As Generation Y enters the workforce, they are stirring things up and challenging the corporate culture. What power do these changemakers really have and how can you harness it? In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Melissa Carrier talks about the emergence of internal changemakers in organizations.

The Robert H. Smith School of Business welcomes 14 new faculty members to start the fall 2012 semester. The new faculty members hail from PhD programs and previous posts at top universities worldwide, including two former Smith School staff members who joined the teaching ranks. Smith students will also benefit from a stable of new adjunct instructors who bring their real-world experience into the classroom. The new faculty kicked off the semester at Smith with an orientation and welcome dinner on August 27. Full-time faculty: Accounting and Information Assurance

Lemma Senbet, the William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance, has been appointed Executive Director of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), a premier economic policy research institution serving Africa. The Nairobi, Kenya-headquartered not-for-profit corporation is working to build a thriving community of well-informed economics researchers whose work can shape policies and boost economic development in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Robert H. Smith School of Business recently co-hosted a Washington D.C. gathering of about 70 senior policymakers and banking executives for a discussion of key issues relating to enhancing systemic risk awareness, harmonization and integration in global systemic risk regulation. The Bretton Woods Committee and Deloitte partnered with Smith in the July 26 event titled "Navigating transformational change of the global financial landscape: Realizing systemic stability, avoiding unintended consequences.”

Faculty experts in the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business are available to discuss the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games in terms of the July 27 to Aug. 12 event as a global stage for marketing. The Smith School has an in-house facility for live or taped interviews via fiber-optic line for television or multimedia content. Roland Rust: The Big Picture

College Park, Md. – July 9, 2012 – Joyce E. A. Russell was named Vice Dean for Programs at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. Russell is a Ralph J. Tyser Distinguished Teaching Fellow at the Smith School and has been a major force in shaping the student experience at all levels. As vice dean, Russell’s duties include oversight of the school’s undergraduate, MBA, MS and executive programs, and the development of the school’s global, university and corporate partnerships.

College Park, Md. – July 9, 2012 – Joyce E. A. Russell was named Vice Dean for Programs at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. Russell is a Ralph J. Tyser Distinguished Teaching Fellow at the Smith School and has been a major force in shaping the student experience at all levels. As vice dean, Russell’s duties include oversight of the school’s undergraduate, MBA, MS and executive programs, and the development of the school’s global, university and corporate partnerships.

College Park, Md. – July 6, 2012 — The Robert H. Smith School of Business welcomes Victor Mullins as its new Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Program. With 20-plus years of experience in student and academic affairs, he has arrived from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was Associate Dean of Undergraduate Affairs since 2005 in the College of Business.

Robert H. Smith School of Business faculty have weighed in on the Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 ruling to largely uphold the 2010 Affordable Care Act and its broad health care system overhaul to reduce the total of Americans without insurance coverage.

Thursday, June 21, 2012, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, June 24, 2012, 7:30 a.m. Companies must make an early move to either adopt a new business model, or morph the existing model to take advantage of disruptive innovation – or suffer the same death of one-time industry leaders Kodak, Blockbuster and Borders. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Henry Lucas talks how and why innovative technology can threaten the survival of many companies today.