► Mark Walsh Named Senior Executive Fellow
► Bid for Signed Terp's Basketballs & Football to Support Tsunami Relief
► Paul Misener of Amazon.com Speaks at 2005 Netcentricity Conference
► BMBAA & HMBAA Host 12th Annual Minority Awards Banquet: Excellence Award in Honor of William D. Bradford Launched
► Smith School in the News 

Internet Visionary Mark Walsh Named Senior Executive Fellow

Mark Walsh, managing partner at Ruxton Associates, LLC, a private equity and investment firm, has joined the school's faculty as a senior executive fellow. Walsh will work with the faculty in the school's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, a nationally-recognized, leading entrepreneurial center, to advise graduate business school students on the development of their businesses and to provide expertise to regional entrepreneurs.

“Mark has earned a reputation for being a true visionary and ahead of the curve – particularly in recognizing the potential of the Internet in impacting business," said Howard Frank, dean of the Smith School. “His knowledge and experience fit well with the Smith School’s focus on preparing leaders for the digital economy. I am pleased to welcome Mark to the Smith School community.”

Walsh’s diverse career in interactive services and technology includes joining AOL in early 1995 where he created and ran AOL Enterprise, the business-to-business division of AOL. In mid 1997, he joined VerticalNet Inc, the internet’s first business-to-business platform, as the CEO. He took the company public in early 1999. He became chairman in late 2000. Walsh previously was the CEO of Air America Radio. He also served as the chief technology advisor for the Democratic National Committee and was the original head of Internet operations and strategy for John Kerry for President in mid 2003. Walsh has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BA from Union College in Schenectady, NY, where he serves as a member of the Board of Trustees. He also serves on a number of venture-backed company and not-for-profit boards.

“At the Dingman Center we recognize that direct access to experienced and successful entrepreneurs offers a tremendous resource and advantages for a growing business. Mark’s expertise across the business life cycle – from start up to exit – will be invaluable for our students and the entrepreneurs we assist,” said Asher Epstein, managing director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship.

In addition to his work with the Dingman Center Walsh will lecture for the Smith School’s MBA and executive MBA programs.

Bid for Terp's Basketballs and Football to Aid Tsunami Relief

Wave of Hope, a tsunami relief initiative led by Smith students, will be holding a silent auction as part of its fund-raising efforts. Up for bids will be two basketballs and a football signed by coaches and players from the Terps football and men’s and women's basketball teams. The auction will take place through the organization's Web site www.waveofhopes.com/auction from May 20-27.

Wave of Hope is a student-run, non-profit organization, established for the solitary purpose of rebuilding schools and houses in Sri Lanka that were affected by the devastating tsunami.

Manjula Dissanayake, a senior business student and one of the co-founders of Wave of Hope, is calling on the Smith community to support this noble effort. “Close to five months after the tragedy, millions of people in Sri Lanka are still homeless. People will never be able to get back to work or go to school if they do not have a place they can call home. Thus, we need to get them out of the orphanages as quickly as possible.”

The following items will be up for auction from May 20-27:

• 1 Terrapin football: signed by 29 players and 4 coaches, including Ralph Fridgen

• 1 Terrapin men’s basketball: signed by 10 players and 3 coaches, including Gary Williams

• 1 Terrapin women’s basketball: signed by 11 players and 4 coaches

The balls will be sold to the highest bidder at the end of the auction week. There will be a minimum bid of $100 per item. The highest bidder will receive the following:

• The item for which they were the highest bidder

• A certificate of appreciation from the founders of the Wave of Hope organization

• A letter of appreciation from a Sri Lankan family (the recipients of the house, which is built by the funds from the auction)
  

To place your bid, please visit www.waveofhopes.com/auction. You can also help by buying “I helped the Tsunami Victims in Sri Lanka” stickers or “Tsunami Aid Sri Lanka” wristbands.

►Read more about Wave of Hope's tsunami relief effort

Paul Misener of Amazon.com Speaks at 2005 Netcentricity Conference

Smith’s Fifth Annual Netcentricity Conference, “Exploring the Intersection of Social and Digital Networks,” featured keynote speaker Paul E. Misener, vice president for global public policy at Amazon.com. The conference was held on April 29 at the Smith School and was sponsored by Smith's Center for Electronic Markets and Enterprises (CEME).

