Beijing, China – January 14, 2011 — The University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business awarded $10,000 to winners of the 2011 China Business Plan Competition, in partnership with the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University in Beijing.

College Park, Md. – January 10, 2011 — The Center for Social Value Creation at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is expanding its Grassroots.org Social Venture Consulting Program in partnership with Grassroots.org, an organization that provides free technologies and resources to nonprofits. The innovative experiential learning program matches MBA students with nonprofit organizations around the country for semester-long consulting projects.

College Park, Md. – January 5, 2011 – The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business has partnered with the Gettysburg Foundation to develop customized leadership programs that integrate lessons from the historic Civil War battle. The intensely experiential programs will push participants to think differently about individual and organizational challenges through engagement in action-oriented sessions, both on the renowned Pennsylvania battlefield and in the classroom.

While Terp fans were getting excited to watch the University of Maryland’s football team compete in the Military Bowl at the end of December, one Robert H. Smith School of Business freshman was getting excited for a bowl competition of his own—the 17th Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl.

Fascinated questions peppered the presentations at the 7th Annual Forum on Financial Information Systems and Cybersecurity at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business on January 19, 2011.

In its newest efforts to go green and promote sustainability, the Robert H. Smith School of Business is trashing its current system for collecting garbage and recycling in Van Munching Hall, in favor of a more environmentally-friendly system.

Gary Swart ’83, CEO of oDesk, made the cover of Inc. magazine in November. Swart and oDesk were featured as part of the magazine’s story on the “demand economy” and entrepreneurs who are providing services and goods to various niche markets.

January 11, 2011: MEDIA ALERT UMD Marketing Expert Says Verizon’s Success with iPhone Will Depend on Performance P.K. Kannan, Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Marketing Science and Chair, Department of Marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, reacts to Verizon Wireless’ announcement today that they will now carry Apple’s iPhone. He says the carrier’s success will depend on its network performance.

The Smith School’s marketing department combines leading scholars who have had profound influence on the discipline with young scholars showing great promise and potential for impact. Two faculty members recently received major awards.

Smith alumnus Bob Johnson, Chief Service Officer of Sprint Nextel and pioneer of the wireless industry, helped his company turn around its customer satisfaction ratings by focusing on solving customers' issues on the very first phone call, according to a recent article published by the Wall Street Journal.