters, and an intellectual capital rating. The surveys are conducted online and ask students to rate their programs on teaching quality, career services, alumni network and recruiting efforts, among other things. The recruiter survey asks companies to rank top schools from which they recruit and hire MBAs. The intellectual capital score is determined by the number of faculty books published and articles published in the top 20 academic journals in the past five years. The magazine also evaluates programs on a range of statistical information submitted by the schools.

The complete rankings can be seen online. Additional information about the Smith School’s MBA program is available at http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/mba.

About the Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, MS in business, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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University of Maryland Smith School of Business Names Joyce E. A. Russell Vice Dean

University of Maryland Smith School of Business Names
Joyce E. A. Russell Vice Dean

College Park, Md. – July 9, 2012 – Joyce E. A. Russell was named Vice Dean for Programs at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. Russell is a Ralph J. Tyser Distinguished Teaching Fellow at the Smith School and has been a major force in shaping the student experience at all levels. As vice dean, Russell’s duties include oversight of the school’s undergraduate, MBA, MS and executive programs, and the development of the school’s global, university and corporate partnerships. She assumes the role in July and succeeds Hugh Courtney, who was named dean of Northeastern University College of Business Administration.

“As vice dean, Joyce will be instrumental in championing Smith School initiatives,” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business. “This role is critical to the operations of the school. Her leadership development and executive coaching expertise will be invaluable when working with students, faculty and staff.”

Russell is a Ralph J. Tyser Distinguished Teaching Fellow at the Smith School. Russell teaches courses at all levels – undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, and executive MBA. Since joining the faculty in 1998, she has consistently been honored for being one of the school’s outstanding teachers. She has also been selected three times for the Allen J. Krowe Award for Teaching Excellence given for outstanding teaching among tenured, tenure-track, and teaching professors.

Russell is the director of the Executive Coaching and Leadership Development Program for Smith’s EMBA program in College Park and China, and has chaired the Executive Coaching Conference held at the Smith School and attended by coaches from across the United States.

She also has more than 25 years of experience consulting with both private and public sector organizations in the areas of leadership development, negotiation tactics, executive coaching, and career development. Some of her clients have included: Lockheed Martin, Marriott, Department of Defense, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, National Institute of Health, SAIC, Frito-Lay, Quaker Oats, M&M Mars, ALCOA, Entergy, Yodlee, Black & Decker, Boeing Corporation, Hughes Communications, McCormick, Sprint/Nextel, Tennessee Valley Authority, State of Tennessee, Bell-South, L.M. Berry & Company, and Bryce Corporation.

Russell writes a weekly “Career Coach” column and answers reader questions in a monthly online chat for The Washington Post’s Capital Business newspaper.

Prior to joining the Smith School, Russell was a tenured full professor in the College of Business Administration at the University of Tennessee. She has published more than 50 articles, books, or book chapters and has presented her research at national and regional conferences. She served as the associate editor for the Journal of Vocational Behavior, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Resource Management Review, and Performance Improvement Quarterly.

She received her Ph.D and M.A. degrees in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Akron, Ohio.

About the Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, MS in business, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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University of Maryland Technology Start-Up Boot Camp, Oct. 22; Morgan O'Brien, Co-Founder of Nextel Communications Inc. (now Sprint Nextel), to Keynote

Learn, be inspired and network at this intensive, one-day workshop about how to launch and grow new ventures, headlined by prominent leaders of this region’s entrepreneurial community. Hundreds of like-minded students, faculty, and professionals attend each year. The Boot Camp is FREE to University of Maryland students, faculty and staff. The cost is $75 for all others. Lunch is included.

