Smith MBAs Win National Case Competition Again!

College Park, Md. November 28, 2005 - For the second time in a row, a team of MBA students from the University of Marylands Robert H. Smith School of Business won first place in the MBA case competition held during the national "Reaching Out MBA" student conference. The winning team included Smith MBA students Michael Carney, Catherine Sheehy, and Daniel Mantell, along with Kevin Smith, an MBA student at NYUs Stern School. The Smith team beat out a number of other top business schools, which were represented at the conference in Chicago November 17 20. The case competition, sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton, challenged the MBA teams to determine whether and how a firm should extend its diversity initiatives to cover sexual orientation.

"This issue is challenging for companies, primarily because of misunderstanding of what it represents," said Sheehy. "As we stated in our presentation, inclusion of sexual orientation in diversity initiatives is not about special rights, its about leveling the playing field in an environment where discrimination based on sexual orientation persists."

Carney, Sheehy and Mantell are all members of the Smith Pride Alliance, an MBA group formed last year to raise awareness about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues in the workplace, encourage dialogue within the community, build alumni relations and promote progressive diversity within Smith. Carney and Sheehy were part of the Smith team that won the case competition at the last "Reaching Out MBA" conference held in February.

"The opportunity to work with and learn from Catherine and Michael was incredible," said Mantell. "I now feel like I have the tools to successfully develop and present a strong case."

More than 600 participants, 35 sponsors, and 40 actively recruiting firms attended the conference, which was hosted by Reaching Out MBA  a national student organization that promotes the education, visibility, and networking capabilities of LGBT business leaders worldwide. The annual conference provides a forum for students, recent alumni and business leaders to share information, build networks and promote cooperation. It was founded in 1999 by students at Harvard Business School and the Yale School of Management. For this academic year, the conference was moved back to November from last years February in order to facilitate the recruiting of first-year students for internships. The case competition is designed to provide MBA students who attend the conference with the opportunity to demonstrate and hone their skills in strategic analysis, recommendation development, and persuasive presentation.

In addition to participating on the winning case competition team, Smiths Carney organized a conference panel, "Life After MBA," which addressed alternative career paths, parenting issues, and activism for workplace equality. The panel, which included representatives from SC Johnson, Sprint and Home Depot, received high marks from conference participants.