STERNbusiness Fall 2014

Office of Public Affairs44 West Fourth Street, Suite 10-160 New York, NY 10012

F A L L 2 0 1 4

t h e A l u m n i M a g a z i n e o f N Y U S t e r n

STERNbusiness

PBS CEO Paula Kerger on Downton Abbey and new media � Remembering Abe Gitlow � Unsettling research oninsider trading � Putting a business degree to work in fashion � Paul Romer and Pasteur’s Quadrant

STAYINGCONNECTED

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a l e t t e r f r o m t h e deanWe are in the midst of a

busy fall semester, with anumber of successful forumsand conferences behind usand more on the horizon. For-

mer British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former Bank ofEngland head Lord Mervyn King, NY Federal ReserveBank Chairman William Dudley, PBS CEO Paula Kerger,and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell have all sharedtheir views as we convened on campus.

We also began a new series on the Future of Finance,the brainchild of William R. Berkley (BS ’66), chairman ofStern’s Board of Overseers and chair-designate of the NYUTrustees. A capacity audience heard portfolio manager JohnPaulson (BS ’78), Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat, and War-burg Pincus Co-President Joseph Landy (MBA ’96) discussthe changing face of Wall Street in an interview moderatedby Francesco Guerrera, The Wall Street Journal’s moneyand investing editor. You can listen to the interview atstern.nyu.edu/sternbiz/changing-face-wall-st.

This semester, among a number of new professors whojoined our faculty (page 29), we welcomed Pankaj Ghe-mawat, a visiting professor last year and now full-timeprofessor of management and organizations. He was ap-pointed director of the new Center for the Globalization ofEducation and Management, a research center that waslaunched in November to drive scholarship and pedagogyon the business implications of globalization.

The focus on globalization is also apparent in the trioof research papers that show breadth and depth of ourprofessors’ research interests. They explore the maturity ofChina’s stock markets, the ubiquity of insider trading, andprovide a novel theory on how to estimate the real cost ofclimate change mitigation (page 22).

Our cover story puts a spotlight on Stern alumni whohave developed and participated in alumni affinity and in-dustry groups that create communities within the largerStern alumni universe. In addition to networking, thesegroups, and their regional counterparts around the world,provide ways for graduates to connect with and give backto the School. You’ll learn about them in the story thatstarts on page 7.

Another means of connection is Stern’s new e-newsletterthat made its debut last summer. By now you will have re-ceived several issues of the Stern Insider. Designed to keepyou up-to-date with the latest School developments, it’s anefficient monthly roundup of news and notes, plus a selec-tion of job openings from the list maintained by theSchool’s Career Center for Working Professionals. If youhaven’t received the Stern Insider yet, please [email protected] to add your name to the distribu-tion list.

The newsletter is just one of the ways you can stay cur-rent with your School. As you’ll read in this magazine, thereare many ways to remain engaged, and we are alwaysgrateful when you choose to contribute your time. Ofcourse, many other opportunities arise from volunteeringyour time to the School. To name a few, you can help createnetworking opportunities and forums to expand industry-specific knowledge; mentor current students; become acoach in venture competitions; be a guest lecturer in theclassroom; or serve on the Alumni Council, an umbrella or-ganization that oversees both our regional alumni clubs andindustry/affinity group committees. The new chair of theAlumni Council, Todd Fellerman, is featured in this issue(page 37).

Finally, we were saddened by the death in July of DeanEmeritus Abe Gitlow (page 14), whom we will remember ina memorial service on December 5. One of the towering andmost cherished figures in our School’s history, Abe helpedcreate the environment that nurtures our outstanding fac-ulty and their research.

Your continuing support for our institution is integral toour development, and whether you give of time or treasure,we are immensely grateful. It is through your commitmentthat we, and future generations of Stern alumni, continue topush our boundaries outward.

With all good wishes,

Peter Henry Dean

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STERNbusinessA publication of New York UniversityStern School of Business

President, New York UniversityJohn E. Sexton

Dean, NYU Stern School of BusinessPeter Henry

Dean, Undergraduate CollegeGeeta Menon

Dean of Business and Engineering forNYU Shanghai and Vice Dean for Globaland Executive ProgramsEitan Zemel

Chair-Designate, NYU Board of TrusteesChairman, Board of OverseersWilliam R. Berkley

Chairman Emeritus, Board of Overseers Henry Kaufman

Chief Marketing OfficerBeth Murray

Associate Dean, Marketingand External RelationsJoanne Hvala

Associate Dean, Alumni and DevelopmentJoan Barry McCormick

Editor, STERNbusinessMarilyn Harris

Managing Editors, STERNbusinessRika Nazem and Carolyn Ritter

Contributing WritersAnna Christensen, Karl Brisseaux, Niamh Roberts, and Sara Sympson

IllustrationsMichael Morgenstern, Gordon Studer

DesignAnne Sliwinski

Letters to the Editor may be sent to:NYU Stern School of BusinessOffice of Public Affairs44 West Fourth Street, Suite 10-160New York, NY 10012www.stern.nyu.edu/[email protected]@NYUStern

contents F A L L 2 0 1 4

2 Public OfferingsPaul Romer on cities and science; Gordon Brown’s “declaration of interdependence”; Anita Raghavan on Rajat Gupta; venture competition winners; conferees share ideas about the collaborative economy with Luke Williams and Arun Sundararajan; Vasant Dhar and AnindyaGhose host a crowdfunding event; Robert Engle convenes thought leaders around liquidity andrisk; the Center for Real Estate Finance Research sponsors a symposium; Distinguished Citi Fellow Ellen Seidman tackles consumer finance issues; and Dean Henry welcomes keynoter Benjamin Heineman Jr. to the Global Governance Roundtable, where Michael Posner and Sarah Labowitz talk human rights.

7 Cover Story: More than a ‘Meet and Greet’Alumni affinity and industry groups provide an avenue to give back to Stern and networkBy Marilyn Harris

14 In Memoriam: Dean Emeritus Abraham Gitlow was the soul of SternBy Marilyn Harris

16 Stern in the City16 “Ghost” designer Matteo Gottardi looks to New York’s street for inspiration

By Carolyn Ritter18 Peter Katz helps MoMA PS1 create a vibrant arts community in Queens

By Niamh Roberts

20 Leading IndicatorsCEO Paula Kerger details PBS’s triumphs and challenges

Office Hours – Faculty Research

22 Truth in NumbersStern faculty slice the data to illuminate China’s stock market, insider trading, and the present value of very long-term investing By Marilyn Harris

24 Let a thousand exchanges bloomA more rigorous regulatory environment has helped China’s stock market matureBy Jennifer N. Carpenter, Fangzhou Lu, and Robert F. Whitelaw

25 Is Climate Change Mitigation Worth It?The present value of extremely long-term investing could provide an answerBy Johannes Stroebel, Matteo Maggiori, and Stefano Giglio

27 Insider Trading UnmaskedCareful scrutiny of trading around IPOs reveals disturbing patternsBy Menachem Brenner and Marti Subrahmanyam

29 ProspectusLord Mervyn King, Pankaj Ghemawat, Xi Chen, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Eduardo Dávila, Cecilia Parlatore, Hans Taparia, and Yu Shi join the faculty, with Gustavo Schwed to join in spring 2015; Tensie Whelan is named 2014-2015 Stern-Citi Distinguished Fellow; plus noteworthy faculty papers, awards, and honors

32 Peer to PeerStudent Life in Washington Square and Beyond: Undergraduate students in the international volunteering seminar spend 11 days in Ghana; Global Economy students battle in the inaugural Economic Growth Competition

34 Alumni RelationsAlumni News and Events: A thank you to donors; Todd Fellerman is named Alumni Councilchair; the Haskins Award Dinner fêtes recipient Ambassador Carla Hills; SternReunion and Alumni Day; Alumni Holiday Celebration; a call to alumni to jointhe Society of the Torch

38 Class Notes

44 Past PerformanceCharles Waldo Haskins was a founding father of NYU Stern and the accounting professionBy Marilyn Harris


Public Offerings

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Paul Romer talked about cities and science

Last spring, University Professor Paul Romer, pro-fessor of economics, director of Stern’s UrbanizationProject, and director of NYU’s Marron Institute ofUrban Management, delivered a University Professor-ship Lecture entitled “Approaching the City throughPasteur’s Quadrant.” The event was hosted by ProvostDavid McLaughlin and Dean Peter Henry.

Katherine Fleming, NYU deputy provost and vicechancellor for Europe, welcomed guests and sharedsome background on University Professorships, whichare awarded to outstanding scholars whose work pos-sesses a significant interdisciplinary dimension. Witha nod to Pasteur’s Quadrant – a classification of re-search that seeks both to solve specific problems andto contribute to our fundamental understanding of theworld – Romer stressed that the abstractions thatemerge from basic science are powerful but need toprove their value in applications to real problems. Heargued that cities are an example of such abstraction:“They offer a powerful way of organizing our think-ing and understanding complexities, and serve as animportant intermediary between such other abstrac-tions as nations and businesses.”

Ex-British PM called for a “Declaration of Interdependence”

Introduced by Undergraduate College Dean GeetaMenon, The Right Honorable Gordon Brown, formerprime minister of the UK, delivered the 2014 Ashok

Sani Distinguished ScholarLecture, entitled “CurrentTrends in the World Econ-omy.” The lecture isnamed for Ashok Sani(BS ’74), an Undergradu-ate College alumnus whoserved on the School’sBoard of Overseers.

Brown examined trendsin the world economy inthe period between the fi-nancial crisis of 2008 and2014 and called for a “De-

claration of Interdependence” that would foster more co-operation among countries to tackle large issues thataffect the global economy, such as trade and climatechange.

Following his remarks, Brown answered questionsfrom the audience, many of whom were undergraduatestudents in Professor Bruce Buchanan’s ProfessionalResponsibility class.

Integrity and ethicsmoved to centerstage

Anita Raghavan,author of The Billion-aire’s Apprentice andcontributor to TheNew York Times andForbes, delivered theNinth Annual HaitkinLecture at Stern thisspring. Hosted byStern’s Business andSociety Program,Raghavan’s talk cen-tered on Rajat Gupta,

former managing director of McKinsey & Co. andboard member of Goldman Sachs, who was convictedof insider trading charges and sentenced to prison and

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Author Anita Raghavan spoke tostudents about egregious ethicallapses on Wall Street.

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$5 million in fines in 2012.The Haitkin Lecture is a forum dedicated to the ex-

amination of issues of integrity and ethics in business. Itis a special opportunity that allows for Stern students tolisten to and ask questions of extraordinary individualsfrom academia, practice, and the press. The HaitkinLecture was established through the generosity of Sternalumnus Jeffrey Haitkin (BS ’68).

NYU entrepreneurs collected some cashAt the conclusion of an eight-month competition,

NYU’s most promising innovators received a combined$200,000 in start-up cash at the annual EntrepreneursChallenge, held by Stern’s Berkley Center for Entrepre-neurship and Innovation. The three winning teams – com-prising students and alumni from across the University –were chosen after pitching their ideas and being examinedby judges from the venture capital, technology and design,education, and social enterprise sectors.

More than 200 teams comprising over 500 entrantsfrom 14 schools at NYU competed this year. The$75,000 Rennert Prize, for new ventures, made possibleby a gift from Stern Board of Overseers member IraLeon Rennert (MBA ’56), was awarded to HireCanvas.Co-founders Scott Holand (MBA ’14) and KevinGeorge are creating a better campus recruiting experi-ence for recruiters, universities, and students by manag-ing data at campus recruiting events. The $50,000Social Venture Prize went to Codesters, co-founded byGordon Smith (MBA ’06), a tool for schools and teach-ers that integrates a cloud-based coding environmentwith a coding curriculum.

The $75,000 Technology Venture Prize was awardedto Skinesiology, created by five students from the NYUSchool of Medicine. They engineered fitness tights witha resistance-generating system that increases muscle ac-tivity and helps people burn more calories during work-outs and daily activities.

Luke Williams, executive director of Stern’s BerkleyCenter; Frank Rimalovski, managing director of theNYU Innovation Venture Fund and executive director ofthe NYU Entrepreneurial Institute; and Jill Kickul, di-rector of Stern’s Program in Social Entrepreneurship,teamed up to organize the competition, along with theBerkley Center’s Cynthia Franklin and Loretta Poole,who presented this year’s Mentor-of-the-Year Award toMike Blumenfeld.

The focus was on the sharing economyOn May 30,

Stern and thePartnership forNew York Citybrought togetherentrepreneurs,governmentleaders, aca-demics, businessexecutives, ven-ture capitalists,

and students for a morning of discussion and thoughtleadership about the sharing economy.