Keynote Speaker: Morgan O'Brien, Co-Founder, Nextel Communications Inc. (now Sprint Nextel)

9:00 a.m.: Introduction

Dean Chang, Director, Mtech Venture Programs; Director, Technology Advancement Program, University of Maryland

9:05 a.m.: Welcome

Darryll Pines, Dean, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

Hugh G. Courtney, Vice Dean,
Professor of the Practice of Strategy, Robert H. Smith School of Business9:20 a.m.: Launch Zone: Why the University of Maryland is a Great Place to Create a Startup

9:20 a.m.: Undergraduate Student Perspective

Greg Waldstreicher, Co-Founder, DoseSpot, 2010 Entrepreneur Magazine College Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, 2010 UMD $75K Business Plan Competition Winner

9:40 a.m.: Graduate Student Perspective

Matt Dowling, Co-Founder, Remedium Technologies, 2010 Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Global Venture Challenge Winner, 2009 Global Security Challenge Winner, 2007 UMD $50K Business Plan Competition Winner. Additional comments by Tim Askew, former CEO of CSA Medical

10:00 a.m.: Faculty Perspective

Carol Espy Wilson, Founder, OmniSpeech LLC, 2010 UMD $75K Business Plan Competition Winner, 2010 Maryland Daily Record Innovator of the Year. Addtitional comments by Morgan O'Brien, Co-Founder, Nextel Communications Inc. (now part of Sprint Nextel Corp.

11:30 a.m.: Keep the Wolves at Bay: Firming Up Your Intellectual Property Against Competition

11:50 a.m.: Company Formation, Operating Agreements, Employment Agreements, and Stock Plans

Samuel E. Feigin, Partner and Chair, Israel Business, Nixon Peabody LLP

Mark Kass, Partner and Chair, Israel Business, Nixon Peabody LLP

1:10 p.m.: Concurrent Sessions

Colony Ballroom
Startup Nuts & Bolts: The How To's of Incorporating, Stock Certificates, Taxes, & More

Benjamin Banneker Room
Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch

Juan Ramon Jiménez Room
Intellectual Property and Legal Questions and Answers

1:50 p.m.: Concurrent Sessions

Colony Ballroom
University IP Disclosures, Patents, and Licensing: What Every Researcher and Company Should Know

Gayatri Varma, Executive Director, University of Maryland Office of Technology Commercialization

Brent Goldfarb, Assistant Professor, Management & Entrepreneurship, Robert H. Smith School of Business

Benjamin Banneker Room
$500 Open Elevator Pitch Competition, Alla Corey, Program Manager, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship

Juan Ramon Jiménez Room
Intellectual Property and Legal Questions and Answers

2:50 p.m.: Concurrent Sessions

Colony Ballroom
Funding a Prototype: MIPS and the Maryland Proof-of-Concept Alliance Grants

Benjamin Banneker Room
Biotechnology Startup Workshop: Market Research, Grants, and Other Resources

3:20 p.m.: Concurrent Sessions

Colony Ballroom
Is Early Stage Investment Dead? New Rules, New Paradigms

Ed Barrientos, CEO, Brazen Careerist, Managing Partner, Zeitgeist Holdings, Visiting Angel, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship

Craig Dye, Director, Mtech VentureAccelerator Program

Bob Proctor, Blu Venture Investors

Janet Yang, Principal, Novak Biddle Venture Partners

Benjamin Banneker Room
Open Questions and Answers for Biotechnology Startups

Register to attend from:
www.bootcamp.umd.edu

Friday, October 22, 2010
University of Maryland,
College Park

Sponsors

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University of Maryland’s Center for Social Value Creation Expands Grassroots.org Social Venture Consulting Program to MBA Students Nationwide

University of Maryland’s Center for Social Value Creation
Expands Grassroots.org Social Venture Consulting Program
to MBA Students Nationwide

College Park, Md. – January 10, 2011 — The Center for Social Value Creation at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is expanding its Grassroots.org Social Venture Consulting Program in partnership with Grassroots.org, an organization that provides free technologies and resources to nonprofits. The innovative experiential learning program matches MBA students with nonprofit organizations around the country for semester-long consulting projects. Make Change! Trust provided a $120,000 grant to expand the program and the Center for Social Value Creation is inviting students nationwide to participate.

Since 2006, the competitive program has served more than 75 organizations and involved nearly 300 students, providing MBAs with practical consulting experience and the opportunity to give back to their community. Make Change! Trust has supported the program since its inception.

“This program provides a valuable service to nonprofits around the country and gives our students the hands-on experience coming up with innovative solutions to solving social issues,” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business. “This type of experiential learning is what all MBA students need to develop as the next generation of leaders. We’re happy we can help provide this beyond Smith to students around the nation.”

