College Park, Md. - March 13, 2008 - The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced the launch of the Thai American Business Study Program, sponsored by the Royal Thai Embassy and the Foreign Ministry of Thailand. The Smith program is Thailand's first partnership with an American business school and awards a three-year, $100,000-per-year grant to create a student club and a course on U.S.-Thailand/Southeast Asia business interaction, sponsor student and faculty exchanges, and support student study trips to Thailand.

College Park, Md. - March 13, 2008 - The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced the launch of the Thai American Business Study Program, sponsored by the Royal Thai Embassy and the Foreign Ministry of Thailand. The Smith program is Thailand's first partnership with an American business school and awards a three-year, $100,000-per-year grant to create a student club and a course on U.S.-Thailand/Southeast Asia business interaction, sponsor student and faculty exchanges, and support student study trips to Thailand.

On Friday, Feb. 29, 2008 Smith first-year MBA students were once again treated to a presentation from Vik Khanna, owner of Galileo Health Partners LLC, a health consulting firm that provides innovative and creative consulting services to a wide range of corporate and government clients. Khanna, who spoke at MBA orientation in August, returned to the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business to hold two sessions on the topic of Organizational Leadership on Fitness.

The continuing globalization of the world economy has resulted in increasing levels of international trade, direct investment, diversity, and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. A vast majority of Fortune 500 companies, and a growing number of small- and medium-sized companies, are conducting business in China. China's economy is the second largest in the world in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) at $10.2 trillion.

On Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland welcomed S. Tien Wong, CEO of Opus8 and entrepreneur-in-residence at Smith, to its MBA Speaker Series program. Wong is the chairman of Opus8, a private investment firm based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on mid-market buyouts and venture capital. Opus8's investment focus is on firms in North America and China that deal with business process outsourcing, call centers and customer relationship management, and marketing services.

Each year every chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) in the United States runs a regional case competition for the MBA programs in the area. This year the D.C. chapter of the ACG held their competition Feb. 4-11, 2008. The competition places the student teams in the role of a financial investor. This year’s case was centered around two fictional companies that were named GrowCo and MarginCo. The industry that they operated in was aerospace & defense.

The first Graduate Marketing Association (GMA) event of the semester kicked off on Feb. 13, 2008 in Van Munching Hall with a presentation from Anthony Pappas, president and creative director of the Pappas Group. Around 40 MBA students and faculty attended the presentation, entitled "The Business of Branding: How Creative Efforts Meet Corporate Goals."

On Feb. 8, 2008, Smith students gathered at both Van Munching Hall and the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center for the MBA Consulting Forum. This is the ninth consecutive year that the MBA Consulting Association Executive Board has partnered with faculty, staff and student volunteers to host this daylong interactive event for students, alumni and industry professionals. Students in attendance had the opportunity to interact with consulting professionals from varied backgrounds, levels, firms, and industries both collectively and individually throughout the day.

Every year the MBA Entrepreneurship Club hosts a local round of the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), whose winner then moves on to a regional competition. This year the local round took place on Feb. 8, 2008 and featured three local startups that are currently in the process of looking for funding—Prepchamps, Inspire and mpowerplayers.

For many undergraduates, winter term is a time to kick back, relax and forget school for a while.