Professor Luke Williams opened the day, which in-cluded a series of panels on how various new platformsare reshaping today’s workforce, leading to the rise ofindependent contractors, freelancers, unconventionalworkers, micro-entrepreneurs, and worker coopera-tives. Discussions focused on the emerging opportuni-ties and challenges; whether this new workforce willgrow the economy or slow growth as corporateeconomies of scale are lost; how society could plan forthis transition; and the potential upheaval of the tradi-tional workforce.

Participants included Stern Professor and NECFaculty Fellow Arun Sundararajan and ClayShirky, distinguished writer-in-residence at the NYUJournalism Institute. A concluding panel, moderatedby Sundararajan, focused on New York City and thesharing economy.

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Professor Arun Sundararajan led a discussion on NYC’s sharing economy.

Clockwise from top left: Entrepreneurs Challenge awards; Professor Adam Brandenburger on left withNew Venture Competition winners from HireCanvas and, on right, Professor Luke Williams; Social Ven-ture Competition winners from Codesters with Professor Jill Kickul, far left, and Professor Williams, farright; Technology Venture Competition winners from Skinesiology


Public Offerings

Experts discussed the challenges and opportunities of crowdfunding

The NYU Stern Center for Business Analytics, led byProfessors Vasant Dhar and Anindya Ghose, hosted anall-day event in May to discuss trends and issues relatedto crowdfunding and crowdsourcing. Participants in-cluded Stern Professors Ashwini Agrawal, YannisBakos, John Horton, Panos Ipeirotis, NataliaLevina, and Arun Sundararajan.

Ghose welcomed the packed room and presented hisco-authored research about online privacy and crowd-funding. Sundararajan, who studies the economics of IT,and Yancy Strickler, co-founder and CEO of Kick-starter, talked about the social and trend aspect ofcrowdfunding or “trendfunding.”

Levina described some of the challenges with crowd-sourced innovation including: problem formation, solu-tion generation, solution evaluation, and adoption inpractice. Ipeirotis explored the challenge of crowdsourc-ing information in a predictable way, with knowledgeusers, without offering any monetary rewards. Agrawaltalked about how innovation and technological changeaffects workers, and Horton presented his research aboutonline labor markets.

Stern’s Center for Business Analytics is a researchcenter and an interdisciplinary community at the fore-front of data and analytical thinking.

Academics and practitioners defined risk in the 21st century

Approximately 100 risk professionals and Sternalumni gathered in New York in late May to hear fromJohn Chambers, deputy head of Standard & Poor’sSovereign Ratings Group, and Stern Professors MichaelPosner, Viral Acharya, and Bruce Tuckman at Stern’s

Second Annual RiskManagement Symposium.The symposium centeredon risk and the globaleconomy.

Chambers opened theday with a discussion onsovereign risk with SternProfessor and MS in RiskManagement (MSRM) Program Academic DirectorIngo Walter. Posner, co-director of the Stern Centerfor Business and Human Rights, followed with a pres-entation of his research on human rights issues inemerging markets. Acharya discussed emerging sys-temic risks in China and India and shared the globalsystemic risk rankings from the Stern Volatility Insti-tute’s Volatility Lab (V-Lab). The V-lab uses marketdata to provide real-time measurement, modeling, andforecasting of financial volatility. Acharya stated, “Ris-ing systemic risk in China and India is a growing con-cern in light of China’s credit bubble, shadow banking,and slowing GDP growth, and poor asset quality andhigh leverage of India’s public sector banks.” Tuckmanconcluded the symposium with a discussion on financ-ing risk in the derivatives market. He compared financ-ing risk in swaps, bonds, forwards/futures, CDS, andcall options. He pointed out that overly discouragingderivatives may increase systemic risk.

The Annual Risk Management Symposium is spon-sored by Stern’s MSRM Program. The event is part of atwo-day MSRM alumni engagement initiative aimed atcontinuing alumni involvement and discussing currentrisk issues with faculty and practitioners.

Volatility experts also took on riskStern’s Sixth

Annual Volatil-ity InstituteConferenceconvened aca-demics, practi-tioners, andregulators todiscuss the lat-est researchand ideasaround thetheme, “Market

4 Sternbusiness

Clockwise from top left:Professors Anindya Ghose;Arun Sundararajan, on left;Panos Ipeirotis; John Horton;Ashwini Agrawal; andNatalia Levina

S&P’s John Chambers, on left, and an attendee re-viewed sovereign risk issues.

Nobel Laureate Professor Robert Engle, left, organized this year’sVolatility Institute conference around risk issues in the stock market.


Liquidity and Funding Liquidity: Implications for Eco-nomic Risk.” Hosted by Nobel Laureate and ProfessorRobert Engle, the conference was sponsored by the Al-fred P. Sloan Foundation; the Michael Armellino Foun-dation; BlackRock, Inc.; Deutsche Bank; the Institute ofGlobal Finance, University of New South Wales; and theSociety for Finance Econometrics. Research was pre-sented by leading academics and practitioners fromStern, Banque de France, Ca’ Foscari University ofVenice, EDHEC Business School, Goethe UniversitätFrankfurt, Université Catholique de Louvain, Univer-sity of Chicago, Universidad de Chile, and University ofIllinois at Chicago.

Real estate finance mavens highlighted trendsOn April 23, Stern’s Center for Real Estate Finance

Research hosted its third annual Spring Symposium.Speakers explored topics including US tax policy; carriedinterest and the impact of the Foreign Investment in RealProperty Tax Act (FIRPTA) on foreign capital inflows;the appeal of US real estate opportunities to foreign in-vestors; the effect of foreign real estate capital inflows onlife in New York and other gateway cities; the future ofcities as the global population aggregates in urban cen-ters; the impact of co-working; and the effects of crowd-funding as a means of purchasing real estate.

MBA students Yishan Eva Lin and Sudharsun Ja-gannathan moderated the discussion on co-working (arising trend of young professionals and start-ups shar-ing office spaces and administrative services). The stu-dents had researched co-working as part of a SternSignature Project (SSP) with the School’s Center forReal Estate Finance Research.

Women real estate execs shared their insights

On February 25, the Center for Real Estate FinanceResearch partnered with two student organizations, theStern Real Estate Club and Stern Women in Business, to

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host an Executives-in-Residence Day. Four women fromWX New York Women Executives in Real Estate – Bar-bara Flusk, senior vice president of financial operationsat Clarion Partners; Sylvia Gross (MBA ’87), managingdirector of Real Estate Capital Partners; Christine Lat-tanzio, leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ New YorkMetro real estate tax practice and also the firm’s na-tional real estate tax practice; and Robbin Orbison,CFO of Silverstein Properties – provided one-on-onecounseling sessions to students interested in a career inreal estate. At lunchtime, they spoke to a group of morethan 50 students as part of a panel discussion moder-ated by Professor Edward Glickman, executive direc-tor of the Center for Real Estate Finance Research. Theexecutives shared their individual career paths and per-sonal challenges, discussed changes they foresee in thereal estate industry, and commented on qualities compa-nies look for in prospective employees.

Governance roundtable focused on the role of ethics

On April25, Stern andNYU Law co-hosted theNYU GlobalGovernanceRoundtable:“BuildingEthical andSustainableGlobal Com-panies,” aninvitation-only, moder-ateddiscussionwith leading business and legal practitioners and fac-ulty from NYU’s law and business schools.

After Dean Peter Henry and NYU Law Dean TrevorW. Morrison delivered opening remarks, the first ses-sion on developing global corporate compliance cultureswas led by NYU Law Vice Dean Kevin Davis. The co-directors of Stern’s Center for Business and HumanRights, Professor Michael Posner and Research ScholarSarah Labowitz, led the second session on social as-pects of governance and human rights.

Professor Edward Glickman moderated a panel of four women from the WX New York Women Execu-tives in Real Estate. The executives also met individually with Stern students to discuss careers.

Benjamin W. Heineman Jr., senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science andInternational Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, delivered thekeynote address at the Global Governance Roundtable.

When Annbeth Eschbach set out to revolutionize the spa andfitness industry, she turned to NYU Stern. With the help of herMBA degree, she explains, “I was able to birth not only a newbrand and company, but a business that is directly in the path ofprogress.” Prior to enrolling at Stern, Eschbach, founder andCEO of Exhale Enterprises, Inc., worked for a high-end athleticclub and spa conglomerate operating more than 50 spas and ath-letic clubs in different markets with different names, sizes, pro-grams, and positioning. That experience, she recalls, “led me todream of creating a singular brand and business from the groundup to fill a void in the market for a brand experience that deliv-ers the kinds of powerful life-changing results that are achievedat destination spas – without having to travel from home and dis-connect from your daily life.” Exhale was the first spa concept to

depart from the traditional spa orientation of pampering and luxury to a more holistic ap-proach of transformation and healing.

Eschbach characterizes the structure of Stern’s Executive MBA program as “genius,” elab-orating, “It was not possible to take time out from my work or career to go to b-school. I hadto do it simultaneously. It was the best lesson in multi-tasking in the world. And the intensityand richness of being in school with a small group of people who have already been workingand who can share their life and career journeys with one another brought the program to awhole other level.” She believes that the emphasis on group learning dovetailed perfectly withthe cultural shift toward collaboration in the workplace and that, in her experience, the Ex-ecutive MBA students exemplified this by “focusing less on competition and more on learn-ing for learning’s sake.” It was through her experience at Stern that Eschbach affirmed herdesire to become an entrepreneur, after listening to her classmates share their experiencesabout work in large corporations and the energetic maneuvering that it would take to getthings accomplished. “Besides giving me confidence, my Stern degree gave me all of the basicbuilding blocks to start my company – drafting a business plan, creating a five-year model –when it came time to do it, nothing was a mystery,” she says.

Today, exhale has grown from a dream, set of financial projections, and a business plan toan award-winning well-being brand with 23 properties in 11 markets, dozens of proprietaryprograms, a large and engaged guest base, and 2,000 associates aligned around the brand vi-sion and mantras. Exhale is rapidly growing; demand for the brand is at an all-time highfrom real estate developers and demand for the programs from consumers is at an all-timehigh. “We are opening three new properties this year, another four next year, and have sev-eral more in the pipeline.” The company’s growth has been fueled by its unique ability to sat-isfy hotel and commercial real estate developers’ need for a comprehensive well-beingoffering that can attract both property guests and the local community. In today’s urbanmarkets, it’s no longer enough to deliver just a spa or gym experience, and as a lifestyle brandthat encompasses spa, healing, and relaxation treatments, as well as boutique fitness classes,exhale has been well-positioned. Constantly innovating, Eschbach spoke excitedly aboutexhale’s newest proprietary class addition, Core Fusion Extreme, a high-intensity intervaltraining class that has taken New York City by storm.

Reflecting on exhale’s measurements of success, Eschbach says, “We are just as metrics-focused as we are people-centric and program-centric. Our quantitative metrics are absolutelyas sacred as our ‘soulful’ metrics. It’s a nice cultural balance.”


Distinguished Citi Fellow Seidman tackledconsumer finance issues

Organized by Stern’s Citi Leadership and Ethics Pro-gram and Business and Society Program, with generoussupport from the Citi Foundation, the 11th Annual NYUStern-Citi Conference in Leadership and Ethics featuredthis year’s Distinguished Citi Fellow in Leadership andEthics, Ellen Seidman, former director of the USTreasury Department’s Office of Thrift Supervision andsenior fellow at the Urban Institute.

In her keynote address, Seidman said that consumerloan servicing and debt collection are in desperate needof improvement and outlined the Center for FinancialServices Innovation’s (CFSI) plan to rebuild trust in theconsumer finance sector.

Rachel Schneider, senior vice president of insightsand analytics at CFSI, and Tim Ogden, managing di-rector of the Financial Access Initiative at NYU, deliv-ered a presentation and shared a brief snapshot of their

research examining how 200 US households over thecourse of 12 months managed and spent their income.

Seidman led a panel discussion entitled “What does‘Quality’ Mean in ‘Quality Financial Services?’” that in-cluded Beth Brockland, director of compass principlesat the CFSI. The discussion centered on three keythemes: cost, transparency, and service.

The Stern-Citi Distinguished Fellows Program identi-fies business leaders whose proven track records exem-plify how business and government can address some ofthe world’s most intractable problems, includingpoverty, homelessness, and environmental concerns, andstimulate sustainable economic growth.

Clear Channel’s Pittman reflected on radio and his career

Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of Clear Channel,joined Langone MBA students for a 2013-2014 LangoneSpeaker Series event. Professor Charlie Murphy mod-erated the discussion, beginning with a one-on-one in-terview and followed by an open Q&A session withstudents.

