When Rob Smoot earned his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, he wanted to shout it from the mountaintops. Smoot celebrated the culmination of his education by leading forty fellow students to Africa's highest point the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro 19,341 feet above the vast African plains.
Smoot, along with two other Wharton grads, planned a trip to East Africa for a two-week safari and the five-day ascent of Kilimanjaro's Marangu Route. Preparations for the May June 2001 trip began months in advance. A series of information meetings addressing costs, safety, and logistics were enough to convince students to sign up. "It didn't take too much effort, because so many were spending signing bonuses," Smoot said. Accompanying the group were cooks, guides, and the mandatory two porters per person, totaling more than 120 people.
Although the climb involved risk, the group experienced little misfortune. "When you're climbing at high altitude, there's a lot of danger involved. Several turned back, suffering from altitude sickness, and two had to be carried down the mountain on stretchers," Smoot said. "In the end, thirty-seven of us summated, which is probably more of a testament to our stubbornness and will power than to our physical condition or ability."
Kilimanjaro was not Smoot's first climbing expedition and likely will not be his last. In January he joined a team of ten MBA students and alumni on a Wharton Leadership Venture and summated both Pinchincha and Cayambe peaks near Quito, Ecuador. During the trip, the team learned and applied leadership principles through their climbing and teamwork experiences on the mountain. "This was a more technical climb, requiring glacier skills and equipment," Smoot said. The group plans to reunite on the peaks of Peru in 2003, hoping to reach new heights above twenty thousand feet.
Smoot earned his BS in accountancy and information systems from the Marriott School with a minor in Latin American studies in 1996. He worked as a consultant for Arthur Andersen in San Francisco for three years before moving to Philadelphia in 1999 for his MBA in marketing and entrepreneurial management at Wharton. Smoot resides in San Diego, where he is working as an entrepreneur and independent consultant.
