Roundabout Path No Role Model, No Excuse  A business mentor would have been helpful for Cara Weikel, MBA ’12, during her high school or undergraduate studies. “My skills and my interests were well-aligned with business,” she said. “I just had no idea. Business just was not on the radar because I had no role models at all in business.”

Friday, Sept. 19, 2014, was a record-setting day for the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. In fact, it was a slam-dunk for students and employers, alike. More than 100 employers connected with 1,000+ students at the sold-out Smith Undergraduate Career Fair.

U.S. Army veteran and educator Joseph Guy Mattingly Jr., a professor emeritus and longtime undergraduate director at the Smith School, died May 17, 2014, at his home in Annandale, Va. He was 84.

’70s Robin Depaoli ’77, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Virginia Hospital Center, received the Fiscal Heroes/CFO of the Year Award on July 17, 2013. The award is given by the Washington Business Journal. Jayne Edge, MBA ’76, has joined Jenzabar as Vice President of Marketing. John J. Keenan ’75 has been elected a director of Howard Bancorp and Howard Bank.

Work-Life Harmony Manager Learns to Blend Multiple Roles  Sherika Shaw Ekpo, MBA ’09, made her time count at Smith. She was the first in her class to secure an internship offer and the first to secure a job offer, and she did this while working 20 hours a week on campus. She also brought together students from the full-time, part-time and executive programs as president of the Smith Association of Women MBAs. By the time she graduated, she had competing job offers to consider.

It’s time to refresh the photo gallery that hangs in Van Munching Hall, home of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. The school’s previous photo contest in 2012 boasted more than 500 entries. Do you have the next winning picture? Winning photos will be displayed in Van Munching Hall and featured in the spring 2015 issue of Smith Business magazine. Rules:

On Sept. 12, 2014, current undergraduate students and their parents came to campus for a special “Jazz & Desserts” reception at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. Grabielismo Productions Jazz Trio entertained the crowd and nearly 120 families enjoyed a relaxing evening mingling with deans, faculty and staff in Van Munching Hall’s Pownall Grand Atrium.

Thinking Globally International Perspective Shapes Gender Discussions Chinese expatriate Stella Liu, MS ’13, had the full support of her parents when she arrived in the United States to study business at the Smith School. “My parents seldom hinder my decisions,” she said. “There was no one standing in my way.”

On Friday, September 12, 2014, the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business launched the third cohort of the now campus-wide UMD-Smith Leadership Academy. The Smith School welcomed participants from across campus, bringing together areas ranging from art history to athletics, from facilities to finance, making this the most diverse class to date.  

The Reluctant Radical Boundary Spanner Puts Civil Rights Act to the Test Retired KPMG partner Terry Iannaconi, MBA ’78, did not start her career looking for a fight. As a new college graduate with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, she just wanted a job in 1965. Her grades earned her an interview with one of the Big Eight accounting firms at the time, but the hiring managers made a false assumption when they screened her resume.