Pittman, formerly CEO of MTV Networks, AOL Net-works, Six Flags Theme Parks, Quantum Media, Cen-tury 21 Real Estate, and Time Warner Enterprises,discussed his career development. In his role at ClearChannel, he spoke of radio as a constant whose re-siliency in an ever-evolving digital world renders it astaple that will continue to play a meaningful role inpeople’s lives.

Public Offerings

6 Sternbusiness

Clear Channel’s Bob Pittman, left, and Professor Charlie Murphy discussed Pittman’s career arc.

Consumer finance experts, at top, discussed the quality of financial services. Ellen Seidman, center left,was the 2013 Stern-Citi Distinguished Fellow. Rachel Schneider, center right, is SVP of CFSI. TimOgden, bottom right, is managing director of the Financial Access Initiative at NYU. Raj Date, bottomleft, is managing partner at Fenway Summer LLC.6


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More than Ameet and greetSTERN ALUMNI FIND PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING AND VOLUNTEER

OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH AFFINITY AND INDUSTRY GROUPSBy Marilyn Harris


8 Sternbusiness

Graduation is often bittersweet. You’re leaving an immensely absorbing environment to

strike out for what promises to be a wide-open world of opportunity. But you don’t have to

cut all ties to your School. Under the auspices of programs facilitated by NYU Stern’s

Alumni Council, you can enjoy your fellow alumni, network among them, and, best of all,

retain your connection to campus by mentoring a student, lecturing in class, or participat-

ing in a forum or panel.

There are many ways to volunteer your time, and have fun doing it. Just ask the mem-

bers of Stern’s various alumni affinity and industry groups. These vigorous communities –

within the larger community of more than 100,000 Stern alums – bring graduates together

to connect around their common business interests, their shared experience through un-

dergraduate or graduate studies, and, in many cases, a desire to give back to the School

with their time and industry savvy. Through these affinity and industry committees, which

are organized under the Alumni Council (see story on the new Alumni Council Chair on

page 37), alumni can mentor current students; serve on panel discussions or participate in

forums that benefit from their professional expertise; and make an effort to hire from the

pool of graduating students and fellow group members.

With an assist from Stern’s Alumni Relations Office, the affinity and industry

committees reach out to alumni through email lists and/or social media such

as LinkedIn or Facebook. The groups all host events ranging from educa-

tional sessions to interesting and enjoyable field trips and dinners.

Whether in New York or in any of the far-flung locales populated by two

or more Stern grads, affinity and industry groups are part of what makes

a network – and a School – great.

The head of the Entertainment, Media, and Technology (EMT) commit-

tee, Olga Papadopoulos (BS ’03, MBA ’11), described her involvement this

way: “Having attended Stern twice, I will note that each time I got something

different out of the experience, but both times were wonderful. Being involved

with Stern as an alumna energizes me professionally and personally. I find being an

active alum not only provides a channel to keep my knowledge current in my industry and

provides ample networking opportunities but also allows me to help affect how the School

educates future alums so we can continue the great tradition of a Stern education. Person-

ally, it feels good to give back to a School that gave me so much.”

Sarah Marchitto, executive director of alumni relations, encourages all alumni to con-

sider attending an affinity or industry group event, keeping current with news of the

School and fellow alumni, joining a regional alumni group, checking her office’s global

event calendar, or volunteering their time to the School. “One of the reasons our stu-

dents choose Stern is the feeling that here is a place of opportunity, where faculty, ad-

ministration, and our alumni want to help them succeed,” Marchitto said. “If you haven’t

yet experienced the rewards of lending your time to the School, in whatever way you

can, we urge you to give it a try. Your participation is an important factor in the ultimate

success of our students. Please visit stern.nyu.edu/portal-partners/alumni to find outhow you can get involved.”

In the following pages, we profile a sampling of Stern’s affinity and industry groups.


Marketing

Leaders: Russell Isaacson (MBA ’07)and Meera Raja (BS ’06)

An evening of shopping andcareer advice from the chiefmarketing officer of KennethCole at the Soho flagship store,a travel-themed trivia nightfeaturing the former generalmanager of Jetsetter (formerlyof Gilt Groupe, now part ofTripAdvisor), and a lesson onhow Major LeagueBaseball employssocial media at theMLB Fan Cave.Meera Raja andRussell Isaacson,co-leaders of theMarketing commit-tee, meet quarterlyto brainstorm theseand other unique activities to en-gage alumni of both Stern’s grad-uate and undergraduateprograms. In addition, the groupgenerally hosts an educationalevent twice a year, featuring aspeaker or panel on a particularsubject or industry.

The group’s objective is to pro-vide an opportunity for alumni currently working inmarketing to gain additional knowledge about the indus-try and connect with fellow members of the Stern com-munity. “Our goal is to create an environment whereyoung and experienced marketing professionals canopenly engage with their peers and expand their net-work,” said Raja, a consultant for luxury brands.

The combination of casual andmore formal group activities hasbeen effective. “I’ve gained from thegroup both personally and profes-sionally,” said Isaacson, a senior di-rector at Chango and instructor atNYU’s School of Professional Studies.“Personally, I’ve extended my Sternnetwork and made some new friendswhom I never met while at Stern.Professionally, I’ve developed part-nerships between my company andthose of the fellow Stern alumni Imeet. I’ve also learned about differ-ent industries and topics, thereby im-proving my overall marketingknowledge.”

Raja added: “Marketing is such avast field, and it is defined differ-

ently within each organization. The alums I’ve met workin various industries, and their distinct roles within theircompanies have opened my eyes to explore opportunitieswhich I previously would not have considered. I also

began to recruit from Stern after be-coming more involved and have in-terviewed several extremely brightcandidates for open positions.”

Certain of the group’s activitieswelcome current students, who getpractical exposure to marketing top-ics they’ll likely encounter in theircareers post-graduation. Their par-ticipation also provides alums with

an opportunity to hear what students are thinkingabout trends and opportunities.

Unlike Raja, who sought out the group to expand hernetwork and broaden her knowledge of other marketingspecialties, Isaacson said he became a convert after serv-ing on a panel at an event and never looked back: “Justbecause we graduated doesn’t mean we finished learning.”

Sternbusiness 9

Committee co-leader RussellIsaacson (above, left) and theMarketing group spent an in-formative evening with KennethCole’s CMO.

Thank You,Stern Donors!


10 Sternbusiness

Stern Women In Business (SWIB)

Leadership: Lynn Emmolo (BS ’84), Sari Mayer (MBA ’92), andLorry Prentis (MBA ’87)

Membership in the Stern Women in Business (SWIB)group is not industry-specific – no matter what sector youwork in, you’re welcome. The group’s mission is straight-forward: To expand and connect with the Stern alumnaenetwork, and to establish an engaged and growing com-munity of Stern women in business.

According to co-chair Lorry Prentis, an executive di-rector at Ernst & Young, the group’s goals look both in-ward and outward. Prentis and co-chairs Lynn Emmoloand Alumni Council representative Sari Mayer are aimingto increase the number of Stern women on its commit-tees, attending its events, and mentoring and offering in-ternships to sister Stern alums; encourage more women todonate their time and/or money to the School; create aclear pathway for SWIB graduate and undergraduate stu-

dents to transition to the SWIB alumnae group aftergraduation; showcase Stern professors as thought leadersin leading business practices; and support the growth ofwomen in leadership positions.

Group members don’t just talk the talk. Prentis said:“We are constantly looking for talent to add to our grow-ing practice, and Stern is a great source of highly talentedpeople. I have been involved in the formal recruitmentand interview process.” And Emmolo, a CEO, entrepre-neur, and cosmetics industry veteran, has hired from theconnections at the School both full-time and for intern-ships. “I also try to be available for mentoring sessionsover coffee or phone calls,” she added.

SWIB hosts two panels each year focused on women inleadership or other topical developments in business.This past year, the panels covered the new dynamics ofsocial media and a hugely popular event, “Leaning In vs.Opting Out,” that drew about 200 attendees to the Kauf-man Management Center. The event included a series ofspeakers discussing the challenges women face with theircareers when they leave the workforce to raise children,followed by a Q&A session and cocktails.

Another annual event is a dinner where each attendingalumna covers the cost of the evening for a student, grad-uate or undergraduate, ensuring a one-to-one ratio ofalums to students at each table. The group has also spon-sored speed networking events that have proved to be agreat way to tap into the extensive NYU business commu-nity, said Emmolo. “The fun part for us on the committeeis creating and promoting the events,” said Mayer, direc-tor of marketing and investor relations at Global CreditAdvisers. “Working with women with the same goals andinterests, giving back, and encouraging women to connectprofessionally with other women and move ahead withtheir careers – it’s very powerful.”

Said Emmolo: “It is incredibly rewarding to share ourexperience and expertise to help young women just start-ing their careers. There is no doubt that it helps to hearfrom someone who has been through the process so thatthere is a better understanding of how to develop theircareers. Twenty to 30 years ago there were fewer womenin business to go to for advice. Today, we have manyStern alumnae who can help young women achieve thesenior leadership positions in business that were not ac-cessible to us. We are here to help open the doors andguide the way.”

Career-oriented panels and networking events organized by the Stern Women in Business alumnaeaffinity group aim to help move women ahead. The group welcomes alums in any industry sectorand sponsors an annual dinner that includes current students.

10 JOIN THE


Sternbusiness 11

Entertainment, Media, and Technology (EMT)

Leaders: Susan Jurevics (MBA ’96), Nishant Mani (MBA ’07),and Olga Papadopoulos (BS ’03, MBA ’11)

One of the challenges for the Entertainment, Media,and Technology (EMT) group is identifying and develop-ing relationships with its constituency. Stern’s EMT ini-tiative and the group are only about a dozen years oldand represent multiple disciplines. Thus, even thoughabout a quarter of all Stern alumni self-identify with theentertainment, media, and technology fields, the grouphasn’t managed to reach them all. Says Susan L. Jurevics,London-based CEO of Pottermore, J.K. Rowling’s digitalhome for Harry Potter and the wizarding world, “We’vefound that LinkedIn is the key social tool for alumni inthese fields, yet we constantly update our informationbased on real-time inputs from Stern alumni worldwide.”

Former EMT chair Jurevics and current chair OlgaPapadopoulos arrived at EMT from different routes. Jure-vics spent her entire career in the EMT space and at-tended Stern part-time, long before EMT became a focus

area for the School. Papadopoulos, a senior vice presi-dent at CitiCards, was an accountant who transitioned toadvertising. “It was really just one EMT event on a Sat-urday morning that helped me identify the industry Iwanted to be part of,” she said. “Once I realized I wantedto make a change into the EMT space, I started to attendEMT events and began to participate with the EMTalumni group. My interaction with the EMT alumnigroup not only quickly educated me on the EMT indus-try but also helped me identify key areas of interest that Ipursued as I joined the field professionally.”

The group’s intense focus on students and recentalumni is a function of the rapidly changing industriesand interconnections it encompasses. Advances in one ofthe three fields affect the other two, Jurevics pointed out,adding, “Many students in this space are characterized asearly adopters who join Stern with their own views andconnections in our field.” The organization recentlybrought its student and alumni committees closer bypartnering with students to merge two groups into one(the Media, Entertainment, and Sports Association andthe Technology and New Media Group became EMT).“This merger identified that the technology industry re-ally was a cornerstone of the EMT space,” Papadopoulosexplained. “This subgroup used to be thought of ascoders who wanted to work for Google but has now ex-panded to include multiple technology companies withmultiple roles that were being filled by Stern MBAs.Making sure we are always assessing how we view thisever-changing industry helps us support all of the nichecommunities that exist.”

Student leaders join the meetings, and the alumnicommittee provides input and connections for their vari-ous activities, which include treks and speaker series.Alumni participate in mock interviews to assist the stu-dents in tailoring their communications skills for successin the field, and students are invited to the EMT group’ssummits and events to provide a firsthand look at howthe industry operates.

In addition, Papadopoulos pointed out, “Our industrydoes not have the traditional hiring path that many otherindustries do (i.e., internship over the summer and on-campus interviews in the fall). As an alumni group, weunderstand the nuances of the industry we work in, andmany alumni give their time and energy to help studentsunderstand how to best find a job in the space, since itcan be challenging. Students are a key pulse check thatties directly to how we run our group.”

The demographic for theEntertainment, Media,and Technnology com-mittee has evolved to in-clude alumni in theseincreasingly intercon-nected disciplines.


