McNamee Stresses Importance of Networking

Marlene McNamee, MBA ’02, told the incoming MBA class of 2010 that their cell phones would be their best tool, first and foremost, when it came to getting a job post-graduation. McNamee, a vice-president of Deutsche Bank, pounded the pavement and cold-called prospects to get her first job on Wall Street. And in the years since, the Smith alumni phone numbers on her cell phone have kept her career going strong.

McNamee advised the group to generate a strong sense of community at Smith. “Take advantage of the dynamic leaders who are sitting next to you, and the dynamic leaders in the administration who are willing to listen to you. Leverage that to create your own Smith experience,” she said.

Marlene McNamee, MBA ’02, center, vice president of Deutsche Bank and past present of the Smith School MBA Association; with Alex Kouts, current president of the MBA Association; and Charles “Uncle Charlie” Olsen, Tyser Teaching Fellow, logistics, business and public policy department, who McNamee remembers as a great mentor and friend.

During her candidacy, McNamee plunged herself into the Smith experience by becoming president of the MBA Association, working for the benefit of both the school and her fellow MBA students. She remembers when she and the other MBAA leaders gave a presentation to the then-dean Howard Frank, etc. That experience emphasized the importance of interacting with faculty and school administration, something she urged incoming MBA students to take the time to do.

She found faculty interaction to be important after the tragic events of Sept. 11, when the MBA class was searching for a meaningful way to remember two fellow students who perished in the attack on the Pentagon. Meg Vande Weghe, then a faculty member at the Smith School, was instrumental in encouraging McNamee and the MBA Association to plan and carry out the first Monte Carlo Night to raise scholarship funds. Monte Carlo Night has gone on to become a Smith School tradition.

That community involvement has kept the full-time MBA class of 2002 in close contact even years after graduation. Many of them still gather for yearly reunions, and McNamee reports that her fellow MBA alumni network has been an important source of support in the years since she graduated.

“Getting an MBA was the best investment of my time I could have made,” says McNamee. “I had a great two years here at Smith.”