Management

Asher Epstein, Managing Director

Mr. Epstein has extensive experience advising; growing and managing emerging firms both in the United States and internationally. He has traveled extensively with a focus on building entrepreneurship and innovation in emerging markets and has work experience in China, Israel and Egypt. Mr. Epstein is an expert and frequent lecturer on topics including: opportunity recognition, global entrepreneurship and new venture creation.

Since 2004, Mr. Epstein has been the managing director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, Mr. Epstein is responsible for overseeing the center's strategy and operations including business incubation; start up funding and international operations.

Among his accomplishments include the creation of the Smith School China Business Plan competition which attracted entrepreneurs from all over China to compete for $50,000 of seed funding. He also spearheaded the center's annual Cupid's Cup business competition in 2006, which awards seed funding to the top University of Maryland student and alumni startups, with support from Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour.

The Dingman center's impact has expanded globally through initiatives such as the annual China Business Plan Competition, now in its 6th year, as well as programs in Israel in partnership with the Technion based in Haifa. Regionally, programs such as the center's Capital Access Network (CAN), which connects start-up companies in the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore region with active, accredited angel investors and the cross campus efforts focused on commercializing the outputs of the annual $400 million of University of Maryland sponsored research.

Mr. Epstein began his career as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies while working for American Management Systems, at the time a $1billion revenue company. His clients included AT&T, the Bank of Montreal, Bezeq Ltd. and Chevy Chase Bank. He then was recruited to manage and operate Exit1, an early stage ecommerce and web development company. Among Mr. Epstein's accomplishments were increasing revenue streams tenfold for Exit1. Exit1's clients included AOL, MCI and the federal government. He also successfully founded his own company SilentFrog, a popular online microservices marketplace, raising capital from angel investors.

Mr. Epstein has an undergraduate degree in English and history as well as a Certificate of Management Studies from the University of Rochester. Mr. Epstein received an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business. He currently lives with his wife and two children in Chevy Chase, Md.

Dr. Rudolph P. Lamone, Founder

Dr. Rudolph P. Lamone is the Founder and member of the Board of Advisors of the Michael D. Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship and a Professor Emeritus at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Dr. Lamone received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the business school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

From 1973 to 1992, Dr. Lamone served as Dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business, now ranked among the top business schools, and as the first chair of the Program in Entrepreneurship. He is co-founder of the National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers and a founding member of the National Consortium for Life Science Entrepreneurship Programs. Dr. Lamone serves as Director on the board of several companies, public and private.

In 1996, Dr. Lamone was named "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Ernst & Young for his work in support of entrepreneurship. In 1998, Dr. Lamone was selected to receive the President's Medal at the University of Maryland. In 1999, Dr. Lamone co-founded DirectGene, a biotechnology company that has developed gene therapies directed toward the treatment of metastatic prostate and breast cancer. He also serves as a venture partner with Gabriel Venture Partners, Annapolis, MD, and Redwood Shores, CA.

Dr. J. Robert Baum, Director of Research

Dr. J. Robert Baum is Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship in the M&O Department at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Baum is a Lehigh University engineer and graduate of Northwestern University’s MBA program in Finance and Economics. Dr. Baum teaches MBA new venture courses, and he won four university teaching awards since 2000. His research interests are entrepreneurship, quantitative methods, and strategic decision-making. He has published in The Academy of Management Journal, The Journal of Business Venturing, The Journal of Applied Psychology, Strategic Management Journal, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, and he has chapters in two books. His dissertation, The Relation of Traits, Competencies, Vision, Motivation, and Strategy to Venture Growth won the 1995 Academy of Management, Entrepreneurship Division, best dissertation award. Two of his publications won best paper awards at Babson - Kauffman Entrepreneurship Research Conferences, and he is editor of The Psychology of Entrepreneurship, a Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology Frontiers Series book. Baum is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Business Venturing. He founded three new ventures, and he is a member of the board of directors of six businesses.

Craig Dye, Director of Venture Investments

Craig Dye brings more than 20 years of IT, operational management, and investment experience to the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. Previously, Craig served as an Advisor to the Affinity Lab - an incubator for corporate and social entrepreneurs - which has helped launch and sustain numerous successful companies and non-profits in the mid-Atlantic region. Affinity Lab was recently named one of the 2009 Best Places to Work.

Prior to joining Affinity Lab, Craig was the Chief Operating Officer of Articulated Impact, a software development and web strategy company that provides solutions to the challenges of top-tier companies, hedge funds and non-profits. Before that, Mr. Dye was the founder and CEO of Wheelhouse Networks, delivering enterprise-class computing and telecommunication platforms as a managed service to corporations and professional services firms.

He began his career with Informatics General (acquired by CA, Inc.) – one of the first technology services companies in the nation - and subsequently served as the Chief Information Officer for Hogan & Hartson, supporting its growth into a $1 billion legal services leader, more than doubling in size during his tenure.

Craig serves on the Board of Directors of a number of companies and advises start-ups and non-profits in the metropolitan area. He received his B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Craig lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two children and spends as much time as possible on the Chesapeake with them. 

Alla Corey, Program Manager

Alla Corey brings 8 years of experience in the publishing industry. She led marketing, publicity, and sales efforts for small independent publishers specializing in professional, trade, and academic books. Alla joined the Dingman Center from the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group where she managed marketing for Rowman & Littlefield Education, Jason Aronson Publishers, AltaMira Press, Cowley Press, and Sheed & Ward. During her work at RLPG, Alla’s responsibilities included market research, product positioning, branding, planning and executing marketing strategies for various product lines.

Alla received B.A. in English Language and Literature and B.S. in Computer Science from the State University of Moldova. She moved to the United States from Moldova (Eastern Europe) in 1999. Currently she lives with her husband and son in Arnold, MD.