UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Smeal College of Business was recently named one of the winners of the 2023 Innovator Award by the Graduate Business Curriculum Roundtable. 

The GBC Roundtable, formerly the MBA Roundtable, is a global association of business schools whose mission is to advance graduate business education through curricular and co-curricular innovation. 

Launched in 2011, the GBC Roundtable Innovator Award Program promotes initiatives that advance innovation in graduate business education and recognizes institutions that drive change in the field. In 2019, the Innovator Award expanded to two categories, one for early stage innovations that have been recently implemented and another for established innovations. 

Smeal was recognized for transforming its MBA program with an integrated specialized master’s portfolio. The college announced in August 2022 that it was transforming its two-year residential MBA to a one-year MBA with a STEM designation. 

"It is an honor to receive this recognition from our peers. While we have much work ahead of us, we are very pleased with the results of this transition to date,” said Brian Cameron, associate dean for professional graduate programs and executive education. 

“We are also very encouraged by the amount of interest and positive support that we've received from peers at a variety of universities regarding this unique transition and transformation of our MBA program, as evidenced by this award," Cameron said.

Smeal shared the early stage award with the University of Virginia Darden School of Business for its student participation analytics solution that integrates class participation data, student information and student photos to optimize class participation.  

This year’s award winners were announced at the GBC Roundtable’s recent 2023 Curricular Innovation Symposium hosted by the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.