Cliff Rossi Appointed Professor of the Practice

The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business has announced the appointment of Cliff Rossi as Professor of the Practice in finance. 

The Professor of the Practice title is reserved for university faculty members who have demonstrated exceptional teaching, as well as proven excellence and leadership in contributions to organizations and industry in specific fields. Appointees have attained regional and national prominence and, in some cases, international recognition for outstanding achievement. 

“Cliff’s accomplishments and distinguished reputation among policy and industry leaders are well-known throughout Smith’s finance community,” said Dean Alex Triantis. “This excellence translates through his teaching as well, as he has developed innovative course material and served as a valued mentor to our Master’s students and strengthened our MS in Finance program. He truly deserves this Professor of the Practice designation from [UMD] President [Wallace] Loh.” 

Rossi joined the Smith School in 2009 and has served under the titles of Tyser Teaching Fellow and Executive-In-Residence. He arrived with nearly 25 years of experience in banking and government, having held senior executive roles in risk management at several of the largest financial services companies. His most recent position was Chief Risk Officer for Consumer Lending at Citigroup where he was intimately involved in TARP funding and stress tests performed on Citi. He also helped start a statistical arbitrage unit at Citi and helped integrate market and credit risk analytics across Citi’s mortgage portfolios. While there he was responsible for overseeing a $200 billion global mortgage portfolio with 700 employees under his direction. 

Previous to Citi, Rossi held senior positions at other major financial institutions and worked for a number of years at the Treasury Department and Office of Thrift Supervision working on key policy issues affecting depositories. Before permanently joining the Smith School, Rossi served as an adjunct professor for eight years and has a number of publications on banking industry topics. He earned his PhD at Cornell University. 

During his Smith tenure, Rossi, with his “Risk Doctor” column, has been a frequent contributor to American Banker Magazine. He has made multiple appearances on CSPAN’s Washington Journal and CNN, and has been quoted frequently by the likes of the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Businessweek.

He also testified in spring 2013 on “Sustainable Housing Finance: Perspectives on Reforming FHA” before the Congressional Subcommitee on Housing and Insurance. 

Rossi is Smith’s fifth Professor of the Practice appointee. Gerald Suarez (Systems Thinking and Design), Charles Olson (Logistics, Business and Public Policy and Director of the Business Honors Program) and Steve Wallenstein (Finance) also currently hold the appointment.