The existence of the Internet has resulted in major changes in business, society and the economy, and companies today are doing things that weren’t possible five years ago because of the availability of information, and the rapidity with which information can be acquired. This year’s Netcentricity Conference focused on the interplay of digital and strategic networks connecting organizations and the social networks made up of the people within those organizations, examining the effects of the interaction from a strategy perspective.

“The information that flows between networks, both digital and social, have the potential to make the market more transparent, and therefore more perfect—and more competitive,” said Anil Gupta, Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Strategy and Organization, chair of the management and organization department at Smith, and co-chair of the Netcentricity Conference, with Ritu Agarwal, Robert H. Smith Dean’s Chair in Information Systems, and Joseph Bailey, research associate professor of decision and information technologies.

►Full Story

BMBAA & HMBAA Host 12th Annual Minority Awards Banquet: Excellence Award in Honor of William D. Bradford Launched

“Diversity is when a graduate of Columbia University is the keynote speaker at a Smith School event,”  joked Dean Howard Frank. He was addressing attendees at the William D. Bradford Minority Awards Banquet held on April 28, 2005, at the UMUC Inn & Conference Center.

The target of Dean Frank’s joke was James DeGraffenreidt, chairman and CEO of Washington Gas. In his keynote speech on Diversity and Management, DeGraffenreidt emphasized that while each business has its own definition of diversity, only those companies that view diversity as integral to their business success rather rule to comply to will profit from it.

The highlight of the evening was the launch of the Smith MBA Excellence Award. The award, which was instituted in honor of William D. Bradford, will be awarded to students who demonstrate leadership and broad community involvement. Accepting the honor, Dr. Bradford reiterated his belief in the importance of education in closing the economic disadvantages that minorities continue to face.

The banquet was made possible by several Smith and corporate sponsors. The Smith School administration offices that sponsored the banquet included the Dean’s Office, Masters Programs Office, Office of External Relations, and the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. Corporate sponsors included PepsiCo, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (pictured right), Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Washington Gas, Personal Assessment Systems, GE, and Air Products.

The organizers of the event would like to than all of all the sponsors, faculty, and students for making the event a success, especially those who contributed on behalf of the new Smith MBA Excellence Award. In particular, appreciation goes out to Dean Frank, Associate Dean Scricca, Administration offices (Office of External Relations, Dingman Center, Masters Programs Office, Office of Alumni Relations, Office of Admissions (Rowena Corpus and Christine Stewart), Office of Career Management), faculty (Dr. Ian Williamson), and students (Ignacio Rodriguez, Eduardo Mihura, Joel Scales, Kristie Curameng, Melissa Davis, Sparkle Douglas, Frederico Montealegre, Fernando Leao Filho, Nicolas Gompf, Priscilla Mwangi, Katherine Yon, Kipruto Yego, Bankole Osimokun, Kemisola Yusuf, Carolina Puerto, Etim Edim, and Westley Alexander.

This year’s recipients include:

Alumni Achievement Award:
Federico Sercovich, MBA ’03, Citigroup
Ricardo Benn, MBA ’99, Booz Allen Hamilton

Outstanding Staff Award:
Steve Tiufekchiev, Director of Employment Development, Office of Career Management

Corporate Excellence Award:
PepsiCo

►Full Story

Smith School in the News

News of the Smith School’s Supply Chain and Management Center’s expansion of radio frequency and identification (RFID) research and development with Avaya as well as the development of a “virtual community” prototype was the basis for mention of the school’s cutting-edge research in an article in BusinessWeek online (5/5) as well as a business brief in the Washington Post (5/5). Peter Morici, professor of international business, commented on General Motors’ recent woes and various trade and economic issues in the Wall Street Journal (4/28), Bloomberg (5/3), Dow Jones (5/2), United Press International (5/3), CNN/Money (4/28, 5/5), Associated Press articles on globalization (5/9), General Motors (5/8) and General Motor’s CEO (5/7). Morici was also quoted in a number of other leading business news outlets.

For more Smith School media highlights and links to articles, visit Smith School in the News.

More News:

Baltimore Alumni Networking Event

Please join us on May 11 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Alumni Reception at the National Aquarium in Baltimore!

Cost:
$10 Students and Protégés
$20 Smith Alumni Mentors
$25 Alumni Association Members
$35 Non-Members

Join the Alumni Association when you register and pay the member price! Contact Sonia Harris at 301.405.8204 for more information.

