In boardrooms, many members are standalone actors. They “listen, make their points and go home,” said Carly Fiorina, MBA ’80. “But the reality is the rest of the world sees the company board as a team with responsibilities.”

Professor Lemma W. Senbet has advice for his students: “I tell them to always do your best, wherever you are and whatever you are doing – you never know who could be watching. One thing leads to another and you may end up someplace very different from where you started. Situations are what you make of them.”

The Center for Financial Policy at the Smith School of Business hosted a policy chat with Craig Lewis, SEC Chief Economist and Director of the Division of Risk, Strategy, and Financial Innovation on April 25, 2012 in College Park, MD. Faculty and students from the Smith School of Business, School of Public Policy, and the Department of Economics attended the chat to with Dr. Lewis to discuss the SEC rule-making process.

Bruce Richards knows a thing or two about making a hedge fund stand out from the crowd. Richards, co-managing partner and CEO of top-50 hedge fund Marathon Asset Management, spoke at the Robert H. Smith School of Business to an audience of students, faculty, staff and alumni eager to learn his tricks of the trade.

Financial regulators, policymakers, academic researchers, private sector professionals, and IMF/World Bank country delegates gathered on April 17, 2012 to discuss the future of financial regulation. The roundtable co-hosted by the Center for Financial Policy at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), preceded the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, DC.

Cliff Rossi, Tyser Teaching Fellow and Executive-in-Residence at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, is among about 25 finance experts from around the world selected to share ideas in an April 9-10, 2012, conference, "Financial Reform: the Devil is in the Details," hosted by the Federal Reserve in Atlanta.

Courtney C. Geduldig, former Chief Financial Counsel for Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), presented a talk entitled “Before, During and After – the Makings of Financial Reform” and led an engaging discussion on current financial policy issues in front of dozens of graduate students and professors at the Robert H. Smith School of Business in College Park, Md. This event was the second edition of CFP’s Congressional Briefing Series held in partnership with the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy.

Over 55 undergraduate Finance Fellows gathered at the Robert H. Smith School of Business to hear CFP Advisory Board Member Eric Billings talk about his experiences as an entrepreneur and finance professional. Billings is the Chairman and CEO of Arlington Asset Investment Corporation, a publicly-traded investment firm specializing in the residential mortgage-backed securities market.

Faculty at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business have summarized 2012 forecasts for individual sectors of the national economy. “Several important dynamics frame the 2012 economic outlook,” said Cliff Rossi, Tyser Teacher Fellow and executive-in-residence. These factors include: