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News
Briefs |
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Smith
Research Predicting Stock Returns by the
Calendar Highlighted by Top Media
New research from Smith School associate
finance professor Steve Heston finds
seasonal predictability in stock returns.
The research garnered recent media attention
– first profiled in a column in the New
York Times, Nov. 18, then an interview
on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” program, Nov. 30.
The research, forthcoming in the Journal
of Financial Economics, charted stock
returns over each calendar month, rather
than over an entire year or a period of
several months. Heston and co-researcher
Ronnie Sadka, currently at the University of
Chicago, found that stocks with high
historical returns in a particular calendar
month tend to have high future returns in
that same calendar month. If a stock did
well one February or July or October, for
example, it tended to do well in February,
July or October of future years. This
monthly seasonal effect held true for 20
years. And it didn’t matter what industry
Heston looked at, how big the company was or
when it published its earnings report. In
every case, buying or selling stock based on
its performance in that same month the
previous year was a winning strategy.
►Watch on CNBC
►Read in The New York Times
Dingman Center Awards $2,500 for Best
Business Ideas
The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship
has increased fivefold the potential prize
money awarded at its monthly Pitch Dingman
competitions — now up for grabs, $2,500 in
start-up funding to the best new business
ideas. Friday, Nov. 30 marked the first
competition round with the new prize amount.
Six budding entrepreneurs participated,
presenting their five-minute business
pitches to judges and a crowd of students,
faculty and staff in Frank Auditorium in Van
Munching Hall. The presenters were a mix of
undergraduates and graduate students from
Smith and other university programs.
►Full Story
Dingman Company, Hook & Ladder, Gives Back
with Every Sale
Hook & Ladder Brewing Co., a brewery
operating out of Silver Spring, Md., has
made a concerted effort to not only build a
successful business, but also one that
benefits local firefighting communities.
Hook & Ladder, run by Smith MBA ‘05 Matt
Fleischer and his brother Rich, aims to aid
local firefighters by donating a portion of
its sales to help prevent burns and improve
the quality of life of burn survivors.
Through the “A Penny in Every Pint” program,
Hook & Ladder donates $2 for every barrel of
beer sold; it has also enlisted the support
of its distributors who match Hook &
Ladder’s $2 donation. In 2006, $10,000 was
donated as a result of the program. In
addition, beginning in the fall of 2007,
Hook & Ladder launched the “A Quarter in
Every Case” program. As Hook & Ladder
introduced bottles for retail sale, it once
again partnered with its distributors to
make quarterly donations to the local
firefighting charities. Through this
program, Hook & Ladder donates 12 cents for
every case sold, with its distributors
matching that donation.
►Full Story
Danish Ambassador Speaks to Undergraduates
about
“Denmark in the World”
On Nov. 13, Friis Arne Petersen,
Denmark’s Ambassador to the United States,
gave a lecture at the Smith School of
Business to an audience of undergraduate
students and faculty members. Peterson’s
lecture, titled “Denmark in the World –
Politics, Economy and Energy,” centered
around Denmark’s relationship with the U.S.
and its role in the global community.
Petersen began by noting that Denmark has
been a close friend of the U.S. since 1791
and stated that the two countries have many
shared objectives from an economic
standpoint.
►Full Story
Smith’s Commitment to Diversity Highlighted
at Kaleidoscope Event
On Saturday, Dec. 1, the Smith School
hosted its Sixth Annual “Kaleidoscope: Women
& Diversity at Smith” event. Kaleidoscope
provided a unique opportunity to expose
prospective members of underrepresented
groups to the rich diversity of the Smith
MBA community and culture, and experience at
large. The event was co-hosted by the
school's Black MBA Association, the Hispanic
MBA Association, the Smith Association of
Women MBAs, and the Smith Pride Alliance. Dargeelyn Loftin '80, MBA ’90, president of Loftin
Management Consulting, vividly discussed
her post-MBA experiences managing her
own unit at GE and her decision to form
her own successful strategic management
consulting firm. “The Smith MBA program
is what you make of it,” stated Loftin.
“You can’t be complacent – you have to
take the onus yourself.”
