On the morning of May 4, 2018, Lemma Senbet Fund fellows presented their final reports to Alex Triantis, dean of the Smith School, and the Smith Foundation Board. Seniors David Niezelski and Jacob Biedronoski led the presentation, highlighting overall gains and successful decisions made over the past year. While the equity market for the past 12 months gave the team reasonable hurdles in finding value-driven theses, the cohort persevered and ultimately achieved higher returns than previous years.

Facing real-world corporate challenges, working on a team to find solutions and presenting the findings within a few days to knowledgeable and invested professionals is a tough way to earn a grade – and some money. But that is exactly what more than two dozen undergraduate finance majors did on April 6, 2018, when they participated in the Emerging CFOs Case Competition. Similar annual events are a big part of what provides the one-year Emerging CFOs Fellows Program with an experiential edge and connects students to experts in the field.

“What course of action would YOU recommend when confronted with a challenging and complicated business issue without clear-cut solutions?”

To make it as a woman in the male-dominated finance industry, you have to be assertive. And key to that is having – or faking – confidence, says Marguerita M. Cheng, CEO of investment advisory firm Blue Ocean Wealth. "I learned to assert myself through the skills that I have," says Cheng, a 1993 graduate of the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. Cheng began her career on Wall Street as an analyst, but wanted to work more closely with clients. She became a Certified Financial Planner and transitioned into wealth management.

All faculty, program directors, deans, department chairs, alumni, and students of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business are invited to nominate deserving Smith School faculty members (i.e., tenured, tenure-track, clinical, Professor of the Practice, lecturer, adjunct, or PhD student) for one of several teaching awards. Nominations are due by March 16, 2018, and awards will be presented in May.

“You never know what you don't know because I never knew such an industry existed,” said Byron Cordon, a finance and mathematics double major after attending a presentation last week focusing on the equipment leasing and finance industry. The event was held on Feb. 13, 2018, and is one of many co-curricular offerings hosted by the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business Finance Fellows program, which is designed to expand learning outside of the classroom.

Factors and implications surrounding the financial crisis of 2008 was the focus of a recent presentation by Martin J. Gruenberg, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, hosted by the Center for Financial Policy at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Smith Professor of Finance Haluk Ünal introduced Gruenberg to students, faculty and staff gathered in the Frank Auditorium for the Nov. 3, 2017 event, titled “The Financial Crisis and its Aftermath.”

In spring 2017, dozens of Finance Fellows tackled a case entitled “INFINITI HR – Target or Acquirer?” for their annual Emerging CFOs Case Competition held at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. A couple of weeks ago, the authors of the case, Karen Hallows and Susan White, who both teach in the finance department, presented the same case at an international conference and were awarded the prestigious Jonathan Welch Award for the best finance, accounting or economics case.

Russell Wermers, professor of finance and director of the 

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – The massive Equifax data breach has pulled the lid off the credit repository industry and now is drawing fresh scrutiny on the scarcely regulated firms that hold sway over the financial lives of millions of people. "It has opened up a Pandora's Box, for sure," says Clifford Rossi, professor of the practice in the finance department at the University of Maryland's Robert H.