College Park, Md. October 16, 2007 - The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced the winners of its first Mergers & Acquisitions Competition, held October 11-12. The event, organized by Smiths MBA Finance Association, challenged teams of MBA students from leading business schools to create and deliver M&A pitches to a panel of executives from Wall Street firms including Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers. Columbia Business School won first prize, $5,000.

Nancy Grunberg, head of Venables Securities and Exchange Commission and white collar defense practice group, shared her experiences as a securities law and financial disclosure lawyer with 75 Smith students on Oct. 15, 2007. Her lecture was the second installment of the Robert H. Smith School of Business's Business Ethics Lecture Series for the fall semester.

Nancy Grunberg, head of Venables Securities and Exchange Commission and white collar defense practice group, shared her experiences as a securities law and financial disclosure lawyer with 75 Smith students on Oct. 15, 2007. Her lecture was the second installment of the Robert H. Smith School of Business's Business Ethics Lecture Series for the fall semester.

On Monday, Sept. 17, 2007 the Robert H. Smith School of Business welcomed Kurtis A. Wolff, Principal in Charge of Audit and Assurance at the Reznick Group, to its Business Ethics Lecture Series. Wolff, speaking to a large crowd of Smith School students, shared his thoughts on Ethics Everyday in Public Accounting. Wolff shared his experiences in accounting and auditing with the group both from his time at Reznick, a top-20 public accounting firm, as well as from his prior experiences within the industry.

A team from the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business was named a finalist for the 2007 Thunderbird School of Management Sustainable Innovation Summit. The team will travel to Thunderbirds Campus in Glendale, AZ this coming weekend, November 8 -10, 2007, to compete in the finals against nine other teams. The finalists come from masters programs from across the country. The schools that Maryland will be competing with are the University of California Davis, Purdue University, Johns Hopkins, Duke University, the University of Rochester, and SUNY Buffalo.

Horatio Alger's "American Dream" has finally met his match. Her name is the "European Dream," and she's here to stay. At least, that's what Jeremy Rifkin thinks. Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends and world-renowned economist, spoke to approximately 120 full-time MBA students on October 12, offering a glimpse of the globalized world he says MBAs will enter after graduation.

On Monday, Sept. 17, 2007 the Robert H. Smith School of Business welcomed Kurtis A. Wolff, Principal in Charge of Audit and Assurance at the Reznick Group, to its Business Ethics Lecture Series. Wolff, speaking to a large crowd of Smith School students, shared his thoughts on Ethics Everyday in Public Accounting. Wolff shared his experiences in accounting and auditing with the group both from his time at Reznick, a top-20 public accounting firm, as well as from his prior experiences within the industry.

Sonny Vaccaro, a sports marketing legend best known for brokering major endorsement deals with basketball stars the likes of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, speaks to Smith School undergraduates on Sept. 26.