►Full Story
Students and Alumni Learn the Importance of
Networking in the Job Search
 The
Part-time MBA Association invited all MBA
students, alumni, faculty, and
administration to attend "Secrets to
C-Level: Leveraging Business Contacts & the
Smith Community to Launch Your Career into
the Executive Stratosphere” on Oct. 28. The
event, held in the Colony Ballroom of the
Stamp Student Union, featured the executive
vice president and chief information officer
from Fannie Mae, Rahul N. Merchant. “I found
this to be a great chance to get started
networking with alumni and students from
other campuses, classes and cohorts,”
commented part-time MBA student Don Barber.
►Full Story
Smith Student Business Centers on Cap & Gown
Sales
As the winter graduation ceremony
approaches, Smith undergraduate student
Christopher Kobus runs a business to help
students with the cap and gown process for
their graduation. According to Kobus, “the
ultimate goal of Cap & Gown is to provide
affordable regalia sets to graduating
students in the Smith School.” Originally
started by Ori Zohar, a recent graduate of
the Smith School, Cap & Gown is a small
business sponsored by the Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship. Kobus, who now runs the
operation, notes that “we sell our sets to
all full- and part-time MBA students, and
this year we have even started doing
business in the undergraduate market.”
►Full Story
University
Update
►
Happy Holidays from the University of
Maryland
http://www.holidaygreeting.umd.edu/
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UM Announces $10 Million Gift from
Gossett Family
The University of Maryland announced an
extraordinary $10 million gift from a
charitable trust established by Barry and
Mary Gossett to Great Expectations,
The Campaign for Maryland. Of the total, $8
million is designated for intercollegiate
athletics, making it the largest private
gift in Maryland Athletics history.
Barry Gossett, chairman and CEO of Acton
Mobile Industries, has been a strong
supporter of athletic and academic programs
across the university for more than 20
years. This gift builds a foundation for
perpetual support of several key areas among
his wide ranging interests.
►Full Story
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Smith School in the News |
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►Baltimore
Sun – Dec. 2, 2007 – Business
professor Peter Morici writes an
opinion piece about the potential for an
economic recession.
►Read more
►CBS
Evening News – Nov. 30, 2007 –
Business professor Peter Morici
is interviewed about the continuing
subprime mortgage crisis.
►Read more and
watch online
►CNBC
“Closing Bell”– Nov. 30, 2007 –
Finance associate professor Steve
Heston is interviewed live about his
seasonality in stock returns research.
►Read more and
watch online
►BusinessWeek.com
– Nov. 30, 2007 – A story on
b-school businesses run by
undergraduates prominently profiles the
Smith Store and includes quotes from
Melissa Carrier, the Dingman Center
for Entrepreneurship’s director of
investments and social entrepreneurship.
An accompanying slideshow includes a
photo of Smith Store student directors
and quotes from junior Michael
Holzheimer.
►Read more
►Baltimore
Sun – Nov. 29, 2007 – Finance
professor Albert "Pete" Kyle is
quoted in a story about the subprime
mortgage crisis and Ferris Baker Watts
Inc.’s financial losses.
►Read more
►Financial
Times – Nov. 29, 2007 – Business
professor Peter Morici is quoted
in a story about the departure of a Bush
administration official.
►Read more
►Marketplace
– Nov. 27, 2007 – Business professor
Peter Morici is interviewed about
consumer confidence.
►Read more and
listen online
►Economic
Times– Nov. 20, 2007 – Smith
admissions director LeAnne Dagnall
is quoted several times in a story
about choosing the right school to get
an MBA.
►Read more
►New
York Times– Nov. 18, 2007 – Research
from associate finance professor
Steve Heston is the subject of a
column, which includes quotes from
Heston.
►Read more
►Washington
Post – Nov. 18, 2007 – Smith School
Associate Director for Recruiting Sam
Kang is quoted in a story about the
right time to get an MBA. EMBA alum
Mark Acton is also quoted.
►Read more
►TheStreet.com–
Nov. 15, 2007 – Smith’s undergraduate
Lemma Senbet Investment Fund is the
subject of a Web profile.
►Read more
More Smith
School in the News ► |
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Spotlights |
Melissa Carrier,Director of Venture
Investments and Social Entrepreneurship,
Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship;
Acting Director, Office of Career Management
 Melissa
Carrier joined the Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship at the Smith School in
April 2006. Since then she has been named
the director of venture investments and
social entrepreneurship. She was also named
acting director for the Office of Career
Management this fall. Before joining Smith,
Carrier was the director of mergers and
acquisitions at AT&T, where she led
investments for the company’s strategic
venture fund. Through this fund, she made
equity investments in startup businesses on
behalf of AT&T.
