BMBAA & HMBAA Host 12th Annual Minority Awards Banquet

The 12th Annual William D. Bradford Minority Awards Banquet, held on Thursday, April 28th, met with resounding success from the 143 student, faculty, administration, and corporate attendees. Nicolas Gompf, incoming president of the Hispanic MBA Association, shared his thoughts regarding the importance of diversity and the purpose of the Bradford Banquet. “Diversity has become a major issue in today’s world. Population demographics are changing very fast and markets are becoming more diverse; some companies have realized this and know that targeting these markets can only be successfully done through an integral plan. Diversity is now a competitive advantage and we, as part of the Smith School, should create the means for recruiters to build a diverse work force. The 12th Annual Bradford Minority Banquet’s main purpose is to reflect the great potential of diversity within the Smith School. It was a great success thanks to the support we received from the Smith community and from the sponsoring companies. Having experienced the amazing response from people of different organizations, I hope in the future we can organize more events towards the same goal.”

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 Program 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 program kicked off with an introduction by Dr. Ian Williamson, professor of management and organization. James DeGraffenreidt, chairman of the board and CEO of WGL Holdings Inc., provided the keynote speech for the banquet. DeGraffenreidt emphasized the importance of diversity being an integral part of the corporate culture in successful companies, rather than an act of compliance.

Torrey Lee, outgoing VP of external relations for the Black MBA Association and one of the event organizers added, “The banquet is an excellent networking opportunity for students and employers due to the nine corporate sponsors, and a wonderful opportunity for alumni to see what our organizations are doing since they left Smith.”

This year, the Black and Hispanic MBA Associations raised $5,000 for the new Smith MBA Excellence Award, a scholarship for incoming MBA students. William D. Bradford, who set the vision for the banquet and was present, remarked that the scholarship was the best way to help those that come after the current students. He added that it was also the best way anyone could be honored, as the scholarship was named after him. Each year the award/scholarship will be given to an MBA student on the basis of demonstrated leadership and community involvement and will be named in honor of a business leader to recognize his/her accomplishments. The Dean’s Office, the Admissions Office, and both the BMBAA and HMBAA, will make nominations for the award each year, with a committee making the final award decision. The committee will consist of the director of admissions, BMBAA and HMBAA club presidents, and BMBAA and HMBAA faculty advisors.

Several students and corporate sponsors were also honored at the awards banquet for their commitment to diversity and to the Smith School. PepsiCo received the Corporate Achievement Award for encouraging and fostering a diverse corporate culture as part of their global operations. Patricia Keenan, Bart Flaherty, and Ricardo Cuellar were present at the banquet to receive the award on PepsiCo’s behalf.

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, and the Masters Program 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.

Interview with Jason Madhosingh, Incoming Full-Time MBAA President

Q: What are the 3 key things your team plans to achieve?

1. 1. Communication
2. 2. Community
3. 3. Knowledge Management

We are working to try and improve the sharing of information and lines of communication in general. Almost all conflicts involve communication problems, as both a cause and an effect. The more we improve communication; the better off we will be as a group.

We are working to proactively address these and other issues by being, first and foremost, available to the community.

The second goal is to facilitate and encourage as much communication as possible with the administration and faculty. This includes not only the formal channels, but just as importantly, the informal ones as well. The closer we can bring all part often Smith Community together, the better the experience will be for all involved.

In speaking with MBA leaders at other schools, one of the major issues that any program faces is that of knowledge management from year-to-year in clubs, both functional or social, as well as umbrella organizations like the MBAA, which serves as a "student run administration."

Q: In the spirit of continuous improvement, what improvements over past administrations should we anticipate from your team?

One of the key things that the last administration put into place was a focus on Clubs, Community, Classes, and Careers. We thought these were terrific, long term goals, and wanted to work on one area we saw as a challenge last year-- communication with all points of the community.

Q: In what ways can the general student body contribute to your team’s success?
The most important thing is to contribute by letting us know when there is a way we can help make things better. Responsiveness to surveys is key-- we are able to present that data to the administration to bolster student causes and initiatives. We are always willing to listen and are constantly trying to improve things not only for those of us here, but those of us to come as well.