Six Tips to Help Get What You Want Negotiation is crucial for your career. Wages and promotions aren’t like grades awarded on merit. If you want a raise, you have to persuade someone to give it to you.

Fede Garcia-Lopez (Smith MBA 2003; Engineering 1998) came up with the idea for Panas Gourmet Empanadas during an entrepreneurship class while in the part-time MBA program at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. It started as a wholesale business and in 2010 he opened restaurants in Dupont Circle and Bethesda.

Every five years, the University of Maryland Alumni Association honors and celebrates notable achievements of 21 outstanding individuals who have made their mark on the university and/or within their respective industry. The 12th Annual Awards Gala, a prestigious, black-tie event held at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center on April 14, 2012, recognized five Smith alumni for their professional achievements, personal accomplishments and exceptional service to the university.

Frank Islam, a member of the Smith School Board of Advisors, is the chairman/CEO of FI Investment Group LLC (FIIG), which focuses on providing growth capital to emerging companies, and managing specialized and branded funds. In addition to his volunteer work with the Smith School, Islam serves on the International Advisory Council of the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) National Advisory Board, the advisory committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and the Department of Commerce Industry Trade Advisory Committee (ITAC).

When Christos Marafatsos ’09 and longtime friend Kosta Dionisopoulos started Delta Produce in 2009, they never dreamed that only two years later their business would be featured in Bloomberg BusinessWeek as part of an entrepreneurial contest.

What do Smith alumnus Dennis Cinelli and alumna Jamie Lee have in common? Both graduated from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business in 2005; both went to work for GE upon graduation; both joined the company’s Corporate Audit Staff; and both were awarded the company’s most prestigious award for young professionals in 2011: the Chairman’s Circle Award. “It’s an honor to win this award,” Cinelli said. “Everyone eligible for the award is doing great work and working really hard, so it was a good surprise.”

 

Albert (Al) P. Carey was named chief executive officer of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, a unit of PepsiCo. Carey received his B.S. from the University of Maryland in 1974 and is a former member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and also a former member of the University of Maryland College Park, Inc. Foundation Board of Trustees. Carey is scheduled to speak at the popular CEO@Smith Speaker Series on Nov. 15. Carey assumed this role in Sept.

Recent alumni of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business Christos Marafatsos and Kosta Dionisopoulous launchedDelta Produce in 2009 with a strategic detailed approach to penetrate and innovate in the perishable food industry – a sector valued at over $2 billion in the Washington, D.C., metro area alone. Delta Produce was selected byBusinessWeek as one of 25 promising companies started by young entrepreneurs under 25. They need our help to win this contest. Voting ends Oct. 20.

Five successful University of Maryland alumni joined on February 24, 2011 at the Robert H. Smith School of Business to impart secrets of success to aspiring student entrepreneurs at an event co-sponsored by the school’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship and Office of Career Services. The panelists included: