Irene Chang Britt Encourages Smith MBAs to Know Yourself

Part-time MBAs Present Business Cases to Carly Fiorina    

The Seventh Annual Maryland Finance Symposium, co-chaired by Lemma Senbet, William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance, and Vojislav Maksimovic, Dean's Chair Professor of Finance, provides a biennial forum for presentation and discussion of recent research by top scholars in the field. This year’s forum, held May 29-31, 2007, focused on Behavioral Finance and included papers discussing the limits of arbitrage, CEO overconfidence and myopia, herding and over/under-reaction in financial markets, trading behavior and volume, market timing and consumer finance.

A team of third-year part-time MBA students won second place and received a check for $2000 in the Southeast Regional Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC). Moshe Cohen, Nat Forgotson, Shad Imam, Skye Manders, and Tom Whelan represented the Smith School of Business at the competition held at Georgia Tech in Atlanta the weekend of March 9, 2007. Their second-place win guarantees the team a spot at the International Finals, which will be held at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in April.

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs Patricia Cleveland, along with three other Smith faculty and staff members, took 23 honors students to Oahu, Hawaii, January 5-15, 2007 for a trip that they wont soon forget. The trip was offered as part of the business honors program and not only provided students with an in depth look at Hawaii's culture, history and economy, it also fulfilled their four honors course requirements. This is the third year a winter-term trip has been offered to honor students, but the first time that Hawaii has been the destination.

Irene Chang Britt, the VP and general manager of Campbell Soups Sauces and Beverages division, spoke to more than 100 students on March 2, 2007, encouraging each to 'know yourself' to become a better leader. A vibrant speaker, Britt recounted the challenges she's faced as a woman, a minority, a foreigner, an entrepreneur, and a corporate professional, and how she turned those challenges into opportunities. Included in her speech were her 10 pillars of leadership.

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs Patricia Cleveland, along with three other Smith faculty and staff members, took 23 honors students to Oahu, Hawaii, January 5-15, 2007 for a trip that they wont soon forget. The trip was offered as part of the business honors program and not only provided students with an in depth look at Hawaii's culture, history and economy, it also fulfilled their four honors course requirements. This is the third year a winter-term trip has been offered to honor students, but the first time that Hawaii has been the destination.

The Smith Entrepreneurship Club is pleased to announce the Venture Capital Investment Competition on February 14-16, 2007 at the Smith School of Business. In the competition, MBA students judge the business plans and pitches of local start-up companies currently seeking funding, choose a company in which to invest, and produce a term sheet for the investment. In turn, the MBA students are judged by real life venture capitalists.

On one of the coldest mornings of the year, three Smith students in the Maryland Undergraduate Society of Entrepreneurs (MUSE) identified a market niche and set up shop in front of Van Munching Hall with steaming hot chocolate and tasty muffins, successfully tempting students, faculty and staff as they hurried into the building on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007.