►Full Story
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Smith
Business Close-Up |
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 .
Sunday, December 9, 7:30 a.m.
Monday, December 10, 4:30 a.m.
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One Small Business Helping Many
Others through Microfinance
 Microfinance
is often considered one of the most
effective, flexible, and sustainable
strategies in the fight against global
poverty. It consists of making small
loans, usually less than $200, to
individuals, usually women, to establish
or expand a small, self-sustaining
business.
In this week's edition of Smith
Business Close-Up,
Smith MBA student and entrepreneur
Cherry Kwunyeun discusses
microfinance, how she started her own
business that uses microfinance to
support small women-run enterprises, and
how other entrepreneurs can turn their
idea into a successful business venture.
Cherry Kwunyeun graduated from the
University of Maryland with a bachelor’s
degree in business. After traveling to
Thailand on a Fulbright grant to consult
on microfinanced textile projects,
Cherry won a national Thai handbag
competition and took a leap into the
accessories business. Cherry is a Smith
School part-time MBA student and owns
and operates Blumpari, a mid-to-high end
handbag business that supports
women-owned microentreprises and
small-to-medium businesses in Thailand.
Smith Business Close-Up can be seen
bi-weekly on Maryland Public
Television's Your Money and Business
program. Watch Cherry Kwunyeun on
Sunday,
December 9 at 7:30 a.m. and Monday,
December 10 at 4:30 a.m. on public
television stations throughout Maryland
and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan
region, including:
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■ WMPB-TV (Ch. 67), Baltimore
■ WMPT-TV (Ch. 22), D.C. metro/Annapolis
■ WCPB-TV (Ch. 28), Salisbury
■ WFPT-TV (Ch. 62), Frederick
■ WWPB-TV (Ch. 31), Hagerstown
■ WGPT-TV (Ch. 36), Oakland
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| Previous episodes of Smith Business Close-Up on Maryland Public
Television's "Your Money and
Business" can
be
seen online
and
downloaded to your iPod. |
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| Faculty
Up Front |
►Call
for Nominations - Krowe Teaching Awards
We invite all faculty, program
directors, deans, department chairs,
alumni, and students to nominate
deserving Smith School faculty members
and instructors (i.e., PhD students,
adjunct faculty or instructors) for one
of several Krowe Teaching Awards in the
areas of general excellence. The award
winners will be chosen and announced in
Spring 2008. The deadline for this round
of nominations is Feb. 1, 2008.
►Read
more and nominate online
►Smith
School of Business Marketing Faculty
Honored for Top Research
Marketing faculty at the Smith
School of Business recently received
honors for top research influencing
business practices. P.K. Kannan, the
Harvey Sanders Associate Professor of
Marketing, and department chair Roland
Rust, the David Bruce Smith Chair in
Marketing, were each recognized for
separate projects. Kannan won the 2007
INFORMS Society on Marketing Science
Practice Prize competition. Rust’s
research won the Best Article Award from
the Journal of Service Research.
“I’m pleased to see our marketing
faculty recognized for their thought
leadership,” said Howard Frank. “The
Smith School’s faculty members have
proven themselves among the world’s most
prolific researchers, and the marketing
department in particular has
continuously produced cutting-edge work
that is having real impact on business
in the global economy.”
►Full Story
►Haslem
Named to Advisory Group of the Indexing
Industry
John A. Haslem, professor emeritus
of finance, has been named a founding
member of the Academic Advisory Board of
the Index Business Association. The IBA
sponsors the Indexing Hall of Fame and
William F. Sharpe Indexing Achievement
Awards. The mission of the IBA is to
engage in advocacy, research and
education activities that promote best
practices and standards in the
development and distribution of indexes,
index products and index-based
investment and risk management
strategies, and to promote and enhance
their usage by institutional and retail
investors. The organization represents
the single largest investment and
investment risk management strategy
category in the world with tens of
trillions of dollars in notional and
direct investment.
►Haslem
to Edit Mutual Funds Book in The
Blackwell Companions in Finance Series
This major publishing project will
provide the most comprehensive view of
the field of finance with a series of 65
volumes on all major topics of finance.