12 Sternbusiness

Food and Wine

Leaders: Joan Bloom (MBA ’66) and Laura Hill (MBA ’84)

Food, wine, fun, and networking – not necessarilyin that order, but pretty darn close. Joan Bloom andLaura Hill organize six events a year, and they knowhow to party: Chinese banquets, authentic Mexican din-ners, Texas barbecue, Basque, Brazilian, and Indian cui-sine, and several wine tastings are just the recipe to

bring Stern alums to the table. Belonging to the Food and Wine group means more

than just a party. Group leader Bloom, formerly a princi-pal at The Dilenschneider Group, stated that the goal ofthe Food and Wine industry group is to connect Sternalumni in various fields for both personal and profes-sional relationships, and to rekindle their connectionwith Stern. “Since Stern has become a global school, itoccurred to us that a global approach to cuisine in theform of a Food and Wine group would be a meaningful

platform to bring alumni together,” shesaid. “Stern continues to grow in geo-

graphic, cultural, and educationalscope, and is light years ahead ofwhere it began when I got my MBA.For me, staying engaged with Sternand fellow alumni is a way of con-tinuing my education.”

Both leaders value the profes-sional opportunities that can emerge

after a glass or two of cabernet. “I’vehelped a few people with their job

searches and gained a few clients along theway,” said Hill, principal at Careers in Motion LLC. ForBloom, who spent most of her working life in the fields offood, wine, and hospitality, and belongs to Les Dames

d’Escoffier, a women’s culinary association, thegroup “has given me a reconnection with Stern,and enabled me to put my event planning andculinary experience to good use. We encourageeveryone to carry business cards to our events.”The events, she added, are open to any Sternalumni, not just group members.

The group communicates with membersthrough an email list comprising alumni who haveattended past events or made inquiries about up-coming events and posts to Stern LinkedIngroups. In addition, the Alumni Relations Officelists its events in its weekly emails to all alumni.

“What’s nice about the Food and Wine group is that wecut across all ages and job functions and include Sternundergrads as well as MBAs, so people who attend ourevents get to meet alums that they might not meet other-wise,” said Hill.

The more, the merrier. �

The Food and Wine group,led by Laura Hill (top, frontleft) and Joan Bloom (top,front right) enjoy a varietyof entertaining events re-volving around (what else?)food and wine, with net-working an added benefit.Chitra Agrawal (center) pre-pares an Indian dinner.

12 A total of 128 first-yearMBA students in the GlobalEconomy core course, re-designed for spring 2014 byProfessors Kim Ruhl and KimSchoenholtz, competed in theinaugural NYU Stern EconomicGrowth Competition last May.Teams of students were ran-domly assigned one of 10 coun-tries, for which they were askedto identify leading obstacles tosustained economic growth andpropose a policy change to im-prove growth prospects. LauraFox and Hadi Zaklouta, thenew co-presidents of the SternEmerging Markets Association, and fellow students RicoGardaphe, Zubin Nagpal, and Mitch Unger led Team Italyto a first-place win – and a private lunch with NYU alum-nus Henry Kaufman (ARTS ’48, PhD ’58), NYU LifeTrustee, chairman emeritus of Stern’s Board of Overseers,and the original “Dr. Doom.”

“To say the least, we were all excited to have the op-portunity to meet Henry Kaufman. He’s a legendaryeconomist, and we were thrilled to hear his reflections onglobal economic policy firsthand, in particular on emerg-ing economies and market turmoil over the last fiveyears,” said Fox.

“Bringing together students with diverse backgroundsunder the direction of strong faculty leaders to evaluateobstacles to economic growth in specific countries aroundthe world is an ingenious effort for a business school toundertake. I am very proud to have my name associatedwith this program,” said Kaufman.

Kaufman is one of several leading economists thatTeam Italy will have met this year. The Global Economycourse kicked off in January with an off-the-record dis-cussion between Dean Peter Henry, MBA students, andformer US Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin andLawrence Summers. And finalists in the EconomicGrowth Competition fielded questions from externaljudges John Lipsky, former First Deputy Managing Direc-tor of the International Monetary Fund, and LewisAlexander, chief US economist at Nomura and formerCounselor to the Secretary of the Treasury.


Sternbusiness 13

STERN’s on the go...STERNbusiness, that is.

STERNbusiness is available in the iTunes Store for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, and in the Google Playstore for your Android smartphone and tablet. And of course also at stern.nyu.edu/sternbusiness.

Get the STERNbusiness app on iTunes and Google Play .

Student Life in Washington Square and Beyond


14 Sternbusiness

braham L. Gitlow –Abe, to just abouteverybody who had

the privilege of knowing him –died on July 15 at age 95. Vi-sionary Dean Emeritus of NYUStern, longtime professor ofeconomics, author of 14 books,generous supporter of theSchool he loved, husband, fa-ther, and grandfather. DeanGitlow is widely regarded asthe principal architect of thestature and renown the Schoolenjoys today. A charismaticteacher and revered mentor, formany he personified the very soul of Stern, the “School ofOpportunity.”

Echoing generations of students, Edward Barr (BS ’57),member of the Stern Board of Overseers, recalled, “Fromthe first day in Abe Gitlow’s freshman economics class,on through more advanced courses, to his supporting myadmission to professional and graduate programs, he wasalways there for me.”

Dean Gitlow combined intense curiosity, optimism,and resourcefulness. He earned an undergraduate degreein European history at the University of Pennsylvania in1939 and began work on a master’s and PhD in econom-ics at Columbia University. During World War II, he waspreparing his doctoral dissertation about labor relationsin the linen supply business – his family’s business –

when he joined the US Army AirForce. Stationed on a lonely landingstrip in New Guinea, as an assistanthistorical officer, he found that fur-ther research on his chosen topic wasessentially impossible, so he switchedtracks and began exploring the trad-ing patterns among the primitiveHighlands population. His study be-came the subject of a new and radi-cally different dissertation: the firstextensive ethnographic examinationof a previously unknown area and afoundation of subsequent anthropo-logical research techniques.

Dean Gitlow’s expertise in botheconomics and anthropology informed his outlook on therole of human behavior and values in institutional valuesand cultures. His academic interests were broad, includ-ing labor economics and industrial relations (a field forwhich he authored a seminal textbook), corporate man-agement, and ethics.

After the war, Dean Gitlow briefly taught at BrooklynCollege as a substitute economics instructor. In 1947, hebegan his career at NYU as an instructor at what was thencalled the School of Commerce, Accounts, and Finance.He served as dean from 1965 to 1985 and is widely cred-ited with helping the School survive the most difficult fi-nancial periods in its history, during the late 1960s.

When young Professor Gitlow joined Stern, he recalledin an interview several years ago, “It was a huge, educa-

I n M e m o r i a m

AbeGitlowthe Soul of Stern

A


Sternbusiness 15

tional factory – and I don’t mean that in a pejorativeway.” With student ranks swelled by former GIs, “therewere about 10,000 students registered. The graduatingclasses dominated the commencement exercises of theUniversity.” The offices,then in Shimkin Hall,were similarly packed.Faculty members shareddesks. “There were com-pletely open departmentoffices we referred to asbullpens,” he said.

At the time, the Schoolof Commerce was dividedroughly equally betweenday and evening students.The classes were large andpractical. Many members ofthe faculty did not havedoctorates, and they fo-cused more on teaching theapplication of business thanon conducting academic re-search. “It was a true schoolof opportunity,” Dean Git-low recalled. “And a verylarge number of the city’saccountants, attorneys,and businesspeople in allspheres of industry gradu-ated from that School.”

But over time, as demo-graphics shifted, the School’s mission and ambition changed.With that evolution, new resources were attracted. In thetwo decades after Gitlow was named dean, the School’s ac-ademic reputation grew; “With professors like ErnieKurnow, Mike Schiff (PhD ’47), Bob Kavesh (BS ’49), andJules Backman (BS ’31, MBA ’33, PhD ’35), the Schoolbegan to make what became an extraordinary transforma-tion,” Gitlow has said, modestly playing down his own piv-otal role.

When business school curricula nationwide came underintense scrutiny in the late 1960s and early 1970s, NYU’sSchool of Commerce and Graduate School of Business Ad-ministration (as the undergraduate and graduate pro-grams were then called) were no exception. Criticscharged that the programs were too “vocational,” andsome NYU faculty deemed the trend irreversible and ad-vocated for the School’s closing. Dean Gitlow restored and

solidified the School’s reputation by uniting the two pro-grams, improving faculty, and increasing admission stan-dards.

Said Susan Greenbaum (BS ’71 , MBA ’78 ), formerassociate dean of Stern’sUndergraduate College:“My relationship with himevolved from supportivedean, to my boss and men-tor for 10 years duringwhich time I saw him leadthe charge to save ourstruggling undergraduatecollege and the university,and finally to our friendand advisor.”

There was no greaterbooster of Stern than DeanGitlow, as the School ac-quired a more global out-look and a larger anddeserved reputation for at-tracting students from allover the world, and equip-ping them with the toolsneeded to become leaders intoday’s global economy. “Ifyou tell someone that you’rean alumnus of Stern, there’sa little arching of the eye-brow, a kind of nod, and agreat deal of respect,” Dean

Gitlow told STERNbusiness in 2008. When Dean Gitlow retired, he took up the task of

writing Stern’s history with avidity, and in 1995, hisbook, NYU’s Stern School of Business: A Centennial Ret-rospective, was published. With a total of 55 years ofgraduate studies, teaching, and administration under hisbelt, he not only was uniquely qualified to write the de-finitive story of Stern, he provided an acute analysis ofthe educational and philosophical issues and tensions thatmarked the history of the School, and of American highereducation in general, in the 20th century.

Said Greenbaum, “Abe’s loss leaves a huge void inour lives, but the many wonderful qualities he role-modeled, his deep love of Stern, his brilliant thoughtprocess and frequent counsel even at the end, and his joyfor life and learning made us better people, and for thatwe are eternally grateful.” �

“There was no greater booster of Stern than Dean Gitlow, as the School acquired a more global outlook and a larger and

deserved reputation for attracting studentsfrom all over the world, and equipping them with the tools needed to become leaders in today’s global economy.”


ork. Rest. Karma, or W.R.K, is morethan just a moniker for my designlabel – it’s my mantra for life,” saysMatteo Gottardi (BS ’04), founder

and creative director of the W.R.K menswear collectionand WRK Shop, a creative agency that oversees designsfor Vince Camuto, Nicole Miller, Levi’s, Nordstrom, andMacy’s private labels, and others. “Those three wordshave been key in my work as a ‘ghost designer,’ guidingmy work for every client so that I honor and preserveeach distinct brand.”

So far, it seems to be working. Over the last five years,WRK Shop has grown from a small design studioservicing one client to a powerhouse agencyworking with more than 20 recognizablebrands. The W.R.K line boasts asimilar success story: Got-tardi launched themenswear line in fiveNeiman Marcus stores in2011. Today, it’s availablein every Neiman Marcus,Nordstrom, and Dillard’sstore, in nine Saks Fifth Avenuelocations, in more than 50 spe-cialty boutiques, and onwww.wrkny.com.

As a hired gun, or ghost designer,Gottardi and his team at WRK Shopare the architects behind a number ofmajor labels. “We have the privilege ofrevamping, relaunching, and sometimesredesigning a product or even an entire col-lection for a client,” he explains. “In the be-ginning, it’s all about listening to the client.This is what I call the ‘information shake-down,’ where we learn what makes a brandunique, who their customers are, and what the

sternInTheCity

feedback is from in-house designers andthe sales team.From there, westart to make amovie and de-

cide what items belongin that movie.” Gottardi also

stresses the importance of finding

16 Sternbusiness

Ghost Designer Finds Inspirationon the Streets of New York

By Carolyn Ritter

W“


the right next step for an individual brand – “somethingnew, but also something that won’t alienate consumers.”

W.R.K is what Gottardi calls his “ultimate expressionof design.” His philosophy bridges functionality and aes-thetics, using details that are purposeful and attractive.He argues that garments are tools and should serve an au-thentic role in our lives: “It’s my mission to produce cloth-ing that people really want, that is truly beautiful, andthat is useful in day-to-day life.”

“Over the years, I think that menswear has lost itsmeaning while aspiring to resemble Steve McQueen orJames Dean,” hejokes. “Today’sprofessional manneeds a brand thatis timeless andclassic.” That’swhere W.R.K comesin. “Throughout thedesign process, wedeconstruct and re-construct garmentsuntil they’re perfect.For instance, we’lldesign a shirt withwoven sleeves so that they turn and flex with the arm, butwe’ll keep the bodice of the shirt crisp and straight. We’vealso designed slacks without a side seam so they’re morecomfortable and so that the whole fabric stretches withthe body instead of just one panel.”

