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Who We Are - 2005-2006 Scholars
CURRENT DINGMAN SCHOLARS
-- Bios
Dingman Center Scholars are
full-time MBA students who receive financial
scholarships and support from the Dingman Center
during the launch of their business ideas. Scholars
benefit from the expert guidance offered by
the Dingman Center's Entrepreneurs-in-Residence,
professional staff and Smith School faculty.
Throughout the Dingman Center Process, scholars
present their business ideas to their peers
and ultimately to other students and seasoned
entrepreneurs at a Dingman Day Lunch held during
the school year. Dingman Center Scholars
are also available to consult with other students
and regional entrepreneurs who contact the Dingman
Center with ideas for a business or questions
they have about their own start-up business
or entrepreneurial endeavor.
 Sadia
Asghar (2nd year MBA student)
Sadia Asghar was a Marketing Coordinator for
the International Licensing division at Discovery
Communications in Latin America. Prior to her
position with Discovery, she worked with non-profit
organizations for higher education development
in the Middle East. Concentrating in Marketing
and Business Development at Smith, she wants
to pursue either her own entrepreneurial endeavor
or marketing for a consumer products company.
In addition to her position as a Dingman Scholar,
Sadia was also elected as the first Graduate
Student Senator to represent the business school
at the University Senate. Sadia was a 2002 graduate
of the George Washington University. In her
spare time, she likes participating in marathons
and hopes to complete the NYC marathon one day.
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Susannah Campbell
(1st year MBA student)
Susannah Smoot Campbell was a marketing consultant
and director with the Southeast's largest and
fastest growing independent communications firm.
She led the public affairs/nonprofit and technology/telecommunications
practices. Adept at crisis communications, Susannah
has trained more than 300 media spokespeople.
Her early career history is a mix of museums
and real estate. At the Dingman Center, Susannah
is the coordinator of the Capital Access Network.
She is a 1997 graduate of the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A solver of puzzles
-- crossword and logic -- Susannah also enjoys
going to the gym, reading, cooking and collecting
art glass.
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Josh
Kroo (1st year MBA student)
Josh Kroo spent the last three years starting
and running his company Access Passport. Access
Passport is a marketing company based in Montreal
that specializes in reaching the student market.
He has also spent many summers as the Program
Coordinator at Camp Sprout Lake in Upstate New
York. Josh received his BA in Computer Science
in 2003. Concentrating in Entrepreneurship at
Smith, Josh hopes to combine his computer savvy
with both his old and newfound entrepreneurial
skills to pursue his dream of running his own
company. While not running his company, Josh
can be found on the hockey rink, squash court
or attending as many live music shows as possible.
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Jordan Lichman (2nd
year MBA student)
Jordan is a California native from Newport Beach.
He graduated from the University of California,
Berkeley in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts in
Political Economy of Industrial Societies. In
order to pursue a passion for wine, food, and
entertaining, Jordan enrolled in the Culinary
Institute of America to study the culinary arts.
While at the CIA, Jordan managed all production,
financial, and marketing functions at an award
winning boutique winery. Upon graduation, he
worked in leadership roles in a wide range of
businesses in the food and beverage sector,
from an organic farm in western Wisconsin, to
his own culinary instruction business, to cooking
at the Inn at Little Washington (a Five Star
luxury property in Virginia). Jordan hopes to
leverage his hands-on experience in small and
distressed businesses, his work with the Dingman
Center and New Markets Growth Fund, and his
financial education to consult to businesses
in the hospitality industry. In addition, Jordan
is the President of the Smith Real Estate Association
and has two cats, L.G. and Priss.
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 Aimee
Newell (2nd year MBA student)
Aimee Newell is a first year MBA student concentrating
in strategy and finance. She holds a B.S. in
Biomedical Engineering from Washington University
in St. Louis. During her final undergraduate
year, Aimee and another Washington University
alum founded an online resume referral service
dedicated to engineers which fell to the dot
com crash of 2000. Prior to business school,
she worked with a local political strategy group
managing activism strategy and software development.
Before her work in the strategy arena, Aimee
worked with a small entrepreneurial digital
publishing company developing virtual conferencing
software and scholarly conference scheduling
software. Her virtual conference software was
used by the National Highway Transportation
and Safety Administration to host the first
virtual conference discussing the driver distraction
and cell phone use in 2000. At Smith, Aimee
is working with the Dingman Center to bring
emerging technologies from the engineering school
to market and is vice president of Net Impact,
a network of students using business to positively
impact society.
