Bradford Banquet

The 18th Annual William D. Bradford Awards Banquet was held on April 27, 2011 at the Riggs Center, University of Maryland in College Park.

The Bradford Banquet is the marquee event of the Black and Hispanic MBA Associations that honors the legacy of one of Smith’s former deans and finance chair - Dr. William Bradford - and celebrates the diversity at Smith.

While holding on to its traditions, the Bradford Banquet has evolved into a signature networking event for the Smith School of Business. Over 100 people, including faculty, staff, students, and guests of all backgrounds, came together for the evening to meet new people and make valuable connections.

Smith students benefited from the multitude of event sponsors, as each company sends 2 to 4 representatives to the banquet to network with the Smith community. This year’s sponsors were Marriott Inc., General Electric, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Constellation Energy, The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and Smith’s own CIBER office. BB&T supported as the event’s Diamond Sponsor.

The theme for the 2011 banquet was “Leveraging Diversity: Paving Your Way Through Corporate America." Keynote speaker Donna Meacham-Blackman, a Smith EMBA program alumna and Vice-President of Finance at Marriott International, Inc. gave a captivating address concluding with her best advice on how new MBAs can achieve success in their career paths.

Anthony Taylor and Lina Montoya, both of the MBA Class of 2011 received Academic Excellent Awards; Ian Cruse, PTMBA 2012 and Laura Rojas, MBA 2011 were recipients of the Bradford Scholarship. LaVern Chapman, Director of Student Engagement & Diversity and former Director the MBA Career Services Programming received the Outstanding Staff Award. Finally, Ayo Odusote, MBA 2005, received the Alumni Award for his continued commitment to the Smith School of Business post-graduation.

Shari King, Smith Media Group