Having moved from Italy to the US at age eight, Got-tardi is fluent in both English and Italian, and considershimself a “truly international human.” When it came timeto apply to college, his father encouraged him to go tobusiness school instead of design school. “As my fatherwould say, design is not purely creative. You need to useboth sides of the brain,” he recalls. “There’s an art to ourcraft, but we’re also selling. Knowing who the customeris, how to bring a product to market, how to communi-cate properly with your audience – those skills are invalu-able in the fashion industry.”

Heeding his father’s advice, Gottardi applied to NYUStern. “Coming to Stern meant that I could learn how to be

a businessman and take full advantage of internship oppor-tunities with New York-based design companies.” Gottardidid just that during his four years as an undergraduate, in-terning at Ralph Lauren, Diesel, and Armani. “The facultyat Stern were always very generous with their time, and Iloved being surrounded by NYU’s creative student bodyand having New York City as my campus.”

According to Gottardi, New York continues to play asignificant role in his life and design work. “When youlive and work in a city, what you wear is hugely impor-tant,” he explains. “It protects you all day as you’re walk-

ing from place to place in theelements, and in New York thatcan mean anything from hotand humid to snowy and cold.Plus, clothing is one of themost significant ways thatNew Yorkers express their in-dividuality.”

The City seems to be asource of inspiration for Got-tardi: “I’m fascinated by the di-verse set of industries based inNew York. Tech is just one ex-ample, and I’m excited to see

how wearable technology will factor into the future of fash-ion.”

A man of many passions, Gottardi maintains a numberof hobbies including sketching and riding motorcycles. “Icommute every day to work on a bike and I’ve ridden onnearly every continent and across a large swath of NorthAmerica, from Montréal to Miami and New York to Ohio,”he says. A self-proclaimed enthusiast for planted aquari-ums, Gottardi owns a 100-gallon planted aquarium filledwith live plants that he aqua-scapes. Clearly a man whoneeds to be in motion, Gottardi runs nearly every dayand enjoys kite-surfing on weekends. He also has a softspot for an old Pontiac Firebird convertible, which herestores on weekends.

Reflecting on his career so far, Gottardi calls himself anarchitect of his own environment. “I don’t get the Mondayblues. In fact, I come to work every day and have a greattime – that’s something I’m most proud of.” �

Sternbusiness 17

“It’s my mission to produce clothing thatpeople really want, that is truly beautiful, and that is useful in day-to-day life.”

Above and left: Samples from the fall 2014 W.R.K collection, a menswearline conceived by ghost designer Matteo Gottardi (BS ’04)


sternInTheCity

Back to School: Pushing Boundaries at MoMA PS1

By Niamh Roberts

useum Mile. Chelsea. Long Island City? Art aficionados need look no further thanthis Queens industrial zone to find one ofthe trendiest – and oldest – contemporary

art institutions in New York City. Over the past fourdecades, MoMA PS1 has helped transform this formerlygritty industrial area into a thriving arts community.Chief Operating Officer Peter Katz (MBA ’03) credits

MoMA PS1’s emphasis on living artists, rotating exhibits,and community interaction and education for this suc-cess.

“There’s no typical day at MoMA PS1,” says Katz,whose role includes managing the museum’s finances, IT,security, staff, and physical space, as well as providinginput on new installations and the Young Architects Pro-gram (YAP). “I am in charge of all the non-curatorial ac-tivity at the museum, but I have opportunities to gobeyond finance and interact with the art, which is prettyunusual.”

PS1 was founded in 1976 as an exhibition spacewithin a vacant public school, a building still owned by

the City of New York. Katz arrived in 2011 with an im-pressive résumé of financial management for some of thecity’s best-known arts institutions, such as the Neue Ga-lerie, The Museum of Modern Art itself (MoMA), and TheSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, but he did not alwaysenvision himself in the field of finance. As a history majorat Trinity College, where he received his BA degree, Katzrecalls, “I was interested in the arts, but my plan was to

pursue an MFA in film, become a teacher, and producemy own work.” After landing his first job in visitor serv-ices at The Museum of the Moving Image, he quickly re-alized his interests aligned better in this operationalsetting than on a film set.

With five years of professional experience under hisbelt, Katz realized he had a wealth of exposure to the artsbut less formal training in business fundamentals, whichbrought him to Stern. “I needed an MBA to advance mycareer and fill in the parts of my education that I hadn’thad. At Stern, I could go to class at night, take intensivecourses, and work at the same time.” In particular, Katzcites a course on management in the performing arts,

M

18 Sternbusiness

Photo: Elk Studios, 2012 Photo by Charles Roussel. Image courtesy of MoMA PS1.

ecent insider-trading pros-ecutions by the Securitiesand Exchange Commis-sion may only be the tip of

the iceberg, according to new researchby NYU Stern Professors MenachemBrenner and Marti Subrahmanyam,along with Patrick Augustin of McGillUniversity.

R


taught by Joseph Volpe,former general manager ofThe Metropolitan Opera, asone of the classes that res-onated strongly with hisexperience and interest innonprofit operations.

Katz now uses theknowledge and skills he ac-quired at Stern to tackle the complex and unique businessfactors he encounters on a day-to-day basis. “I enjoyworking in museums because I believe in their mission toeducate and share art. As COO, I focus on ways to realizethis vision, given factors like budget and building con-straints.”

Similarly, the museum’s location poses interesting chal-lenges for Katz and his colleagues. “We are only two sub-

way stops from MoMA, so it is very easy to get here fromManhattan. But, for some people, there is a psychologicalbarrier to coming to Queens,” explains Katz. Subway linechanges, planned and unplanned, can also affect atten-dance, though visitors to the museum have increased bymore than 50 percent in recent years.

One big advantage of being in Long Island City, how-ever, is generous physical space, which has proven to beideal for MoMA PS1’s programming. Events like “WarmUp,” an outdoor music series and architectural installa-tion, take place in the museum’s ample courtyard, and

“Sunday Sessions” programsinvite visitors to engage withartists, curators, thinkers,and other cultural agents.“The installations can pushboundaries, and curators canutilize more flexible openspaces,” Katz points out.

Katz says the museum’srelationship with MoMA is one of the reasons he wasdrawn to PS1. MoMA PS1 is a separate nonprofit with30 full-time employees, an $8 million budget, and itsown board of directors, but its close affiliation withMoMA offers opportunities to collaborate on exhibits –such as “Greater New York,” and more recently anothershowcasing artist Mike Kelley – plus gallery talks andeducational programming. Additionally, MoMA provides

key human resources with “great advisors and staff sup-port,” says Katz.

While MoMA PS1 is professionally fulfilling for Katz,he also notes his personal affinity for his work. “MoMAPS1 works with challenging artists, who are pushing theboundaries of what art is. The work takes a lot of time,”he explains, and spans the gamut of music, performance,and installation-based art. He is proud to share this ap-preciation with his daughter, now 11, who is developing asimilar interest in the world of contemporary art. �

Sternbusiness 19

“I enjoy working in museums because I believe in their mission to educate and share art.”

PS1 was founded in 1976 as an exhibition space within a vacant public school. Now, says COO Peter Katz (MBA, ’03), MoMA PS1’s programming - including “Warm Up,” “Sunday Sessions,” and the YoungArchitects Program - utilizes this unique space to foster an atmosphere where visitors can engage with artists.

Photo: Martin Seck, 2011 Photo by Andrew Berman. Image courtesy of MoMA PS1

19SternBzFALL Issue Spreads_UG.qxd:Layout 6 11/4/14 7:26 PM Page 43

Charles Murphy: Tell us about your mission. PBS is very different from stan-dard commercial TV. Paula Kerger: Education is at the heart of our mission. The other part is oppor-tunity. There are still areas that commercial media, for whatever reason, is eitherunable or unwilling to take up. What drives us is not necessarily trying to amassthe largest number of eyeballs – it’s trying to help transform people’s lives withcontent that matters.

CM: How is your structure different, and what challenges and opportunities doesthat difference present?PK: We are a membership organization with 350 stations around the country thatare all independent and locally owned and operated. That’s significant in an erawhen, frankly, in most parts of the country, the public stations are the only oneslocally owned and operated. An interesting discussion can be had about the valueof having a station that is controlled by people in the community. Those stations,in fact, created PBS, so we’re the exact opposite of a network that is controlledfrom the top down. We are grassroots. Everything bubbles up.

Most of the content that comes to us comes already produced from the sta-tions. We organize the schedule and help distribute it. From an organizationalstructure perspective, in addition to the fact that we are a nonprofit organization,we also are the kind of organization with distributed authority. I have a lot of re-sponsibility, but not full ultimate authority over what any station does. If you are aPBS station, you adhere to certain guidelines, so it’s not as if everyone goes off intheir own direction and does what they want. At the end of the day, to guide acompany like this, you have to really work very hard at getting everyone ralliedaround a sense of common purpose. And you really do have to bring peoplealong in the discussion. That’s what the membership piece means.

CM: How did PBS do last year? PK: We’ve been on a pretty good run the last couple of years, in part because wehave stuck to our guide star in terms of the quality of the content that we’re pro-ducing. Organizations sometimes get into trouble when they lose their focus and

are tempted to try to chase what appears to be successful for other organizations.The market gaps created by the rest of the media landscape have created oppor-tunities for us. Our relentless focus on trying to create compelling content is im-portant.

CM: How does a “Frontline” or a “Downton Abbey” come to you? PK: We work with producers, many of whom are associated with stations. Thosetwo examples are both projects that come to us through WGBH in Boston. WGBHand WNET (in New York) are the two largest producers of content for publicbroadcasting. You really want to focus on characters that people care about, andthat plays out everywhere.

CM: What are your challenges, and where are the opportunities going forward,as your business is changing literally at light speed? PK: Money is always a challenge. As the public broadcasting service, we getabout 15 percent of our funding from the federal government – almost at the verybottom of public broadcasters worldwide. Most of the money comes from viewerslike you, and then we look for partnerships. Next to that, I would say our biggestchallenge is also our biggest opportunity, which is the change in technology andthe way that people are consuming content.

Whether people are using DVRs, Roku, Apple TV, or don’t have televisions atall and watch all media by streaming it on their tablets, it’s up to us to figure outwhere people are and make sure our content is there. But it’s complicated, andnot inexpensive. We’re creating everything on multiple platforms, which makesthe business that much more complex – but also a great opportunity to buildsomething.

Also, brand is tremendously important in this kind of environment and thenultimately how to fund it. Figuring out how you aggregate viewership numbers soyou can tell a potential underwriter on a commercial side or a potential advertiserthat a certain number of people are watching... it’s going to be important to try tofigure that piece out.

KEEPER OFTHE FLAMEPAULA KERGER TENDSTO PBS’S MISSIONTHROUGH A NEWMEDIA AGELast February, Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) since 2006, was interviewed by NYU Stern Professor of ManagementPractice Charles J. Murphy as part of the 2013-2014 Langone Speaker Series. Kerger, a graduate of the University of Baltimore, is also president of the PBSFoundation and director of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, as well as a board member of the Smithsonian Institution’s NationalMuseum of Natural History and the Elizabeth Glaser AIDS Foundation.

20 Sternbusiness

LeadingIndicators

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CM: With all the different technologies being developed, are you conservative andwait, or do you take risks and bet on a technology? PK: We’ve been spending a lot of time recently talking about risk because one ofthe areas that I’m most focused on is for us to remain an innovative company, andsome of the biggest areas where we have been quite innovative have actually beenin the technology area. We’re the ones that created closed captioning. We’re thefirst that used satellite distribution; one of the early companies that embraced highdefinition; the ones that actually made use of multicast. Most broadcasters usetheir extra channels for things like weather and traffic, and we actually packagedand created whole channels. As a nonprofit organization, we can take risk but wecan’t take crazy risk.

But I always want to seed enough resources into innovative projects and notdescribe innovation as just what those folks that work in the digital department aredoing. Innovation should really cascade across the company. Our former head ofdigital wrote an article about how he encouraged risk by putting into the employeemetrics that as part of employees’ evaluations, they had to demonstrate a certainamount of failure so that, in fact, that kind of risk was rewarded. The point of it isnot to just fail for failure’s sake but to fail, “fail fast” in the digital parlance, but alsoto learn from it.

CM: How did you get into the business? PK: Like most other people, when I was in college I felt like a chronic under-achiever because I had started out in medical school and hit organic chemistry,and that was the end of medical school. Then I took a lot of arts classes, which Iloved but realized I would never be gainfully employed and could never leavehome, so I got a degree in business but with no clear idea of what I wanted to dowith it. I accidentally ended up working for UNICEF in Washington, and I’ve stayedin the nonprofit sector my whole career. The company I run now is more like abusiness except our shareholder happens to be on Main Street, not necessarily onWall Street. Still, we’re running a half-billion-dollar company that needs to breakeven. I’m proud that in the eight years I’ve been running PBS we’ve operated in theblack every year. It is a complex media organization, but it’s one that has a doublebottom line. My grandfather founded the public radio station in Baltimore, somaybe it’s buried in my DNA somewhere.