The consulting projects range from creating marketing campaigns, to designing donor outreach, to building financial models. U.S. nonprofits served by Grassroots.org apply to the program each semester to receive the consulting work from MBA student teams at no charge. Currently, the popular program can only serve about 10 percent of nonprofits that apply, but Make Change! Trust hopes that number will increase with the expansion of the program. The trust and the Center for Social Value Creation share the goal to provide more nonprofit organizations with mission-critical project work while providing a skills-based volunteer opportunity to more MBAs across the country.

“We are thrilled to be able to provide a greater number of nonprofits with capacity-building expertise,” said Melissa Carrier, executive director of the Center for Social Value Creation. “We’ve had tremendous success with our students and this program and we’re excited to replicate that success with MBAs at other schools.”

Smith’s Center for Social Value Creation and Grassroots.org will support other business schools that apply to take part in the program with a database of projects to match with student consulting groups, templates for successful outcomes, and a knowledge toolkit. The center will also provide ongoing advising to participants, much in the way center staff and faculty currently advise Smith student teams. Each consulting project is managed and completed by a group of three to five students.

The Grassroots.org Social Venture Consulting Program fulfills one of the main missions of the Center for Social Value Creation, which was launched in September 2009 to engage students in courses and experiential learning programs to enable them to become global leaders who understand how to use business as a vehicle for both economic prosperity and transformative social change. The center also supports faculty research in related areas.

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, executive MS, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

About Grassroots.org
Grassroots.org serves as a catalyst for positive social change by leveraging modern technologies and best business practices. Grassroots.org provides nonprofit organizations with free valuable technologies and resources to increase their efficiency and productivity. Grassroots.org’s goal is to adopt 10,000 nonprofit members, and to provide each of them with an average of $10,000 per year worth of services at no charge (for a total savings of $100 million per year!). Today Grassroots.org offers nonprofits free technology and business services available through its “Nonprofit Toolbox” and currently serves more than 3,500 nonprofits worldwide!

About Make Change! Trust
Make Change! Trust is a charitable fund developed by Internet entrepreneurs and philanthropists devoted to using technology to improve the world. MC!T makes donations to nonprofit organizations that are empowering other nonprofits and the underserved through innovative uses of technology. MC!T has donated more than a million of dollar to technology-focused organizations serving others, and directly to nonprofits fighting disease, homelessness, poverty, and supporting other humanitarian causes.

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University of Maryland’s Center for Social Value Creation Names Board of Advisors

University of Maryland’s Center for Social Value Creation Names Board of Advisors

College Park, Md. – September 6, 2011 — The Center for Social Value Creation at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business named six prominent business leaders to form its advisory board. The center launched in September 2009 with a mission to create and educate global leaders to use business as a vehicle for social and environmental change. Board members will meet bi-annually and help guide the center’s strategic functions and its outreach with businesses, nonprofits and the public sector.

Center for Social Value Creation board members are:

Stanley Litow (Chair), Vice President, Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and President, IBM International FoundationJohn Chickering, Vice President, Fidelity InvestmentsLisa Hall, President and CEO, the Calvert FoundationRobert Kashan, Founder and CEO, EarthColor Inc., an environmentally friendly and sustainable printing company based in New JerseyAlan Webber, Co-Founder, Fast Company and former managing editor and editorial director of the Harvard Business ReviewDennis Wraase, Former CEO and Chairman, Pepco Holdings

“We are fortunate to have recruited such a great group of visionaries in corporate social responsibility and sustainability,” said Melissa Carrier, executive director of the Center for Social Value Creation. “These leaders are at the top of their fields and set a great example for our students. They exemplify our mission to use business skills to bring about transformative social change in the world and they’ll help propel the center forward.”

With their extensive professional experience and networks, board members will help build support and advocate for the center by helping to spread the word on its mission and activities to potential partners and donors. Members will provide counsel on key strategies and initiatives. They will help with fundraising and identifying career opportunities and internships for Smith students. Board members will also participate in center events as speakers and panelists, or by helping to recruit other high-profile presenters.

