Students in management and organization lecturer Paulo Prochno’s Global Strategy class received a special guest lecture from Israeli professor and former Philips Israel CEO Dr. Uzi de Haan, on Thursday, October 2, 2008. De Haan discussed his experiences at Philips and provided an overview of the current business climate in Israel.

The Smith School’s undergraduate program kicked off the new school year in fine style with its Fourth Annual Business Week, September 8-12. This year’s featured Business Week speaker was Richard Perlmutter, co-founder ofArgo Development Company, which develops retail, office, residential, industrial, and urban mixed-use projects throughout the Washington metropolitan area.

College Park, Md. – August 26, 2008 — The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced it is offering the Smith EMBA Speakers Series, a unique forum presenting innovative ideas and knowledge for business executives. The series will be offered without charge and will feature Smith’s world-leading faculty and business leaders. Topics will offer solutions for common strategic challenges as well as information about how Smith’s top-ranked Executive MBA program offers opportunities for further career development. The series includes:

This year when 28 lucky undergraduate students at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business wished upon a star, their dreams came true! On May 22, 2008, students in the College Park Scholars Business, Society & the Economy program, accompanied by program director Mark Wellman, traded their text books for mouse ears at the Disney Institute in Orlando, Fl.

April 25, 2008 marked the final round of the annual Smith Technology Challenge Case Competition at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. The competition is designed to refine and develop the strategic thinking and analytical skills of second-year, part-time MBA students. Participation in this event is an academic requirement and began in March with a Sprint conference call and culminated with final team presentations at Van Munching Hall in College Park.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship is taking a strong lead in building connections between the Smith School and entrepreneurs, government and business leaders in China with the launch of the 2008 China Business Plan Competition and Dingman Delegation to China.

Berkshire Hathaway, here we come! Smith faculty member Sue White, Distinguished Tyser Teaching Fellow, and finance lecturer David Kass brought a small, but dedicated group to the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, May 2-4, 2008. Read Sue White's account of the trip: All were students in my fall 07 BMGT 440FP, Emerging CFOs Finance Fellows, class: Dara Khan, Belen Jacome, Paul Hughes, David Zhang, and John Wu. In addition, Mark Wellman, Tyser Teaching Fellow, brought a group of 10 undergraduate fellows to the meeting.

Even the most casual followers of broad macroeconomic trends are familiar with the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and the rapid future economic growth that is predicted for each. But many people are relatively unaware of a less discussed, but just as critical, new emerging global market: Africa. In 2003, foreign investment in sub-Saharan Africa totaled $140 million; by 2007, this figure had increased exponentially to $1.4 billion.

A team of four Smith second-year MBAs traveled to the University of Wisconsin in Madison on April 16-18, 2008 to compete in the CIBER (Center for International Business Education and Research) International Business Case Competition. The team—Dan Bresette, Ike Kim, Liubov Luzhnova, and Sam Tang—walked away with a second place finish out of 11 competing schools. Ike Kim was also awarded the individual best presenter award, which made him one of three winners of this award.

Smith’s newly elected MBA Supply Chain Club (SCC) leaders are entering office with not one but two major victories under their belts. Two teams of first- and second-year MBA students placed first and second at the FedEx Freight International Graduate Logistics Case Competition and Purdue University's Global Supply Chain Case Competition, respectively. Teams were sponsored by Smith’s logistics, business, and public policy department and faculty representative Hugh Turner, Tyser Teaching Fellow.