First-ever region-specific Smith alumni club launches in New York City

Times Square is famous for many things: It’s the location of one of the most recognized New Year’s Eve celebrations in the world; it’s the site of the historic Times Square kiss in 1945; and it’s home to Times Square Studios, from which ABC’s Good Morning America airs each day. Times Square will also be remembered by many alumni from the Robert H. Smith School of Business as the spot of the Smith Alumni Club of New York launch event that was two years in the making.

More than 200 alumni gathered at the Ernst & Young National Headquarters, located centrally in Times Square, on Sept. 29, 2010, to celebrate the launch of the Smith Alumni Club of New York, or SmithNY. The region-specific alumni club is the first of its kind at the Smith School, and aims to unite the more than 5,000 alumni living in the Greater New York region.

The event was a collaborative effort between the Smith School and the SmithNY Council, including Ngozi Nwaneri ’09; Neil Samen ’09; John Masoudpour ’01, MBA ’07; Alex Muchinsky, MBA ’96; Puja Samria, MBA ’10; Marla Weintraub ’09; and Jared Piche ’00. Both the Smith School’s Office of Development & Alumni Relations and the SmithNY Council saw a need for an alumni club for Smith alums living in New York City, Northern New Jersey and Southern Connecticut – the second largest population of Smith alumni, after the Washington, D.C.-area.

“An alumni club in New York is an idea we’ve had since the summer of 2008. Ngozi and I were at our summer internships—Ngozi was at Ernst & Young in New York, and I was at JPMorgan in Delaware,” Samen explained. “We realized that there was no formal presence or network for Smith alumni in the New York region, where Ngozi thought he would like to end up after graduation.”

Prior to graduating, Nwaneri and Samen approached the Office of Development & Alumni Relations with their idea. Immediately, a partnership was forged as the concept of alumni clubs was a departmental goal as well. Having alumni leaders who understand the vision and want to meet the needs of alumni was the basis of the partnership. SmithNY is the result of hard work and determination from all involved to ensure the success of the club.

In addition to the alumni present at the launch event, the dean of the Smith School, G. “Anand” Ananadalingam, the undergraduate dean, Patricia Cleveland, and the assistant dean of alumni relations, Kelly Brown, all made their way up to the Big Apple for the festivities. Vice Chairman and Northeast Managing Partner of Ernst & Young, Mark Manoff ’78 hosted the launch event, letting SmithNY use Ernst & Young’s space located right in the heart of the city.

Dean Anand spoke to the crowd about his excitement that the Smith School has a New York alumni club. Most of the top business schools in the country already have an alumni club in the city, and now the Smith School was joining in creating a community for its alumni in the area.

Brown also expressed her excitement in the launch of SmithNY, saying she hopes the club will help foster a strong relationship between alumni living in the New York region and the Smith School. After the short speeches, alumni spent the rest of the evening networking.

“We could not have asked for a better turnout or better engagement from the alumni,” Nwaneri said. “It was nice to see so many alumni come out to the launch event. We are looking forward to providing alums in the city more stimulating programs and events throughout the upcoming year.”

In the few weeks since the launch event, SmithNY has launched its website, smithnyalumni.com, and has hosted a “My Life in New York” alumni panel discussion at which alumni provided current students with insight into a day in their life in the New York region. Several SmithNY club members also participated in New York Cares Day, a citywide day of service filled with cleaning and fixing up New York City public schools.

“The launch of SmithNY is critical in that we hope to provide a model for other regional clubs to be based on. We anticipate launching the next clubs in the Baltimore and Philadelphia regions,” said Rosetta Clay, director of alumni programs. “The key will be identifying strong alumni leadership who will work with us to build sustainable programming that will be relevant for many years to come. Obviously, there will be region-specific programming for the clubs, but the mission and goal will be the same – to strengthen Smith’s brand and provide opportunities for alumni to engage with one another, students and the Smith School.”

Jessica Bauer, Writer and Editor, Office of Marketing Communications