 Robert
H. Spicer II addressed the range of challenges facing IT professionals at
the Smith School’s Sixth Annual CIO Forum on November 18, 2005. Spicer is
executive vice president and chief information officer of Chevy Chase Bank,
a $14 billion enterprise with 250 branches and over one million accounts in
the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. Chevy Chase Bank is an important
partner of the Smith School as a provider of scholarships and fellowships
and a lead investor in the Smith School’s New Markets Growth Fund, a $20
million venture capital fund headquartered at the Smith School.
 The
challenges posed by continuing technological transformations are
particularly crucial for the banking industry—after all, they’re working
with people’s money. The 9/11 terrorist attacks made the banking industry
realize that moving paper checks by airplane was not a truly safe option.
Banks are now required to digitize paper checks and archive them for a
period of seven years. This ever-increasing amount of data has presented
storage and accessibility issues for the industry. Then there’s information
security. Banks must counter fraud, provide anti-terrorist safeguards,
provide reliable, foolproof methods of authentification, protect customer
privacy, and ensure the security of customers’ financial data, all while
complying with increasingly complex federal regulations.
In his CIO Forum address, Spicer pointed out some of the unexpected ways
in which technology is changing the banking world. Today more and more
people use their bank debit cards as an alternative to cash, a phenomenon
Spicer calls “the digitization of money.” This practice is slowly negating
the primary function of the thousands of ATM machines across the
nation—providing $20s for consumers. Spicer discussed several possible ways
the banking industry could maximize the investment that has been made in
this technology, including providing more personalized functions, like
no-envelope deposits for both cash and checks and using the ATMs for direct
marketing purposes.
Other sessions at the CIO Forum featured presentations and panel
discussions on information technology in the automobile manufacturing and
healthcare industries. |
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It has been 150 years since the state of Maryland first
chartered its new educational institution, the Maryland Agricultural College,
which eventually became Maryland State College and finally the University of
Maryland. Since then the university has become one of the preeminent public
research and educational institutions in the nation.
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The 1943 Collegiate Chamber of
Commerce, a student club, played an active part in student defense
work during World War II and aided in promoting closer relations
between nearby businessmen and students of the university. |
The university has only had a business school since 1921, but business
students have been important contributors to the university’s success and
reputation. Some of our most famous graduates include Samuel J.
LeFrak ’40, who presided over one of the world’s largest building firms; the
honorable Harry R. Hughes ’49, 57th governor of the state of
Maryland; Waldo Burnside ’49, CEO and president of legendary
Washington-area retailer Woodie’s; Robert H. Smith ’50, the real estate
developer and philanthropist for whom the Smith School is named; Thomas
V. Miller ’64, ’67(Law), member of the Maryland State Senate; Gary
Williams ’68, championship-winning coach of the Terps men’s basketball team;
Larry David ’70, creator of the classic television series “Seinfeld” and
HBO’s extremely popular “Larry David Show,” and Carly
Fiorina, MBA ’80, former CEO and chairman at Hewlett Packard.
Check out the
Smith School history Web site for more
information about business school history.
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