Board members will serve a renewable two-year term.

The Smith School is well-situated to take a leadership role in social value creation business education given its internationally recognized faculty; its extensive relationships with key practitioners, academics, and policymakers, and its proximity to Washington, D.C. Through the Center for Social Value Creation, Smith students have the opportunity to engage in real-world field experiences such as consulting with nonprofits or traveling abroad to work on sustainable projects in developing countries. The center also works with the school’s academic departments on courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The center also supports faculty research in related areas.

More information about the Center for Social Value Creation is available at http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/svc/

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, executive MS, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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University of Maryland’s Cupid’s Cup Business & Innovation Showcase Leads to $1.5M Investment for Local Startup

University of Maryland’s Cupid’s Cup Business & Innovation Showcase Leads to $1.5M Investment for Local Startup

l-r: Jerrold Prothero, CEO and founder of Astrapi Corporation;
Elana Fine, managing director of the Dingman Center;
and Bill Boyle, Dingman Center angel investor

College Park, Md. – July 1, 2013 – Astrapi Corporation, whose patented signal modulation technology will revolutionize the mobile communications industry, has closed a seed round totaling $1.5 million led by Dingman Center Angel investor, Bill Boyle. The funding will be used to develop a commercially viable product for deployment with initial customers.

Boyle recognized the disruptive technology through a chance meeting at the April 2013 University of Maryland’s Cupid’s Cup Business and Innovation Showcase hosted by the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. The showcase featured campus and regional startups, including Astrapi, and was attended by the regional entrepreneurship and investor community.

“I was in the fiber services industry for the last 20 years and while walking around the Cupid’s Cup showcase I noticed a telecommunications startup,” said Boyle. “Astrapi claimed their technology could transmit dramatically more information than can be currently transmitted by using a different type of wireless signal based on spirals rather than the traditional circles. I was immediately drawn in and I quickly came to the conclusion that this technology is a game changer in an area that needs one.”

Astrapi’s spiral-based signal modulation improves spectral efficiency compared to the current industry standard by providing new ways to transmit information. These improvements alter how telecommunication networks send and receive signals, increasing the value of spectrum, and enabling operators to meet exploding demand more economically. The initial target markets are wireless mobile backhaul providers and satellite enterprise networks due to their constrained signal power, high data throughput requirements, and limited standards applicability.

On June 25, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Astrapi’s first patent, entitled "Telecommunications signaling using nonlinear functions." The patent is credited to inventor, Jerrold Prothero, Ph.D., CEO and founder of Astrapi, and covers the broad concept of using complex spirals for signal modulation in telecommunications.

“Our technology is based on showing for the first time how to effectively use bandlimited, non-periodic waveforms as the basis of communication,” said Prothero. "This allows us to do things that were previously thought to be impossible, by extending the mathematics and engineering principles that underlie telecommunications.”

Connections like the one between Astrapi and Boyle are exactly what the Dingman Center hopes to achieve through Cupid’s Cup. This signature event is sponsored by Under Armour founder and CEO, Kevin Plank and has evolved from a campus competition awarding only UMD student startups to a national one. The national expansion has allowed the Dingman Center to increase the number exhibitors, which this year included Astrapi Corporation.

“The genesis of this deal illustrates the depth and breadth of our network,” said Elana Fine, managing director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. “This connection between Bill Boyle and Astrapi is a perfect example of the Dingman community at work. Because of our expansion we are pulling in technologies and startups from across campus and throughout the region so I think we’ll continue to have success stories like this one.”

Boyle, a UMD alumnus, is founder and former president of Fibergate, a Washington, D.C. metro area provider of fiber-optic communication services. He is a member of the Dingman Center Angels, one of the area’s most active networks that connects startups seeking seed and early-stage funding with angel investors.

Boyle, and his fellow Astrapi investor, recently completed a successful exit from Fibergate and are both helping to guide Astrapi to a successful product launch. Currently, Astrapi is in commercialization talks with its first customer.

"We believe this technology will change the communications landscape forever and we look forward to its rapid deployment,” said Boyle.

Astrapi is a member of Mtech’s TAP Incubator located on the UMD campus. TAP offers furnished offices and flexible lab space as well as a multitude of other benefits and services.

