For Andy Kim, MBA ’20, the desire to make banking a better experience for Korean speakers runs deep. Kim, vice president and business banking relationship manager at M&T Bank, made the list of the Baltimore Business Journal’s 2020 Leaders in Diversity Award for his efforts in building a Korean-speaking banking team within his branch.

Approaching cultural differences with curiosity and openness is fundamental to leading with a global mindset. Scott Samels '92, global delivery lead within the global enablement team at McCormick & Company, Inc., oversees approximately two hundred people halved between North America and Europe, specifically in Poland. So for Samels, understanding the cultural differences in the countries that his company operates in and how that impacts the employee workforce is an important factor in developing his global mindset and leading a global team.

People with a global mindset have spent time understanding, accepting and leveraging similarities and differences among cultures and business practices. For Ernst & Young Managing Director, and Global Service Coordinating Partner, Ellen Polansky ’87, developing this mindset starts with breaking down stereotypes and barriers and for some, fear. No one’s success equations should be based on fear. As a Maryland Smith graduate, success comes from being “Fearless” exclaims Polansky.

A global mindset is essential for success in an increasingly interconnected world. For Kristin Fallon '11, that means developing boundaryless thinking, with no set geographical reference. “It is about thinking outside of your immediate world and really accounting for the world at large. We are in the U.S. and so we are thinking about the world from the perspective of the U.S. – as someone from Europe looks at the world from a European perspective. However, trying not to have a fixed perspective is key,” says Fallon, the director of content and storytelling at GE Healthcare.

Heather Maier, MBA ’91, has always had a creative and business-oriented mind. Her interests in design and art were balanced with her skills in math and finance. And now, her year-old business, Hedy’s Gems, combines all of these. Maier was born and raised in the DC area and earned her bachelor’s degree in math & business from Wake Forest University. After college, Maier moved back to DC and worked in retail banking with the goal of making a career in the world of finance.

When Charlotte Cullen graduated from Maryland Smith in December 2019, she did so at the perfect moment – the prelude to tax season.

When students enroll in the Advanced R Workshop, they will be taught by someone who stood in their shoes before them. Ravi Pandey, a 2016 Smith graduate of the Master of Science in Information Systems program, leads the class. He knows what it takes to succeed professionally, and he teaches graduate student weekend workshops on R, machine learning and Python.

For Nick Gardner ’18, a marketing degree was the perfect opportunity to pursue two of his passions: storytelling and connecting with others. “Marketing is really about communicating a message through a story,” he said. “Whether that is through video or podcast, it’s really about trying to connect with someone.” Now a podcast host, and video producer and editor at Adweek in New York City, Gardner has turned his passions into his profession.

For Meg Goldthwaite, MBA ’96, taking on the chief marketing officer role at National Public Radio, one of the country’s most trusted news organizations, was like coming full circle in what she calls a serendipitous career journey. Journalism is where it all started. “My first job out of school was working at a local TV news station,” she says. “I pretty quickly learned that I didn’t have the chops to be a journalist, although I admire journalists immensely.”

For senior global trade compliance manager, Larry Legates, MBA ’04, developing a global mindset goes far beyond the workplace. Legates studied abroad in Spain, Chile, and Mexico. His work has included on-site projects in Brazil, China, Japan, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, and Peru and he is fluent in Spanish, proficient in Portuguese, and has translated two books on Mexican customs requirements.