On April 1, 2009, Nobel Prize-winning economist Dr. George Akerlof spoke about the current financial climate to a mix of faculty, staff and students that packed Frank Auditorium at the Smith School. Akerlof, the Koshland Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, won the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics for his contributions to the analyses of markets with asymmetric information.

Only one team could take away top honors at the Deloitte Consulting LLP Case Competition, hosted at the Smith School of Business on Friday, March 6, 2009. Over 65 Maryland undergraduates (including 45 of Smith's own students) participated in the competition, which asked students to advise Vibe Corporation, a server, workstation, and PC provider.

College Park, Md. – March 11, 2009 — The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced the launch of the Initiative for Social Value Creation, a push to engage every student in courses and experiential learning programs that build leadership and an understanding of how businesses can create both economic prosperity and transformative social change. Melissa Carrier, executive director for Social Value Creation, will lead the effort, which will support the groundwork for establishing a center dedicated to social value creation.

College Park, Md. – March 9, 2009 — Researchers from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business put a price tag on the cost of poor communication in U.S. hospitals at $12 billion per year. The research, newly released from the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems(CHIDS), is the first to quantify the economic impact of a health care system rife with communication delays and failures.

William Klausner, president of the James H.W. Thompson Foundation, said it best: “The road to the future is always under construction.” At the Thai American Business Program Conference on March 3, hosted by the Robert H. Smith School of Business, and co-sponsored by the Royal Thai Embassy and Smith School’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), former U.S. Ambassador to Thailand William Itoh quoted just that about Thailand as a whole.

US and Thailand:  Business at the CrossroadsMarriott Inn and Conference Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD March 2-3, 2009  The Robert H. Smith School of Business Center for International Business Education and Research and the Thai American Business Study Program hosted this professional conference from March 2-3, 2009, focusing on supply chain management, entrepreneurship and marketing in the context of the evolving political and economic environment in Southeast Asia. Read more & watch videos:

College Park, Md. – February 23, 2009 — The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced it is accepting applications for Smith Business Edge, an intensive six-week summer program that provides non-business undergraduate students and recent graduates with opportunities to build stronger leadership skills and business acumen. 

College Park, Md. – January 21, 2009 – The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business invites innovative solutions to one of the 21st century’s most pressing concerns – how to allocate scarce resources to protect the massive amount of personal and sensitive data available on computer networks and online. The selection committee is now accepting essay submissions for the Gordon Prize in Managing Cybersecurity Resources.

Broadcast Dates: Jan. 22, 7:30 p.m. | Jan. 25, 7:30 a.m. | Jan. 26, 4:30 a.m.   A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a group of University of Maryland students is hoping it will be worth big money, too. The undergraduate students started a project call Shutters 4 Scholars that is showcasing photos of children in orphanages in Ukraine to help drive donations to support the orphans’ education.

The Babcock Graduate School of Management hosted the 19th Annual Wake Forest MBA Marketing Summit from February 5-7. But it was Smith's undergraduates who took a starring role, taking home first place at the Undergraduate Case Challenge. Mary Harms, lecturer in marketing, was the faculty mentor for the team.