CM: How would you describe your management style? PK: You hire people that are smarter than you, and you get out of the way. It’sreally important for a leader to help work with a team in articulating a very clearstrategic direction and a solid business plan and obviously the budget that goesalongside that. Leaders should inspire and work alongside the team, and beengaged and mentor the team, but not micromanage. We manage our organizationdynamically. We are constantly looking for how we may need to pivot and change

and move, and you have to stay very close to the business in order to do that. Youhave to listen really carefully.

CM: What do you do when you’re not working? PK: Recently, I started participating in triathlons, because it’s really important inorganizations to have balance in your life. We encourage people to go home atnight and come in the morning refreshed and to be engaged in their communityand have a support network. All those pieces are tremendously important.

CM: What advice would you give Stern students? PK: I always encourage people to look for mentors, and I always encourage peo-ple to mentor people who are coming up. As Stern students, you should be doingit as well. There are people coming behind you that are trying to figure out theirlife’s path, and you may be deciding whether the one you’re on is working for you,but you’re learning as you go, and you have to help bring people along.

Also, leave yourself open to possibilities and be willing on occasion to jumpout of the airplane. If you map out a path for yourself and you think you have yourlife figured out, you’re selling yourself short. If you find yourself stuck some-where and you’re unhappy and you can’t quite figure it out, chances are you’retrying to take the safe route. Just recognize that occasionally taking a risk meansthat you may not be going in an upward direction. Sometimes you move side-ways or take a step back or put yourself in a place that feels way outside yourcomfort zone.

The other thing is find your own voice, and I say that particularly for women.A lot of women go into the workforce, and they feel like they have to modelthemselves after someone else. Don’t do that. Find yourself. Find your authenticvoice and use it.

AUDIENCE QUESTIONSQ: What type of challenges do you think face us as emerging business leadersjoining the business community? PK: We all have to figure out how to navigate the pace of change. A real issue isfiguring out how organizations can become flexible and remain flexible but at thesame time not zigzag all over the place. Our country desperately needs engineersand very specific labor, and so for someone coming out as an emerging leader, en-suring that we have an educated citizenry that is prepared to take the jobs of the fu-ture is going to be increasingly important. Then there’s the global economy. Oftenwe tend to forget who the true competition is. We operate in a global economy, andwe need to pay attention to that. Not all businesses really evolve in that direction,and so that’s also going to be really important. The pace of technology is blinding.

Q: How can someone be flexible enough to be successful in different organizations? PK: Look within the organization as if you’re coming into a new culture. You reallyneed to listen carefully and watch the dynamic within the organization. Figure outwho’s getting stuff done and how it gets done. You can take a lot of cues there. Also,look for some support within the organization. Look at who’s been successful at nav-igating something, become their friend, and see if you can use them as a mentor.Watch the entire event at stern.nyu.edu/sternbiz/paula-kerger. �

PBS’s Paula Kerger has keptthe broadcaster’s focus onquality and innovation sinceshe took over in 2006.

Sternbusiness 21

shadow banking sector, whose systemof implicit guarantees is pulling capi-tal away from the stock market andpulling stock prices down. This makesit all the more important that in-vestors, firms, and regulators under-stand just how far China’s markets


22 Sternbusiness

Truth inNumbers


The late NYU Stern Professor W. Edwards Deming famously said, “In God we trust,all others must bring data.” He would be proud of the faculty papers described here.

In the first paper, Associate Professor of Finance Jennifer Carpenter; Robert Whitelaw,the Edward C. Johnson 3D Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance; and 2014 Stern grad-uate Fangzhou Lu investigated in detail the evolution of China’s stock market to deter-mine if its early reputation as a wild and unregulated casino was still merited.

Next, Johannes Stroebel and Matteo Maggiori, both assistant professors of finance,along with a co-author, realized that one gating factor holding back people’s willing-ness to make investments in climate change mitigation was the fact that any benefitwould likely be realized far in the future. Seeking some metric that could be used to in-form this potentially costly decision, they found one in an unexpected place: the prop-erty markets in the UK and Singapore.

Finally, Research Professor of Finance Menachem Brenner and Marti G. Subrah-manyam, the Charles E. Merrill Professor of Finance, Economics, and International Busi-ness, and a co-author meticulously analyzed the pattern of options trading prior to theformal announcements of a number of acquisitions over the course of a dozen years.What they found should be disturbing to investors and regulators alike.

Sharp analysis reveals insights

into China’s stock market, insider

trading, and the present value of

very long-term investingBy Marilyn Harris

Sternbusiness 23


Let a thousand exchanges bloom

China’s young stock market has come a long way

angzhou Lu (BS ’14) re-members that his parentswere among the first wave ofimmigrants who throngedShenzhen, at the opening of

the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in1991. “Like those who went to Cali-fornia for the Gold Rush, my parentsand their friends flocked to the stockmarket with the dream of becomingmillionaires overnight,” he recalled.One family friend got lucky and madehis fortune. Another lost his life sav-ings. Fangzhou saw it all and won-dered whether the stock market inChina was just one big casino. Thuswas born the seed of his interest in fi-nance research, which recently pro-duced, along with Stern FinanceProfessors Jennifer Carpenter andRobert Whitelaw, his mentors atStern, a research paper called “TheReal Value of China’s Stock Market.”

The trio’s findings overturnedFangzhou’s suspicions. Through rigor-ous analysis, they discovered that whilethe equity markets in China may havestarted as a playground for rampantspeculation, the institution of marketreforms and regulation since the coun-try’s entry into the World Trade Or-ganization (WTO) in 2001 haveresulted in China’s markets increas-ingly resembling those of their moremature counterparts around the world.

Carpenter, Lu, and Whitelaw pointout how high the stakes are here.China is now the world’s largest in-vestor by a wide margin. Their resultsconfirm that, consistent with theory,good legal and market institutions in

China are solidly linked to the “in-formativeness” of stock prices aboutfuture profits and efficient corporateinvestment, which should in turndrive economic growth. However,China’s stock market has recentlybeen competing with an exploding

shadow banking sector, whose systemof implicit guarantees is pulling capi-tal away from the stock market andpulling stock prices down. This makesit all the more important that in-vestors, firms, and regulators under-stand just how far China’s markets

F

24 Sternbusiness


have evolved since their more free-form inception.

The researchers drew on marketdata from the period between 1996and 2012 to chart three main factors.First, they tracked the quality of in-formativeness of pricing, specificallythe effectiveness of China’s marketsat aggregating and integrating infor-mation about firm profits into pricesover the life of the stock markets.Second, they calculated the efficiencyof corporate investment and docu-mented its high correlation withthe trend of price informativeness.Third, they examined whether equitypricing across China’s various ex-changes offers international equityinvestors attractive returns and op-portunities for diversification.

What they found surprised them:their analysis showed that in terms ofinformativeness of pricing and theway that investors price various stockcharacteristics, China’s markets hadbecome similar to those in the USand other developed markets. In ad-dition, China’s stock market offersvery attractive returns and opportu-nities for diversification to global in-vestors who can access them.However, to attract more foreign in-

vestment, the country would needfurther regulatory reforms aimed atliberalizing capital flow.

The authors described severalstages in the Chinese market’s evolu-tion, fully acknowledging that in thelate 1990s it resembled an unregu-lated casino, with wild speculationand insider pump-and-dump schemesas its distinguishing characteristics.But the country’s entry into the WTOushered in a more developed phase,from about 2001 to 2007, markedby increasing regulatory protectionof minority shareholders, improvedtransparency, privatization, a broaderdomestic investor base, and more di-rect investment by foreign parties inthe A-share market. After the 2008financial crisis, unsurprisingly, therewas a degree of distrust of capitalmarkets that led to some deteriora-tion in price informativeness.

The authors’ analysis led them toan unexpected conclusion: that de-spite its early reputation, China’smarkets have matured nicely sincethe reforms of the last decade. “Stockprice informativeness compares fa-vorably with that of the US, and theefficiency of corporate investment,which is highly correlated with stock

price informativeness, has followed astrikingly similar trend,” they said.

Overall, the Chinese stock markethas performed well, the data re-vealed, especially among its small andmedium enterprises. While restric-tions on capital flow still make itchallenging to navigate the system,those US and global investors who doso successfully can anticipate high re-turns, the authors said.

They concluded on a hopeful note:“Our results suggest that whileChina’s stock market is already play-ing a vital role in supporting eco-nomic growth, additional regulatoryreforms to improve the informationenvironment and liberalize the flow ofcapital would further empower themarket to attract capital, allocate itefficiently, and support economicgrowth worldwide.”

JENNIFER N. CARPENTER is an associ-ate professor of finance at NYU Stern.FANGZHOU LU is a 2014 graduate ofNYU Stern’s Undergraduate Collegeand is pursuing his PhD at MIT.ROBERT F. WHITELAW is the Edward C.Johnson 3D Professor of EntrepreneurialFinance at NYU Stern.

Is Climate Change Mitigation Worth It?How home ownership in the UK and Singapore

could influence the debate

NYU Stern Assistant Finance Pro-fessors Johannes Stroebel and Mat-teo Maggiori, along with StefanoGiglio of the University of Chicago’sBooth School of Business, have con-

ecent months have seen alively policy debate sur-rounding the optimal re-sponse to climate change.

One important question at the fore-R front of this debate involves trading

off the cost of mitigating greenhousegas emissions versus the expectedlong-term benefits of doing so. Draw-ing an unexpected source of data,

Sternbusiness 25


Photo: Martin Seck, 2011

tributed an intriguing analysis thatadds to this discussion.

Because of the difficulty of esti-mating the present value of savingsfrom avoiding climate disasters thatwon’t materialize until well into thefuture, the three authors approachedtheir subject in a novel way: by in-vestigating the pattern of leaseholdand freehold pricing for residential

housing over very long horizons in theUK and Singapore. This form ofproperty ownership is unique in thatit spans many generations, providinga perspective that is otherwise un-available.

In “Very Long-Run DiscountRates,” the authors observed thatthere is little direct empirical evidenceon how households discount pay-

ments over very long horizons. Lease-holds are temporary, pre-paid, andtradable ownership contracts withmaturities ranging from 99 to 999years, while freeholds are perpetual.Thus, the authors reasoned, the dif-ference between leasehold and free-hold values would reflect the presentvalue of perpetual rental income start-ing at the expiration of the leasehold.It could thus provide valuable infor-mation about very long-run discountrates – far beyond the usual horizonof 20 to 30 years spanned by bondmarkets – that could be useful in theclimate change policy debate.

They based their analysis on prop-erty sales in the UK from 2004 to2013 and in Singapore from 1995 to2013, finding that leaseholds with 80to 99 years remaining are valued ataround 15 percent less than otherwiseidentical freeholds, while leaseholdswith maturities of 100 to 124 yearsare discounted by around 10 percentcompared with similar freeholds. “Inother words,” Stroebel says, “house-holds attach substantial present valueto owning the housing asset in 100 or125 years.”

From these estimates, the authorsbacked out the implied discount ratefor housing cash flows occurring inthe very distant future, finding an an-nual discount rate of around 2.6 per-cent for both the UK and Singapore –a rate lower than most economic the-ory would suggest. Thus, they wrote,people “are more willing than previ-ously thought to invest today for thebenefit of future generations."

Says Stroebel: “Many of the poten-tial costs of climate change will mate-

26 Sternbusiness


Back to School: Pushing Boundaries at MoMA PS1

By Niamh Roberts

the City of New York. Katz arrived in 2011 with an im-pressive résumé of financial management for some of thecity’s best-known arts institutions, such as the Neue Ga-lerie, The Museum of Modern Art itself (MoMA), and TheSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, but he did not alwaysenvision himself in the field of finance. As a history majorat Trinity College, where he received his BA degree, Katzrecalls, “I was interested in the arts, but my plan was to

pursue an MFA in film, become a teacher, and producemy own work.” After landing his first job in visitor serv-ices at The Museum of the Moving Image, he quickly re-alized his interests aligned better in this operationalsetting than on a film set.

With five years of professional experience under hisbelt, Katz realized he had a wealth of exposure to the artsbut less formal training in business fundamentals, whichbrought him to Stern. “I needed an MBA to advance mycareer and fill in the parts of my education that I hadn’thad. At Stern, I could go to class at night, take intensivecourses, and work at the same time.” In particular, Katzcites a course on management in the performing arts,

Photo by Charles Roussel. Image courtesy of MoMA PS1.

