Smith Students: Learn How to Navigate the Financial Storm

Town Hall Meeting - Friday, October 31, 2008
10 a.m. – Noon, Tyser Auditorium, VMH Room 1212

• Come hear from Alex Triantis, finance department chair on the new finance electives being offered
• Learn the ins and outs of salary negotiation in a tough economic climate from management and organization professor, Joyce Russell
• Learn from a panel of alumni and employers on how to navigate your careers in these tough economic times
• Expected representatives are SAIC, Human Genome Sciences, BB&T, United Bank, ICI Mutual Insurance Company, Aronson & Company and Financial Advantage Associates

Questions? Contact the OCM at (301) 405-2301.

Panelists

Jonathan Abbett
President, Financial Advantage Associates
MBA 1985

Jonathan Abbett is a UMD Alumni and has been in the financial services industry for over 20 years.

Abbett began his career with Equitable Financial Services (now known as AXA) and remained with them for 9 years. In 1997, Abbett left Equitable to open his own firm, Financial Advantage Associates Inc., in Rockville, MD to specialize in serving the needs of not-for-profit associations and emerging high net worth individuals.

Abbett has grown Financial Advantage Associates from a two person start up in 1997 to a 17 person professional financial services firm managing over 100 million in assets under management and investment accounts in addition to managing over 500 million in life insurance. Abbett’s 3 year growth plan sets the firm at 30 full-time professionals. Currently over 50% of the firms financial professionals and nearly all of its college interns are UMD students and graduates and they hop to continue that trend in the future through their efforts at both the College Park and Shady Grove campuses.

Lisa Cines 
Managing Director, Aronson & Company 
B.S. Accounting 1981

Lisa J. Cines, CPA serves as Aronson & Company’s Managing Officer. She joined the Firm in 1982 and has spent over 25 years in the industry. Cines earned her Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from the University of Maryland in 1981.

As the firm's top executive, Cines is responsible for the definition and implementation of strategic initiatives and operational directives for the entire company. Prior to being voted in as Managing Officer, she served as an officer in A&C’s Government & Technology Services Group, specializing in accounting, tax and consulting services with a special emphasis on implementing high level business plans and strategies.

Because of her reputation within the profession, Cines is frequently asked to make presentations to banking institutions, government contractors, and executives. Cines has also provided articles for various trade publications and is sought by the media to provide expert commentary regarding issues in the accounting field. In 2008, she served as a panelist at a Treasury Department Subcommittee meeting in Washington, D.C., created to consider and develop recommendations relating to the sustainability of the auditing profession

Cines is an active participant in a large number of industry organizations as well as community groups. In 2006, Cines was named to the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) after previously having served on the AICPA Council. Her efforts have been recognized by several media and industry outlets and, in 2005, she was named one of the Washington Business Journal’s "25 Women Who Mean Business." 
Cines currently serves as North American Chairperson of Praxity and she is a member of the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, and the Executive Committee of the Greater Washington Initiative. Cines also lends her expertise and dedication to the MACPA Accounting Education & Career Task Force and the University of Maryland Accounting Department.

Shiva Fritsch
Executive Associate Director of Organization and Leadership Development,
Human Genome Sciences, Inc. 
Executive MBA 2008

Shiva Gohari Fritsch is the Associate Director of Organization & Leadership Development at HGS, in Rockville, Maryland. By heading up the OL&D group, Fritsch works closely within the Talent Management team at HGS to set strategy and optimize current practices for talent acquisition and talent development for the company, while they plan for commercialization of their products. Fritsch has been with HGS for 10 years and prior to leading the OL&D group, Fritsch spent several years in a Business Partner role where she recruited for functional areas such as R&D, Business Development, IT, Legal and IP and Engineering. Fritsch has her BA in Biology from Bryn Mawr College and recently received her MBA from the Smith Executive MBA program.

Chris Hiltbrand 
Senior HR Business Partner, SAIC 
Executive MBA 2007

Chris Hiltbrand is a human resources and project management professional with over fifteen years of experience delivering strategic HR and meaningful solutions across lines of business. His current role as the Talent Programs Manager involves working with line leadership to build and implement the overall talent management strategy for SAIC which includes resource management and succession planning frameworks and systems. He is a recent MBA graduate of the Smith School of Business and his professional certifications include Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from SHRM, and Project Management Professional (PMP) from PMI.

