Dingman-Lamone Center Renaming Celebrates Legacy of Entrepreneurial Vision

On Friday, Sept. 12, the Smith School commemorated the legacy of one of its own and an entrepreneurial pioneer, Rudolph P. ‘Rudy’ Lamone, former dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business, during a renaming ceremony of the Dingman-Lamone Center for Entrepreneurship.

The renaming follows a generous $3.8 million gift from Lamone’s widow, Linda Lamone ’70. It pays homage to the late dean, who collaborated closely with alumnus Michael Dingman, a self-made international investor and businessman, to launch the center in 1986.

“We celebrate this legacy created by Rudy Lamone with the renaming of the center—the Dingman-Lamone Center for Entrepreneurship. From all of us at the Smith School, thank you to Linda Lamone, whose generosity will continue to help generations of entrepreneurs learn, lead, and establish their own legacies in the communities they support through their entrepreneurial innovation,” said Dean Prabhudev Konana during the event.

Since the center’s founding as one of the first dedicated entrepreneurship centers within a business school in the United States, it has maintained its reputation as a world-class entrepreneurial institute serving as an incubator of opportunities for nascent businesses.

In 2024, Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine ranked the university No. 7 across all institutions, No. 5 among public universities, No. 17 for graduate entrepreneurship education and No. 1 in the mid-Atlantic for both undergraduate and graduate programs. The ranking marked Maryland’s 10th straight year in the top 10.

In her remarks during the event, Provost Jennifer King Rice noted the center’s position as a cornerstone in the University’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, supporting the nearly one in four undergraduates in 82 majors who are enrolled in undergraduate entrepreneurship courses, taught by 51 faculty members across 28 departments. The center has also helped launch approximately 50 to 100 ventures every year, resulting in thousands of new ventures and entrepreneurs since its establishment.

The philanthropic naming of the center in honor of Lamone “celebrates the continuation of the foundation that he laid,” she said.

“Together, the Lamones have left a legacy of incredible service to both the university and the state of Maryland,” said King Rice. “This legacy will continue to live on in every student who dares to take a risk in every idea that takes flight and in every venture that begins here.”

The event also featured remarks from students and alumni who have seen their ventures come to fruition or develop in part with support from the center, including Caroline Ta ’21, founder of Sweets by Caroline and 2020 Pitch Dingman Competition contestant, as well as Vraj Patel, a computer science undergraduate student working with the center on building his AI study assistant tool, Claryfy.

Speaking to the audience before the ribbon-cutting ceremony near the event’s conclusion, Linda Lamone cemented Rudy’s love for the Smith School and entrepreneurship, the relationships he forged within the school’s walls and the appreciation he would have felt toward the center’s renaming.

“He was so proud of this building, and he would be tremendously humbled and honored by what's going on here today, to have his name placed after Michael Dingman, who was a good friend of his,” Lamone said. “He truly believed that entrepreneurship was the key to a lot of happiness and wealth. Thank you all again, appreciate it and carry on.”