About Astrapi Corporation
Astrapi is a spiral-based signal modulation company with patented IP. By applying new mathematics to signal modulation, Astrapi is able to improve the trade-off between the four fundamental parameters in telecommunication: bandwidth, signal power, data throughput, and error rate. Based on foundational work by its founder, Dr. Jerold Prothero, the company's patented Compound Channel Coding™ (cCc™) technology allows for dramatic improvements in communication performance by smoothly integrating periodic and exponential signal parameters. For network owners, operators and end-users, the resulting efficiency translates into higher spectral performance with more bits available at a lower cost.

About the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship
The Dingman Center is one of the nation’s pre-eminent institutions where the research, education and practice of entrepreneurship are pursued vigorously. We develop and execute curricular and non-curricular programs that uniquely leverage Smith School thought leadership, experiential learning and our network of practitioners to provide resources to startup businesses. Every initiative is designed to support the Center’s mission to build a community, operating from the Smith School that discovers, equips, connects and celebrates entrepreneurs.

About Mtech
The mission of Mtech is to educate the next generation of technology entrepreneurs, create successful technology ventures, and connect Maryland companies with university resources to help them succeed. Founded in 1983, Mtech has had a $29.4 billion impact on the Maryland economy and helped create or retain more than 7,800 jobs. Billion dollar companies such as Martek Biosciences and Digene Corporation graduated from our incubator. Mtech offers three experiential learning programs and 18 entrepreneurship and innovation courses, served to 1,003 enrollees in the academic year 2011-12, at the pre-college, undergraduate and graduate levels.

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, MS in business, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business Launches Online MBA Program

University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business Launches
Online MBA Program

College Park, Md. – June 17, 2013 – The Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland will offer an online MBA program beginning in January 2014. Designed to accommodate working professionals, the flexible online program allows students to earn an MBA degree largely on their own time with minimal on-campus requirements. The program courses are taught by the same top faculty and adhere to the academic rigor of the Smith School’s other top MBA programs.

“This is a major step forward for the university and for business professionals who need flexible access to academic excellence,” said UMD President Wallace Loh. “The Smith School is combining a state-of-the-art online platform with the academic rigor that makes it a leader. University-wide we are exploring how best to use technology-based learning, and this is an excellent model.”

The Smith Online MBA is modeled after the school’s top-ranked and highly successful executive MBA program, but it is delivered primarily online. Students begin and end the program with structured, in-person residencies at the University of Maryland’s campus in College Park. The remainder of the program is completed online. Students can earn their MBA degree in 21 months.

The online MBA program offers a broad base of knowledge on a wide range of business concepts, such as entrepreneurship, managerial economics, information systems and global economic development to prepare students with a strong business background. Students select one of four specializations — accounting, information systems and analytics, finance or marketing – to focus on their own particular area of interest or they may choose the general track, which allows course selection in each of the areas.

Courses will include two “live,” approximately hour-long sessions per week, where students will log on at a specific time to interact with faculty and fellow students. Other coursework can be completed at times that work best for each student.

The program is fully accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, AACSB International, the premier accrediting agency for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in business administration and accounting. GMAT or GRE entrance exams will be required for admission.
“Different educational formats work best for different kinds of learners – this program is best for working professionals who can learn within a rigorous, structured program, but more-so on their own time,” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business. “The elements that make our MBA degree programs so successful will still be in place with this program, but the key difference will be the level of flexibility.”

The Smith School’s MBA curriculum is focused on experiential learning opportunities for students and the online MBA program will also offer these experiences. Students will work together in groups on action learning projects, using knowledge gained in courses to tackle a real challenge or opportunity faced in a team member’s organization. Students will self-select teams, conduct remote project meetings and deliver presentations virtually.

These team projects and online group discussions give students many opportunities to create relationships with business professionals in the program across the nation and the world. The two residencies also provide the chance to establish strong professional connections with peers and professors.

For more information about the curriculum or the program requirements or to apply, go to www.rhsmith.umd.edu/onlinemba or contact a school representative at 1-877-807-8741.

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, executive MS, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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