Smith’s Cietta Kiandoli and Glen Martin Among Poets & Quants’ Best & Brightest EMBAs of 2023

Accomplished leaders in public service Cietta Kiandoli and Glen Martin represent the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business among Poets & Quants’ Best & Brightest Executive MBAs from the Class of 2023.

Kiandoli and Martin, according to P&Q, are among the EMBAs, globally this year, “whose academic excellence, extracurricular leadership and professional achievement represent the best of business education.”

Kiandoli’s Smith studies paralleled her directing external affairs for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and included coordinating the Senate leader’s public communication and messaging in leading the confirmation fight for the first Black female Supreme Court Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson. She subsequently received National Action Network recognition for leadership and commitment to advancing civil rights. While citing the honor to P&Q as a milestone during her EMBA experience, she added: “Academically, I am most proud of my work in the managerial accounting course. I initially struggled with the curriculum, but I learned to excel by the end. I credit [Professor and Chair of Accounting and Information Assurance] Michael Kimbrough, for his ability to connect practical work with the curriculum.”

Highlighting Martin’s EMBA work was a consulting project that tapped and reinforced his specialty (“leading technical cross-functional teams to develop solutions, manage complex operations and evaluate strategic plans”) as a U.S. Navy Commissioned Officer. The project involved working with a small family business in South Africa in the renewable energy sector to improve its marketing operations. The experience, he tells P&Q, “boosted my confidence and solidified my decision that I was in the right program, with the right cohort, and at the right time.”

In the classroom, Martin stood out for his input to case discussions, says Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Logistics, Business and Public Policy Cristian Dezső. He recounts for P&Q an example from his Global Economic Environment class: “While covering a case on a sensitive topic, the conversation got heated and the views in the class were divided. Glen’s comment, informed by personal experience, provided insights that brought the executives to a deeper understanding of the issues, and managed to unite them in their views. It was the perfect ending for that class and in fact the perfect bookend for the entire course.”

Regarding Kiandoli – and accounting, Kimbrough tells P&Q: “Although she had no prior accounting background … She was excited to learn about how accounting can help executives better understand how their organizations work and, more importantly, how their organizations can work better. The excitement she brought was infectious and the questions she raised led to spirited class discussions that brought accounting alive for the other executives.”

Read more about Smith’s Executive MBA Program and Cietta Kiandoli and Glen Martin in their Best & Brightest profiles.