Insider Trading UnmaskedSlicing the data the right way reveals disturbing patterns

ecent insider-trading pros-ecutions by the Securitiesand Exchange Commis-sion may only be the tip of

the iceberg, according to new researchby NYU Stern Professors MenachemBrenner and Marti Subrahmanyam,along with Patrick Augustin of McGillUniversity.

In “Informed Options TradingPrior to M&A Announcements: In-sider Trading?” the three experts de-termined that, stunningly, fully aquarter of all public company dealsmay involve some form of insidertrading.

The objective of the study, ac-cording to the authors, was to inves-

tigate and quantify the pervasivenessof what they call informed tradingthat was at least partly based on in-side information, in the context ofmerger and acquisition (M&A) activ-ity in the US. Such research has beensurprisingly scanty, they noted.

Because M&A announcements are,for any but the inside players, among

R

rialize over extremely long horizons;however, we had relatively little infor-mation about time and risk prefer-ences of households over thosehorizons. While the precise discountrates for climate change investment

will depend on the risk properties ofthat investment, we felt our estimatescould provide some guidance on therelevant discount rates important tothis policy debate.”

JOHANNES STROEBEL is an assistantfinance professor at NYU Stern. MATTEOMAGGIORI is an assistant finance pro-fessor at NYU Stern. STEFANO GIGLIOis an assistant finance professor at theUniversity of Chicago Booth School ofBusiness.

Sternbusiness 27


the least expected of events, the pro-fessors hypothesized that this areacould be fertile ground for their re-search. Further, they noted, in suchtransactions the nature of private in-formation is clearly identified: in vir-tually all cases, there is a significantrise in the target’s stock priceupon the announcement.

To get a handle on thedata, they conducted aforensic analysis of the vol-ume, implied volatility, andbid-ask spreads of optionsover the 30 days precedingthe formal announcement ofacquisitions, focusing on thetarget companies in M&Atransactions but also col-lecting some preliminary evidencepertaining to the acquirers. Morespecifically, they examined optiontrading volumes, as well as prices andbid-ask spreads, prior to M&A an-nouncements in the US from January1, 1996, through December 31, 2012.

Not a coincidenceTheir analysis showed patterns

that simply did not exist for any ran-domly chosen announcement dates,neither in volume, prices, or liquidity.For instance, absent material non-public information, you typicallywouldn’t see abnormally high optionstrading volume that was particularlypronounced for short-dated out-of-the-money (OTM) call options (or-ders for options to buy shares verysoon at a price that is higher than thecurrent trading price). That’s becausethere would be no reasonable expec-tation that this trading strategy

acquirers were headquartered outsidethe US. The authors also found thatthe characteristics of the litigationthey sampled closely resembled theanomalous statistical evidence theyfound to be widespread and non-ran-dom in a representative sample of

M&A transactions – partic-ularly insider trades inshort-dated and OTM calloptions that were initiated,on average, 16 days beforethe announcement. Yet, saidBrenner, “The modest num-ber of civil lawsuits for in-sider trading in options madeby the SEC appears small incomparison to the pervasiveevidence we document.”

Added Subrahmanyam: “Ouranalysis of the trading volume andimplied volatility over the 30 dayspreceding formal takeover announce-ments suggests that informed tradingis more pervasive than would be ex-pected based on the actual number ofprosecuted cases.”

The authors suggested that theirfindings may eventually lead to a sys-tem that will predict the cases mostlikely to involve insider trading. In aconcluding understatement, they wrote,“This investigation may be of particularinterest to regulators.” Indeed.

MENACHEM BRENNER is a researchprofessor of finance at NYU Stern.MARTI G. SUBRAHMANYAM is theCharles E. Merrill Professor of Finance,Economics, and International Business atNYU Stern. PATRICK AUGUSTIN is an as-sistant professor of finance at McGill Uni-versity, Desautels Faculty of Management.

would be profitable – to anyone butthose with inside information leadingthem to believe that the shares wouldsoon soar. And yet, time and againthere it was, staring the researchers inthe face as they pored over the data –along with price and liquidity changes

that would be expected in the presenceof an unusual trading volume withgreater asymmetric information.Tellingly, the research showed that nosuch patterns existed for any ran-domly chosen announcement dates,neither in volume, prices, or liquidity.

Such informed trading was morepresent, the authors found, in cases oftarget firms that were receiving cashoffers, and less so when the targetwas being taken private as a result ofthe deal. Among larger target firmsreceiving cash offers, these effectswere even more dramatic.

So where was the SEC? In caseswhere the agency conducted an in-vestigation into illegal insider tradingahead of M&A announcements, theauthors discovered, it was likely toexamine cases where the targets werelarge and experienced substantial ab-normal returns after the announce-ment – and, interestingly, where the

“Our analysis of the trading volume and implied volatility over

the 30 days preceding formal takeover announcements suggests

that informed trading is more pervasive than would be expected

based on the actual number of prosecuted cases.”

28 Sternbusiness


Prospectus

Sternbusiness 29

In the fall of 2014, NYUStern welcomed six new tenuredand tenure-track faculty membersand three new clinical professors.Lord Mervyn King, formergovernor of the Bank of England,has a joint appointment with NYUStern and NYU Law as a profes-sor of economics and law. Hewas previously a distinguishedvisiting professor at bothschools during the fall 2013 se-mester. Pankaj Ghemawat joined Stern’s management and organizations depart-ment as a global professor of management and strategy, after serving as adistinguished visiting professor of global management since January 2014. The au-thor of World 3.0, last year he released the Depth Index of Globalization 2013, which

measures the globalization lev-els of 139 countries.

Xi Chen and Hila Lif-shitz-Assaf joined the informa-tion, operations, andmanagement sciences depart-ment as assistant professors.Professor Chen received his PhDin machine learning fromCarnegie Mellon University andhas research interests encom-

passing machine learning and optimization, high-dimensional statistics, and opera-tions research. Professor Lifshitz-Assaf’s research focuses on scientific andtechnological innovation and knowledge creation processes in the digital age. Sheearned her DBA from Harvard University.

Maher Said joined Stern’s department of economics as an assistant professor.He is a microeconomic theorist working at the intersection of game theory and indus-

trial organization, where his primary focus is on dynamic mechanism design anddynamic auctions. He earned his PhD in economics from Yale University.

Two new professors joined the finance department. Assistant Professor EduardoDavila’s research interests lie at the intersection of finance and macroeconomics,with an emphasis on normative questions. He earned a PhD in economics from Har-vard University. Assistant Professor Cecilia Parlatore earned her PhD in economics

from New York University. Herresearch focuses on financialintermediaries and markets andtheir regulation. In spring 2015,Gustavo Schwed will alsojoin the department as a clini-cal professor of finance. Pro-fessor Schwed has 25 yearsof experience in the privateequity industry.

The Business and SocietyProgram welcomed Hans

Taparia as a clinical assistant professor of business and society. Professor Tapariawas previously an adjunct professor at Stern since 2011. He has been an entrepre-neur for most of his career andis a co-founder of PreferredBrands International.

Yu Shi joined the manage-ment communication program asa clinical associate professor ofmanagement communication.Professor Shi’s research focuseson intercultural business com-munication and organizationalcommunication, and the relatedareas of political and economicstructures of global media, the ethics of big data analytics, and transnational corporatestrategies in China. Prior to joining Stern, she was an associate professor of commu-nication at Penn State University.

Stern Welcomes New Faculty

Marking its 12th year, NYU Stern’s Citi Leadershipand Ethics Program, supported by the Citi Founda-tion, has appointed NYU alumna Tensie Whelan (BA’80) as its 2014-2015 Citi Leadership and Ethics Dis-tinguished Fellow. Whelan serves as the president ofthe Rainforest Alliance. She has been involved withthe Rainforest Alliance since 1990, first as a boardmember and later as a consultant, becoming the ex-ecutive director in 2000.

The Citi Distinguished Fellows program identifies business leaders whoseproven track records exemplify how the private and public sectors can addresssome of the world’s most intractable problems, including poverty, homelessness,and environmental concerns, and stimulate sustainable economic growth.

Throughout the academic year, Whelan will make a number of on-campusvisits, meeting with both Stern students and faculty. On February 27, 2015, shewill keynote the Citi Program’s annual conference for students and alumni.

NYU Alumna Tensie Whelan to Serve as 2014-2015 NYU Stern-Citi Leadership and Ethics Distinguished Fellow

Pankaj Ghemawat

Hila Lifshitz-Assaf

Cecilia Parlatore

Hans Taparia

29΄


tional factory – and I don’t mean that in a pejorativeway.” With student ranks swelled by former GIs, “therewere about 10,000 students registered. The graduatingclasses dominated the commencement exercises of theUniversity.” The offices,then in Shimkin Hall,were similarly packed.Faculty members shareddesks. “There were com-pletely open departmentoffices we referred to asbullpens,” he said.

At the time, the Schoolof Commerce was dividedroughly equally betweenday and evening students.The classes were large andpractical. Many members ofthe faculty did not havedoctorates, and they fo-cused more on teaching theapplication of business thanon conducting academic re-search. “It was a true schoolof opportunity,” Dean Git-low recalled. “And a verylarge number of the city’saccountants, attorneys,and businesspeople in allspheres of industry gradu-ated from that School.”

But over time, as demo-graphics shifted, the School’s mission and ambition changed.With that evolution, new resources were attracted. In thetwo decades after Gitlow was named dean, the School’s ac-ademic reputation grew; “With professors like ErnieKurnow, Mike Schiff (PhD ’47), Bob Kavesh (BS ’49), andJules Backman (BS ’31, MBA ’33, PhD ’35), the Schoolbegan to make what became an extraordinary transforma-tion,” Gitlow has said, modestly playing down his own piv-otal role.

When business school curricula nationwide came underintense scrutiny in the late 1960s and early 1970s, NYU’sSchool of Commerce and Graduate School of Business Ad-ministration (as the undergraduate and graduate pro-grams were then called) were no exception. Criticscharged that the programs were too “vocational,” andsome NYU faculty deemed the trend irreversible and ad-vocated for the School’s closing. Dean Gitlow restored and

Prospectus

which recognizes the best paper in fi-nance, was awarded to two papersthis year: Assistant Finance ProfessorMatteo Maggiori's paper on “Fi-nancial Intermediation, InternationalRisk Sharing, and Reserve Curren-cies,” and Finance Professor StijnVan Nieuwerburgh, Stern alumnusBryan Kelly (PhD ’10), and a co-au-thor’s work entitled, “Too-Systemic-To-Fail: What Option Markets ImplyAbout Sector-Wide GovernmentGuarantees.”

On May19, MichaelPosner, pro-fessor ofbusiness andsociety andco-director ofthe Center

for Business and Human Rights, re-ceived an honorary degree, Doctor ofLaws, from Yale University. ProfessorPosner also delivered remarks to thegraduating law students at Yale’s 2014commencement.

Professor Ghose has been ap-pointed co-chair of the AIG-NYU Part-nership on Innovation for GlobalResilience. The partnership includes a$5.5 million University-wide commit-ment from AIG over a five-year period tosponsor NYU faculty research projectsinvolving data science and business an-alytics in a wide variety of industriesand markets that can have a transforma-tive impact.

In the fourth edition of Money,Banking, and Financial Markets, Profes-sor of Management Practice KimSchoenholtz and a co-author use five

In August, Dean Peter Henry at-tended the Federal Reserve Bank ofKansas City's annual Jackson HoleEconomic Policy Symposium, andserved as chair of the first day's dis-cussion on labor market dynamics.

In April, Dean Henry was invitedby White House senior economic ad-visors to participate in a roundtablewith a select group of peer schooldeans to discuss best practices for a21st-century workplace that meets theneeds of women and working families.

Professors Arun Sundararajanand Anindya Ghose were includedin Analytics Week’s “Top 200 ThoughtLeaders in Big Data and Analytics”who are influencing and changing thedata and analytics world today.

The 2013-2014 NYU SternGlucksman Institute Research Prize,

s h o r t t a k e s

30 Sternbusiness

VCs). Their paper is forthcoming inManagement Science.

