Two-time Smith Terp Dave Trebilcock ’89, MBA ’96, knows a thing or two about wine. And he’s putting that knowledge to good use in his business venture, GrapeSeed, a company that uses a crowd-funding model to supply the exclusive wine it provides its customers.

Development banker Evelyn Hartwick, EMBA ’10, knew little of the world outside El Salvador when she arrived in the United States at the start of a civil war that tore apart her country in the 1980s. She was 17, fresh out of high school and alone in a foreign place. “I had $200 in my pocket, and I didn’t know any English,” she recalls.

Robert H. Smith ’50 came to the University of Maryland as an undergraduate student with passion for real estate development and quest for adventure. “The person who is afraid to take risks and make mistakes will never achieve everything of which he or she is capable,” he said more than 60 years later during a 2008 commencement address at his alma mater.

Nearly 30 years ago, Andy Burness, MBA ’81, created a self-manned public relations firm, launching campaigns to bring awareness little-known, world-changing ideas. The firm, Burness, has helped its clients protect the Amazon rainforest, fight hunger and childhood obesity, promote agricultural research for African families, and showcase innovation in community colleges.

Economists point to rural Africa, India, China and Eastern Europe as the next big frontiers for multinational corporations. But to be successful in rural developing markets, companies need to customize their approach to the local market in all aspects of their business strategies.

When a company promotes a woman to its top management team for the first time, you might expect the following to happen: The company grows comfortable with women in positions of power, women perceive new career paths and the movement toward gender equity snowballs.

The Smith School is working on three fronts to close the gender enrollment gap that persists in MBA programs worldwide, vice dean Joyce E.A. Russell said in a recent Maryland Public Television interview.

Why are so many people reluctant to go to the movies or dinner alone? The existence of this inhibition is widely known, but its underpinnings have been subjected to surprisingly little scientific scrutiny — until now. Research by Rebecca Ratner, a marketing professor and assistant dean for academic affairs at the Smith School, sheds new light on the psychology of solo consumerism.

People like to have choices. But research shows that human brains have limits. The more decisions people make over the course of a day, the more tired their brains become. Smith lecturer Nicole M. Coomber, associate director for the QUEST Honors Program, has developed a four-part framework called VARI to help people guard against decision fatigue. Values

Big companies need more of the entrepreneurial spirit that pervades the University of Maryland, PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi said March 25, 2015, during a CEO @ Smith keynote address in College Park, Md.