Smith to Host Second Annual Forum on Financial Information
Systems and Cybersecurity: A Public Policy Perspective

The information revolution has not only introduced new technologies, but has changed the way business is conducted. Economic transactions increasingly take place via digital electronic activities focused primarily on the interconnectivity obtained via the Internet. A critical part of this interconnectivity is the way organizations have integrated their accounting and financial management systems with Internet–based applications. The importance of the Internet to private and public organizations is well known.

As a result of the above noted developments, cyber security has moved to center stage. Indeed, cyber security (with its emphasis on information and computer security) has itself become a key issue for private and public organizations in the digital economy. The public policy implications of cyber security are now being actively debated. The activities of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have certainly highlighted the importance of this debate.

According to Dr. Lawrence A. Gordon, "the primary objective of the second annual Forum on Financial Information Systems and Cyber Security: A Public Policy Perspective is to help form the debate concerning the relations among financial information systems, cyber security, and public policy." The Forum will be held at the Smith School, in cooperation with the Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise (from Maryland's School of Public Affairs), on May 26, 2005. Coordinators for the Forum are Professors Lawrence A. Gordon, Martin P. Loeb, and William Lucyshyn. Anyone wanting more information concerning the Forum should contact Dr. Lawrence A. Gordon at: lgordon@rhsmith.umd.edu.

Calendar Highlights for Faculty/Staff:

5/11/05 Baltimore Alumni Networking Event ►Register Online

5/12/05 MBA End-of-Semester Happy Hour, 5 p.m., VMH Courtyard, Sponsored by GMA

5/19/05 Doctoral Awards Banquet

5/22/05 Smith School Commencement 1 p.m., Comcast Center; Kevin Plank '97,  Owner & Founder of Under Armour Performance Apparel, Keynote Speaker

5/22-23/05 Statistical Challenges in E-Commerce, Sponsored by CEME

5/26/05 Forum on Financial Information Systems and Cyber Security: A Public Policy Perspective

►Smith Calendar of Events

AV Support for Finals

All Faculty please make sure to submit any requests for AV support during finals. You can do this by contacting the Help Desk at x52269 or by email at helpdesk@rhsmith.umd.edu 

Protect Your Data - Back It Up Regularly!

There are many ways data can be lost. Data can be lost through theft, spilled coffee, accidentally hitting a delete key, viruses, a power surge, or just failing hardware. It is very important to make sure your important data is backed up regularly.

The easiest way to do this is to save important data on your network drive rather than your computer hard drive (the C: or D: drive). Your personal space on our network is on K: and departmental shared space is on O: or P:. Remember that others share these departmental drives, and data can be deleted by any one using the shared space, but only you can access your space on K:. All network drives are backed up to tape every night by Smith IT and can be retrieved for up to one month.

When you make backup copies of your files store them somewhere away from your computer. If you were to keep your backup next to your PC, and there was a flood or fire, it could destroy your data copies as well as your PC. All Dell computers in Van Munching are equipped with CD-RW drives. The Helpdesk has external CD-RW and DVD burner hardware that can be borrowed if you need a way to back up a personal computer. You will have to purchase the blank CD or DVD media. Of course, you can back up to any other storage media if you have another preference.

Deciding what to back up is highly personal. Here are some suggestions of files to consider:

• Internet Explorer bookmarks. On Smith IT Windows XP computer images this default is D:\documents and settings\username\favorites. Backup the folder.
• Documents you’ve created. Ideally these will be in you’re “My Documents” folder, but also check any personal folders you may have created; C:\My Documents, or D:\My Documents; and your desktop.
• Lotus Notes Archive files. If you have archived your email, you will have an archive mail file stored locally, back this up. The default location for this is C:\notes\data, and the default filename is “username.nsf”. If you have an archive icon on your Notes desktop, you can right click on the icon and look at its properties to see what it is called and see where it is saved.
• Your Lotus Notes local address book or names.nsf. The default location for laptop users is in C:\notes\data. Desktop users - the file is usually already on K:\notes.
• Digital photographs or music you’ve purchased.
• Software you purchased and downloaded from the Internet and wish to re-install someday.

A backup can be as simple as copying a folder to the storage media. Simply right click on the folder you wish to save, copy it and paste it to the backup device. If you have more than one folder to backup a good tool to use is Microsoft’s backup utility. It can be accessed from the Start menu under Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Backup. Microsoft’s website contains a lot of information about using the backup utilities. Please refer to: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/update/howbackup.mspx for detailed instructions and tips.

Paying to recover data from a broken hard drive usually costs well over $1000, and cannot be guaranteed. Data on a PC that is stolen is just gone. Don’t risk losing important work. Back up often!