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Aviral Singh (2nd
year MBA student)
Aviral Singh has worked for some of the largest
hotel and conference chains in the hospitality
industry. Working in general management areas,
he has managed as many as eighty line level
employees within tight budgets to successfully
lead various departments in the hospitality
environment. In his first year in the MBA program
and with the Dingman Center he played a pivotal
role in launching Shop DC, a shopping magazine
concept developed, published and successfully
distributed by former Dingman Scholar Zoey Rawlins.
Now in his second year as a Dingman Scholar,
Aviral serves as the President of the Entrepreneurship
Club. Aviral interned with the brand marketing
division at the Hershey Company during the summer,
where he developed a marketing strategy for
a new product. Aviral plans to apply his professional
skills and knowledge gained during the MBA program
to establish a firm that aims at further organizing
a niche market in the hospitality industry.
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Vikas
Tiwari (2nd year MBA student) -- refer to Aimee
Newell's picture
Vikas is the Consultant with The World Bank
at their world headquarters at Washington DC.
He is also a 2nd year Full Time MBA
student. Vikas holds two undergraduate degrees;
One in Mathematics and the other in Law. He
also holds one graduate degree in Industrial
Relations and Personnel Management. He is entrepreneur
in spirit and deeds. After working for a leading
advertising agency of Central India, he started
his own business of IT education in New Delhi.
He owned the franchisee of Aptech Limited, one
of the leading IT education company in India
with operations in 54 countries. He also worked
as a partner in one of the leading Public Relations
and Liaison Company. At Smith, Vikas is the
president of the Smith Store, an online store
selling Smith School branded merchandise.
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Omarr
Tobias (1st year MBA student)
Omarr has served as a Naval Civil Engineer Corps
Officer in the for over 6 years. He has served
as an Officer in Charge of a 53 member construction
team, as a member of a Naval Mobile Construction
Battalion. He deployed to various regions of
the world constructing airfields, camps and
other facilities during hit tour in the battalion.
He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the
State of Georgia. In November 2003, he started
a full service Facility Management Company,
Clean City, LLC, specializing in graffiti removal
and prevention based in Washington D.C. Omarr
was a 1998 graduate of North Carolina Agricultural
And Technical State University. In his spare
time, he likes to listen to and create music,
dabble in real estate, read, play basketball,
football and just about any other sport.
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 Derek
Vlcko (2nd year MBA student)
Derek originates from Bloomfield Hills, a suburb
outside of Detroit, Michigan. He received a
B.B.A. in finance from James Madison University
in May of 2000. After graduating from JMU, Derek
returned to the Detroit area to work as an associate
for Conway MacKenzie & Dunleavy, a leading turnaround
consulting firm, highly involved in distressed
automotive supplier transactions. Derek is a
2nd year full-time MBA student and Dingman Scholar
also serving as the Vice President of Communications
for the Graduate Marketing Association and is
a member of the Entrepreneurship, International,
and Sports and Social clubs. Derek has chosen
to leverage his financial background with an
MBA in Marketing and spent the past summer as
a product management intern at Black & Decker
in Towson, Maryland. In his free time, you can
find Derek in the student section of Terps football
and basketball games, working out at the Campus
Recreation Center, or relaxing at home listening
to music.
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 Valerio
Zanini (2nd year MBA student)
Valerio founded, as a young entrepreneur in
1995, one of the first Internet e-commerce and
e-marketing companies in Italy. After gaining
substantial experience in managing client accounts,
formulating project proposals, and managing
company financials, he joined Cisco Systems,
where he worked for one of the most competitive
teams, dedicated to pre-sales technical support
to the largest Italian mobile wireless provider,
TIM. He is a former Lieutenant, Commanding Officer,
in the Italian military police "Carabinieri".
He is also a former member, and past-President,
of the Rotaract Club Roma Olgiata Tevere, sponsored
by the Rotary Roma Olgiata. In 2003 he co-founded
an outdoor adventure club in Rome and Milan,
and was President in 2003 and 2004. At Smith,
together with other students, he founded the
International Club whose aim is to increase
awareness of international cultures among Smith
students and provide a larger exposure to the
international market and its business opportunities.
Valerio lives in Washington, D.C., in one of
the most popular and fun neighborhoods of the
city, Adams Morgan.
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