Thomas “Tom” A. Nida
Executive Vice President, United Bank

With more than forty years experience in banking and finance, Tom Nida currently serves as Executive Vice President for United Bank, directing its community development activities for the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. In that capacity, he focuses on facility financing and investment management for local non-profit organizations and independent government agencies, providing tax-exempt bond financing, as well as special revenue and tax increment financing.

Nida also currently serves as Chair of the DC Public Charter School Board, having been first appointed by former Mayor Anthony Williams in February, 2003, and re-appointed in August, 2006. This Board is the authorizer for 60 public charter schools, operating a total of 96 campuses, serving more than 25,000 students throughout the city. An expert in school finance, he is a frequent speaker at national conferences, and is the author of several articles published in national banking journals. Nida serves as a Trustee and member of the Credit Committee of the Charter Schools Development Corporation, a national non-profit that provides credit enhancement funding for charter school facility financing, as well as developing charter school facilities in metropolitan areas across the country. Nida serves on the Board of the DC Students Construction Trades Foundation, a local non-profit active in the creation of a current building trades vo-tech program for DC public schools. He has also been appointed to a Non-Profit Task Force headed by DC Deputy Mayor Neil Albert, focused on recruitment and retention of DC headquarters facilities for non-profit corporations, as part of a new DC initiative. Nida has been actively involved in leadership roles with non-profit Boards for the last 30 years, including local, regional, and national organizations.

He is a graduate of the School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin and an Executive Program at the University of Virginia Graduate School of Business. He is a guest lecturer at the Law School and the Graduate Business School of Georgetown University and at the Graduate Business School of the University of Maryland. Nida also manages United Bank’s Leadership Development Program for the DC Metro region, developing mid-level bank officers for senior management positions.

John T. Mulligan
Vice President of Underwriting, ICI Mutual Insurance Company
MBA 2002

John T. Mulligan is Vice President of Underwriting for ICI Mutual Insurance Company, the predominant provider of Directors & Officers / Errors & Omissions liability insurance (“D&O/E&O”) and fidelity bonding for the U.S. mutual fund industry. He manages risk selection, exposure analysis, terms development, and pricing for ICI Mutual, which is owned by and operated for its insureds, including T. Rowe Price, Legg Mason, Vanguard, and Capital Research & Management. Mulligan joined ICI Mutual in 2002 after receiving an MBA from the University of Maryland. He possesses over 15 years of professional liability management and underwriting experience. From 1994 to 2000, Mulligan held several management and underwriting positions at the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. In addition to the MBA, he holds a bachelor's degree from Villanova University.

Dontá L. Wilson
President, BB&T
Executive MBA 2005

Dontá L. Wilson has more than 12 years of banking experience. He joined BB&T in October 1995 while in college and worked in bank operations. He has served as a Financial Center Manager, Business Banker and Retail City Executive in Charlotte, N.C.; as a Regional Business Banking Manager for the Northern Virginia Battlefield Region; and as an Area Executive/Senior Vice President of Prince William County, Va. In 2005, at the age of 28, he was appointed a Regional President at BB&T (one of the top 12 banks in the United States), post a successful tenure of overseeing several mergers and acquisitions. He currently remains in this role, leading one of the bank’s largest regions with over $2.5 billion in assets. Wilson leads corporate banking, commercial banking, retail banking, wealth management, mortgage, operations, and credit administration within the region.

Wilson has appeared in many publications and will be releasing his new book, “P3….The Winning Formula for a More Prosperous Life.” This powerful writing, to be released in early 2009, focuses on understanding and leveraging purpose, passion, and people.

Wilson received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina–Charlotte. He is a graduate of the BB&T Banking School at Wake Forest University and earned an MBA from the University of Maryland. He is co-founder and CEO of Wilson Capital Management, a multi-million dollar real estate holding company. He is the President of BB&T’s $2.5 billion Northern Virginia Battlefield Region. He is a trustee and annual campaign chairman of the Prince William Health System Foundation, executive committee member of the Prince William Education Foundation, member and chairman of the My Brothers Keeper mentoring program, member of Kappa Alpha Psi Inc., and member of Manassas Noon Rotary. Wilson is a member of the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business Board of Visitors.