Part-time MBA Student Utilizes Smith's Entrepreneurship Resources and Research Facilities to Grow Luxury Handbag Business

As an entrepreneur and part-time MBA student at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, Cherry Kwunyeun is working to combine the lessons of an MBA program with her experience as a Fulbright Scholar and apply it to the operation of her own company, Blumpari. Featuring a line of luxury handbags, Blumpari has recently been expanding into new stores, appearing in popular shopping areas of New York City, Washington, D.C, and Baltimore. As a scholar at the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, Kwunyeun has been able to leverage the resources of the Dingman Center to complement her experience and help grow her company.

A Thai-American originally from Maryland, Kwunyeun has a B.S. in business and a B.A. in fine arts from the University of Maryland. Before starting her own firm and returning to Smith to pursue her MBA, Kwunyeun worked as a consultant for Deloitte in New York City and also in interior design/decor for Pierre Deux, a high-end French textile/home furnishing maker. Kwunyeun says that the name for her company, Blumpari is pronounced bloompari and comes from Kwunyeuns Thai given name of Parichad, meaning eternal flower that blooms in heaven. She also adds a fun fact about the origin of her nickname, Cherry. Kwunyeun says, My nickname is Cherry because my mom had pregnant food craving for cherries, and I have a sister named Apple. Im glad mom did not have a craving for pickles or anchovies!

I was always inspired by the Queen of Thailand's non-profit foundation that supported handicraft and art development while providing supplemental income for the poor people who created them, says Kwunyeun. She also gives credit to her parents adding that, My parents community work also inspired me. My father, an executive member of the Thai Physicians Association, organizes annual medical missions and my mother would do Thai art vegetable and fruit garnishing demonstrations at the Smithsonian and area universities to share art/culture.

Kwunyeun, who was working in New York City during the terrorist attacks of 9/11, was deeply impacted by the events that occurred. After the events of 9/11 (I was working right next to the World Trade Center and evacuated right in front of it as the events unfolded and lived in lower Manhattan), I was inspired by the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity and most importantly, when formal structures fail or do not exist to address the problem-how individual citizens come together and take action. Realizing that it was no longer appropriate for me to wait for retirement to fulfill that which is important to me, I reprioritized my life around my passion for arts, my family, and my community, says Kwunyeun. It was at this point when she decided to change careers, applied to become a Fulbright Scholar, and completed a Design Certificate Program at Parsons, The New School for Design, in New York City.

Kwunyeun says, The goal of my hybrid business is to link companies, with microfinanced producers, designers, and educational institutions to support diversity and economic development in different countries. She credits the Smith MBA program for helping her better think on a strategic level in terms of directing her firm. She also credits the Dingman Center as a key partner in her business development. Kwunyeun says, Dingman Scholars was crucial to my business development. Melissa Carrier [associate director of the Dingman Center] and Asher Epstein [managing director of the Dingman Center] truly support my business goal of creating a double-bottom line where my primary objectives are both economic and socially driven. The Dingman Process forces you to implement not just idealize. They also give me confidence because they support the feasibility of what I am implementing.

The resources of the Smith School, specifically those inside the Dingman Center, have enabled d Kwunyeun to develop her business in new and exciting ways. In addition to providing access to investors and community leaders, the Dingman Center provides her with an office and office support, biweekly advising, and financial support. Kwunyeun has also been able to tap into the faculty and technology resources of the Smith School. Dr. Michel Wedel, Pepsico Professor of Consumer Science, gave her access to the Netcentric Behavioral Lab at the school and she was trained to use the state-of-the art Tobii eye tracker, which allows researchers to study consumer behavior by analyzing head and eye movements.

During the National Women's MBA Association Conference hosted at Smith this November, I used this technology to track which handbag designs, page layouts, and Web site templates people preferred or fixated on, said Kwunyeun. I will use this type of leading-edge technology to forecast for inventory production as well as how to layout Web/print material. Kwunyeuns is the first student-run experiment of this nature at the school. She also adds that The Smith School was recently awarded a $300,000 grant by the Thai government to do exchange programs (the first at the university), which I am working on with Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies Pat Cleveland. Programs that will include: Think Tank development, supply chain, entrepreneurship, marketing, and more.

Kwunyeun hopes that through a combination of these resources and her own ingenuity, Blumpari will continue to be a great success story. She would like to encourage other MBAs to get involved. For more information or to get in touch with her via e-mail.

Adam Weiner, MBA Candidate 2009, Smith Media Group