IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Park, MD - June 01, 2010 - Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Turner delivered the keynote address at the May 21 commencement ceremony for the Department of Economics at his alma mater, the University of Maryland.

Sharing the stage with Dr. Robert Schwab, Dr. John Shea, Dr. Cindy Clement, Dr. Kim Nickerson and over 250 graduates (the largest class to receive diplomas from the University’s College of Behavioral and Social Sciences), their families and friends, Dr. Turner offered a challenge to the students to work across disciplines to succeed in this ever-changing, increasingly interconnected world: “You will need the critical analytical skills groomed here at Maryland but also a sense of curiosity, passion, and urgency to realize your goals and in helping to improve our world.”

As part of Optimal’s mission to improve policy analysis and enable data-driven decision making, Dr. Turner and his wife, Tracye, have funded a scholarship for undergraduate economics students at the University of Maryland. Each year the scholarship will provide another promising economics student a partial scholarship, further enabling recipients to learn, analyze, and explore their world.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Founded in 2000, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC is a non-partisan public policy research firm dedicated to rigorous and evidence-based research. Optimal's clients are local, state, and federal governments; non-governmental organizations; and corporations and foundations. Located in the M Square Research Park, Optimal has grown quickly by building on a reputation of exceptional services and products. Our clients benefit from our innovations, value, and efficiency, which we have been able to establish through a robust technology-based infrastructure, uncompromising and documented quality-control procedures, and effective employee recruitment techniques. Optimal has four research centers: health, education, workforce development, and housing.

For more information, please contact Optimal's Communications Department at 301.306.1170 or info@optimalsolutionsgroup.com.