Each volume in the Companions to
Finance Series will consist of new
articles especially commissioned for the
volume. The goal of each volume is to
encapsulate the current state of
knowledge in a particular area of
finance so that the reader can quickly
achieve a mastery of the sub-discipline.
Blackwell states that John A. Haslem,
“a recognized expert in the mutual funds
sub-discipline of finance,” has been
selected to edit the mutual funds
volume. The volume will be published in
hard cover and paperback, and the entire
series will be made available on-line,
and the electronic version will be
updated periodically.
►Haslem
on Program of 12th Annual Super Bowl of
Indexing
The Super Bowl of Indexing conference,
sponsored by the Information Management
Network, was held Dec. 2-5 in
Scottsdale, Arizona. Haslem’s topic was
asset allocation, as it applies to the
role of fiduciaries in establishing
prudent investment practices. Academic
participants included Nobel Prize
winners Paul Samuelson and Bill Sharpe,
and also Campbell Harvey, Don Chance,
Burton Malkiel and Jeremy Siegel.
Professional participants included John
Bogle of Vanguard and Robert Arnott of
Research Affiliates.
►Haslem
a Judge for the Willam F. Sharpe
Indexing Achievement Awards
The Board of Judges for the William F.
Sharpe Indexing Achievement Awards
included Professors Petajisto, Whaley,
Chance, Stoll, Gallagher, Malkiel,
Shiller, Shawky, Lamoreux, David Smith,
and Bicksler. The four William F. Sharpe
Indexing Achievement Awards were
announced at the Twelfth Annual Super
Bowl of Indexing, sponsored by
Information Management Network,
Scottsdale, AZ, Dec. 3, 2007. |
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Technology@Smith |
►Upcoming
Outages
Blackboard Outage: Friday, Dec. 28
Blackboard will be offline December 28th for
the entire day. During this time our system
will be upgraded from version 7.1 to version
7.3. There will be visible changes to the
discussion board, the gradebook, and the
rich text editor that we think people will
really appreciate.
►Detailed release notes for faculty
(PDF)
►UMCP
Blackboard Course Availability Policy
Student access to courses will continue
for three weeks after the course ends.
When courses are set to “unavailable”
you will not able to see them when you login to Blackboard.
(Faculty will
continue to have access to every course
they teach for two years, unless they
request that the course be removed
early.) If there are any course
materials you want
to keep, save the documents to your local computer as soon as
possible. This policy is
set by the Campus Registrar’s Office.
Please email concerns to Registrar
Customer Service at:
rr-cs@deans.umd.edu.
►Thinking
of Upgrading to MacOS 10.5 (Leopard)?
Read this First!
►AV
Requests
To request audio-visual support for special
functions, please fill out our
online form. Please be aware that Smith
IT cannot guarantee support for requests
received less than 48 hours in advance.
Also, any support needed outside of regular
business hours, or that creates greater
demands than usual on our support team
during normal business hours will be subject
to a fee to be set by Audio Visual Services
Management. For more information you can
visit the
A/V Services Web site. |
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Dec. 7, 2007
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Smith Calendar
of Events
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12/13 |
Final Exam Period |
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12/19 |
UM Commencement |
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12/20 |
Smith Commencement |
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1/25 |
MBA Case Competition |
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1/28 |
Spring Semester Classes Begin |
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2/2 |
Monte Carlo Night |
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2/7 |
Cases and Beer |
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2/8 |
Consulting Forum |
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2/20-22 |
UM Spring Career Fair |
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External Events
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2/8 |
Venture Capital Investment
Competition |
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► Smith
Dynamic Calendar |
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► UM Academic
Calendar |
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Smith School
History
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1942 J.
Freeman Pyle is appointed dean. Pyle substantially
broadens the school's focus to include coursework in
public administration, and the school is renamed the
College of Business and Public Administration (BPA). |
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►Interactive
Smith School Timeline
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Smith Newslink
MBA is a production of the Office of Marketing
Communications in cooperation with the Masters Programs
Office.
Smith Media
Group
Loretta Goodridge
MBA Candidate 2008
Smith Newslink MBA Editor
Pete Baird
MBA Candidate 2009
Donna Lin
MBA Candidate 2009
Adam Weiner
MBA Candidate 2009
Other Contributors:
Office of Marketing Communications
Office of Smith IT
Send comments or
submissions to:
smithnewslink@rhsmith.umd.edu
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