► Under Armour Founder Kevin Plank Speaks at Smith Commencement Ceremony
► Bid for Signed Terp's Basketballs & Football to Support Tsunami Relief
► Ernst & Young Foundation Presents $37,000 Gift to Smith School
► Smith School in the News

Under Armour Founder Kevin Plank Delivers Commencement Address

The Smith School offers congratulations to the 770 undergraduate, 300 MBA/MS, 25 Executive MBA, and 10 PhD new degree holders who graduated on May 22, 2005.

(l to r) Dean Howard Frank with keynote speaker Kevin Plank.

Kevin Plank '96, founder and CEO of Under Armour Performance Apparel, delivered an inspiring keynote address to a packed Comcast Center. "I'm appreciative of the life and business skills that UM taught me," he began. Drawing on his experience as a football player at Maryland and his keen entrepreneurial instinct, Plank recounted his vision and roadmap to "creating the world's greatest football undershirt."

While still in school pursuing his bachelor's degree in marketing and playing football, Plank came up with the idea for a new kind of t-shirt -- a unique microfber sports shirt -- in a market that no one had addressed and launched Under Armour. Not thwarted by negative feedback from "95 percent" of the business people who didn't think he could compete against the big footwear companies, he took his seven t-shirt prototypes right to the athletes and received positive feedback.

Within the year 12 college teams and 10 NFL teams were wearing Under Armour. In 1996 Under Armour had about $17,000 in sales, said Plank. The company has grown dramatically since then and in 2004 sales soared to $206 million. The company is an official supplier to Major League Soccer, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, USA Baseball, the U.S. Ski Team and numerous NFL teams and division I-A college football teams.

Plank encouraged students to keep in touch with the University of Maryland after graduation, stressing how he relied on his friends from UM and family as Under Armour got off the ground. For the first two years, he ran his business out of his grandmother's house in Georgetown with one business partner he met in school. Now, Under Armour's international headquarters are in Baltimore and they have 500 employees.

He offered three key points for creating a good business plan, and said he runs his business like a sports team. First, he said, define your roadmap. "Good opportunities won't come to you, you must build a roadmap." Second, make a decision. The ability to make decisions is what matters, he stressed. And third, execution.

"All the good ideas have not been taken," said Plank. Find what you are good at and have a passion and conviction for, and create a team that has strengths where your weaknesses lie. "Don't be afraid to right the course," he said if you aren't happy where you are going.

Building on the Under Armour motto, he asked students to give back to UM. "Protect this house," he concluded. "This is our school, our house."

►Full Story, including photos and highlights from Smith MBA Andrew Schneider's speech

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.

Earlier this month, Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. presented Manjula Dissanayake with a citation for his tsunami aid work. The recognition was presented at Montgomery College’s Rockville Campus at an event to kick off Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.  At the event, the Governor paid tribute to students and alumni from the college, and to students from local schools who were instrumental in tsunami relief fundraising and humanitarian efforts.

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

Ernst & Young Foundation Presents $37,000 Gift to Smith School

Dean Howard Frank accepts a gift check from Bill Cole ’71, Gary Dando ’64, and Jim Flick ’62—three of the many Smith alumni affiliated with Ernst & Young. All three alumni are members of the Dean’s Advisory Council.

The Ernst & Young Foundation presented a matching gifts check for $37,073 to Dean Howard Frank on May 5, 2005 to the Robert H. Smith School of Business on behalf of University of Maryland alumni partners, retirees and staff. Of the total amount, $28,323 is designated for the Ernst & Young Education Excellence Fund, $7,500 to the Dando Scholarship Fund and $1,250 to the Lamone Fund.

When combined with individual alumni contributions, the check from the Ernst & Young Foundation brings the organization’s total gifts to the Smith School over the past year to $71,446.

“Ernst & Young’s support has enabled the Smith School to distribute more than $30,000 in scholarships to students each year since 2002. As the costs of higher education continue to increase, scholarships are vital to help ensure that every deserving student can come to the Smith School regardless of financial need,” said Dean Howard Frank.

The check was presented by William Cole ’71, a partner in Ernst & Young and member of the Dean’s Advisory Council, in a ceremony at the University Inn and Conference Center.

Ernst & Young has been an important corporate partner to the Smith School. It is traditionally one of the top campus recruiters among undergraduate students; this year alone the company hired 12 Smith School graduates and gave internships to 18 undergraduate students; it is a multi-year sponsor of the Dean’s Undergraduate Awards Banquet and is the 15-year corporate sponsor of the Alumni Chapter Golf Tournament.

Alumni at Ernst & Young maintain close ties to the Smith School, serving as judges for various case competitions, speaking to many student groups, and serving on the Dean’s Advisory Council and the Smith School’s Board of Visitors.

“Many Smith School alumni have gone on to successful careers with Ernst & Young, and their involvement with the school has been invaluable,” said Joanne Ferchland-Parella, assistant dean of external relations. “We are deeply appreciative of the role Ernst & Young plays in the Smith School’s continuing advancement efforts.”

Smith School in the News

BusinessWeek – May 17, 2005 – Smith School admissions director, Sabrina White, and what it takes to be a winning Smith candidate are profiled in a Q&A spotlight for BusinessWeek’s MBA Insider. ►Read More

Washington Post – May 15, 2005 – Janet Richert, Smith School managing director of the Office of Career Management, and Peter Brown, Smith School senior director for employer development, are both quoted and offer insight into an article about last-minute internship opportunities. ►Read More

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – May 11, 2005 – The Smith School’s innovative program offering free legal services to potential employers of foreign students was highlighted in a story about similar efforts from the Katz Graduate School of Business. Steve Tiufekchiev, Smith School associate director for employer development, and Peter Brown, Smith School senior director for employer development, both offered insight and quotes. ►Read More

Washington Post – May 19, 2005 – Well-known local investor, Mark Walsh’s, position as a senior fellow at the Smith School was noted in a local news brief. Walsh was also interviewed about his new role with the Smith School and the Dingman Center for articles in the Washington Business Journal (5/6) and Baltimore Business Journal (5/6). ►Read More

CNN/Money – May 10, 2005 – Peter Morici, Smith School business professor, is quoted in a story about the growth in U.S. jobs.  ►Read More

Financial Times – May 12, 2005 – Peter Morici, Smith School business professor, is quoted as an economic and trade expert in a story about the dollar’s rise and the U.S. trade deficit. ►Read More

Wall Street Journal – May 9, 12, 17, 18, 2005 – Peter Morici, Smith School business professor, offers his expertise and insight for a number of articles in the Wall Street Journal that include a round-up of leading economists’ views and coverage on topics such as the valuation of the Chinese yuan, the U.S. economy and trade.

NPR’s The Connection – May 12, 2005 – Peter Morici, Smith School business professor, is interviewed for a program about the implications of China’s current policy on the valuation of the yuan and de-pegging it from the dollar for both the United States and China. Morici is quoted as an economic expert in similar articles about the United State’s response to the yuan’s current valuation from Reuters (5/18), The Globe and Mail (5/18), The Chicago Tribune (5/18), BBC News (5/18) and Agence France Presse (5/18). ►Read More

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

More News:

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.

►Smith's Dynamic Calendar of Events

►http://www.alumninetwork.rhsmith.umd.edu