The Journal of Consumer Re-search accepted a paper by Under-graduate College Dean and Professorof Marketing Geeta Menon and co-

authors thatconsidered thesuccess ofbrand position-ing aroundconsumer iden-tities (such as“Choosy Momschoose Jif” or

“If you call yourself a sports fan, yougotta have DirecTV!”). They demon-

Management and OrganizationsProfessor Deepak Hegde and a co-

author devel-oped a formalmodel to un-derstand theeffects of so-cial proximitybetween busi-ness partnersusing a sample

of nearly all US venture-backed dealsbetween 1991 and 2010. They foundthat US venture capitalists are morelikely to select for investment start-ups with co-ethnic executives (withthe same ethnic background as the

r e s e a r c h r o u n d u pprovision of liq-uidity was onlypossible becauseof explicit, largesupport from thegovernment andgovernment-sponsored agen-cies.

Assistant Accounting ProfessorYiwei Dou and co-authors examinedthe influence of blockholders (thoseowning 5 percent or more of a com-pany) on a company’s financial report-ing. They documented significantindividual blockholder effects on finan-cial reporting quality, determining that

strated that, contrary to establishedwisdom, identity marketing can back-fire. Compared to messages thatmerely reference consumer identity,messages that explicitly define iden-tity expression may reduce purchaselikelihood.

In a paper to be published in theJournal of Finance, Viral Acharya,C.V. Starr Professor of Economics,and a co-author examined whetherbanks maintain their advantage asliquidity providers when they are ex-posed to a financial crisis. They de-termined that while banks honoredtheir promised credit lines drawn byfirms during the 2007-09 crisis, their

Deepak Hegde

Michael Posner

Geeta Menon

Yiwei Dou30SternBzFALL Issue Spreads_UG.qxd:Layout 6 11/4/14 7:25 PM Page 34

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Policy Forum(USMPF) on Febru-ary 28 and co-drafted the 2014USMPF report on“MarketTantrums andMonetary Pol-

icy.” He also spoke aboutfinancial regulation at theUS Treasury as part of apanel discussion at the Fi-nancial Stability OversightCouncil Conference onAsset Management onMay 19.

In Modernizing In-surance Regulation,Executive-in-Resi-dence John Biggsand Finance Profes-

sor Matthew Richardson, editors,address such issues as the growthof insurance premiums and specificDodd-Frank Act requirementsagainst a backdrop of the politicaland industry discussions that sur-round insurance, regulation, andsystemic risk.

On April 26, Associate Market-ing Professor Adam Alter deliv-

ered a TEDx talk inSydney, Aus-tralia, on the en-vironmentalinfluences onhuman behavior.

AssociateManagement andOrganizations Pro-fessor Lisa Lesliereceived the William

A. Owens Scholarly Achievement Awardfor the best published paper from the

Society for In-dustrial and Or-ganizationalPsychology, forher co-authoredpaper, “ConflictCultures in Or-ganizations:How Leaders

Shape Conflict Cultures and Their Or-ganizational-Level Consequences.”

On July 30, the NYU Stern Centerfor Innovation in Teaching andLearning was honored for its work onLangone Lab Orientation with the 2014Campus Technology Innovators Awardat the 21st Annual Campus TechnologyConference.

core principles as thebasis for helping stu-dents learn the rationalefor financial practices andinstitutional structure, em-phasizing real-world appli-cations and a globalperspective. Related to thebook, Professor Schoenholtzand his co-author’s blog,MoneyandBanking.com, provides

commentaryon events inthe news andon economicand financialquestions ofmore lastinginterest.

ProfessorSchoenholtz spoke at the US Monetary

Lisa Leslie

Kim Schoenholtz

this association is driven primarily bythe large shareholders’ influencingrather than selecting firms' accountingpractices. This manifested itself insignificant consequences related tostock price reaction to earnings news.

David Yermack, the Albert Fin-gerhut Professor of Finance and Busi-ness Transformation, and a co-authorfound that when companies movetheir annual meetings far from head-quarters, they tended to announcedisappointing earnings results andexperience pronounced stock marketunderperformance in the months afterthe meeting. These findings suggestthat companies schedule meetings inremote locations when the managershave private, adverse informationabout future performance and wish todiscourage scrutiny by shareholders,activists, and the media.

In a paper investigating whetherlarger data lead to better predictivemodels, Professor of InformationSystems Foster Provost and hisco-authors empirically demonstratedthat when predictive models arebuilt from sparse, fine-grained data,there are marginal increases in pre-dictive performance even to verylarge scale.

In an op-ed published last Feb-ruary in the Greek publicationKathimerini (English version), Eco-nomics Professor Nicholas Econo-mides considered the ongoing debt,structural problems, and lack ofcompetitiveness in Greece and out-lined steps Greece could take in2014 to effectively tackle its debtburden. He recommended thatGreece re-enter the world financialmarkets prior to the May 2014 Euro-

pean elections by issuing five-yearbonds at a 5.5 to 6.0 percent interestrate. On April 17, 2014, Greece didjust that, issuing five-year bonds ata 4.95 percent yield, which wasviewed as a very successful re-entryto the market after a four-year exile.

In a paper to be published inManagement Science, AssistantManagement Professor ClaudineGartenberg examined mortgagestandards leading up to the 2007mortgage crisis. Her paper demon-

strated thatthe precedingbroad deterio-ration in un-derwritingdiligencevaried by theindustry affil-iation of mort-

gage lenders, and that loans issued byhomebuilders and standalone lenderswere significantly less likely to defaultthan loans issued by depository banksand affiliates of major financial institu-tions.

In a chapter of Economics of Digi-tization (forth-coming fromUniversity ofChicago Press),Assistant Pro-fessor JohnHorton and hisco-authors con-sidered online

contract labor, which globalizes tradi-tionally local labor markets with plat-forms that enable employers, mostlylocated in high-income countries, tomore easily outsource tasks to contrac-tors primarily in low-income countries.Claudine Gartenberg

John Horton


STERN’s on the go...STERNbusiness, that is.

Peer to Peer Student Life in Washington Square and Beyond

An Immersive Experience A group of NYU Stern Undergraduate College students traveled to Ghana as part of the Stern International Volunteers SeminarBy Karl Brisseaux

countries is one ofthe primary goalsof the course,” saidKowal, a clinicalprofessor of busi-ness law at Stern. “Reading about these issues is differentfrom seeing and experiencing them firsthand. For many ofthe students, it was a life-changing experience. Seeinghow communities lack running water and then actuallycarrying water from a distant source in order to perform atask can be an eye-opener.”

One of the highlights of the trip, said Kowal, was thetime the group spent volunteering in a rural village inGhana’s Volta region, where they mixed concrete for thecommunity’s new school, interacted with villagers, andcooked a meal over an open fire. Students also tried theirhand at the local art of Kente weaving.

“We see so much of Africa in the media, but it is oftenromanticized and ‘exoticized,’ with a skewed focus onAfrica’s poverty and not necessarily its opportunities andits tenacity,” said Guo. “This trip was eye-opening andhumbling, not just for us as business students, but asglobal citizens.” �

For Jessica Guo (BS ’17), opportuni-ties to combine business education withinternational travel and service enhancethe student experience at the NYUStern Undergraduate College.

Recently, Guo and 15 other Sternstudents traveled to West Africa as partof a course taught by ProfessorRachel Kowal: the Stern InternationalVolunteers (SIV) seminar in Ghana.Throughout the spring 2014 semester,students in the course participated inweekly discussions about legal rights,business opportunities, and culturalnorms in Ghana. The course culmi-nated in an 11-day service learning tripto Accra, Ghana, where Guo and her classmates appliedand compared what they learned in class about Ghanato the real thing.

“It’s important to be fully immersed in a culture be-cause that is, I believe, the only way you can truly expe-rience it,” said Guo, whose concentrations at Sterninclude marketing and finance. “If you’re not open tothe culture, you risk comparing your experiences to yoursense of ‘normal,’ causing you to define everything as‘weird’ and ‘other.’ You can’t fully experience a culturethat way.” Guo said that the SIV seminar helped openher mind and prepare her for her travels.

Students toured several Ghanaian business opera-tions, including Blue Skies Juice Manufacturing, aglobal supplier of fresh local fruit juice, and the KuapaKokoo Farmers Union, a cocoa producer that has suc-cessfully implemented a cooperative business model. Inaddition, students toured the University of Ghana,where they donated more than 100 pounds of account-ing books to their Ghanaian colleagues, and several his-toric sites throughout the country, including the ElminaSlave Castle.

“Exposure to the complex issues facing developing

Students enrolled in the Stern International Volunteers Sem-inar helped build a community school in a rural Ghanaianvillage during their 11-day trip to the West African nation.Stern professors Rachel Kowal and Leigh-Anne Walkerand NYU Accra Associate Director Christa Sanders led thestudents during the trip.

32 Sternbusiness


28 Student Teams, 10 Countries, But Only 1 WinnerBy Niamh Roberts

The semester-long GlobalEconomy course and comple-mentary competition presentedan opportunity for students tolearn from each other as well asthe economics faculty, who co-authored a new textbook for thecourse, and combine theirknowledge of economic theory,data, and country norms and in-stitutions. The new course designensured the students built ontheir textbook learning with theirown knowledge-sharing and peerreview, Ruhl explained. “We arecreating a framework from whichstudents can approach different

markets and kinds of analysis.” The course also emphasized the importance of real-time

data for making informed business decisions. “Data analysisis a critical skill for MBAs. The economic data work empha-sized in this course will help prepare students for doingbusiness around the world,” said Schoenholtz, director ofthe Stern Center for Global Economy and Business.

“This is where the course was most valuable to an MBAstudent. We were not only equipped with the tools to con-duct economic analysis, but had many opportunities topractice applying them,” said Zaklouta.

Fellow students echoed Zaklouta’s sentiment, citing theexperience with applying economic principles and the abil-ity to engage in collaborative learning as one of the mostgratifying aspects of the class. For example, competitionjudges Lipsky and Alexander posed a particularly difficultquestion toward the end of their interview that promptedTeam Italy to think beyond their in-class learning. “Theyquestioned the role of financial institutions specifically in re-stricting the Italian economy, and what solution we wouldpropose. We had not yet covered that subject in our class-room studies, so relied entirely on our team’s own late-nightdebates and the exchange of articles over the course of thesemester,” Fox recalled.

Fox, Zaklouta, and their teammates again relied on theircombined knowledge and interests at their September cele-bration lunch with Kaufman. Zaklouta noted, “Lookingback at our MBA years at Stern, this will stand out as a par-ticularly memorable event.” �

A total of 128 first-yearMBA students in the GlobalEconomy core course, re-designed for spring 2014 byProfessors Kim Ruhl and KimSchoenholtz, competed in theinaugural NYU Stern EconomicGrowth Competition last May.Teams of students were ran-domly assigned one of 10 coun-tries, for which they were askedto identify leading obstacles tosustained economic growth andpropose a policy change to im-prove growth prospects. LauraFox and Hadi Zaklouta, thenew co-presidents of the SternEmerging Markets Association, and fellow students RicoGardaphe, Zubin Nagpal, and Mitch Unger led Team Italyto a first-place win – and a private lunch with NYU alum-nus Henry Kaufman (ARTS ’48, PhD ’58), NYU LifeTrustee, chairman emeritus of Stern’s Board of Overseers,and the original “Dr. Doom.”

“To say the least, we were all excited to have the op-portunity to meet Henry Kaufman. He’s a legendaryeconomist, and we were thrilled to hear his reflections onglobal economic policy firsthand, in particular on emerg-ing economies and market turmoil over the last fiveyears,” said Fox.

“Bringing together students with diverse backgroundsunder the direction of strong faculty leaders to evaluateobstacles to economic growth in specific countries aroundthe world is an ingenious effort for a business school toundertake. I am very proud to have my name associatedwith this program,” said Kaufman.

Kaufman is one of several leading economists thatTeam Italy will have met this year. The Global Economycourse kicked off in January with an off-the-record dis-cussion between Dean Peter Henry, MBA students, andformer US Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin andLawrence Summers. And finalists in the EconomicGrowth Competition fielded questions from externaljudges John Lipsky, former First Deputy Managing Direc-tor of the International Monetary Fund, and LewisAlexander, chief US economist at Nomura and formerCounselor to the Secretary of the Treasury.

Sternbusiness 33

(top photo) Former US Treasury SecretariesRobert Rubin (far left) and Lawrence Sum-mers (third from left) with (from left to right)Dean Peter Henry and Professors KimSchoenholtz and Kim Ruhl, kicked off the re-designed Global Economy MBA course.MBA students Laura Fox, Rico Gardaphe,Zubin Nagpal, Mitch Unger, and Hadi Za-klouta led Team Italy to a first-place win inthe Economic Growth Competition.


Alumni News & EventsALUMNI RELATIONSHASKINS GIVING SOCIETY: HASKINS AWARD DINNER

In April 2014, members of the NYU Stern Haskins Giving Society were recognized for their support with a dinner at New York City’s Gotham Hall. Named in honor of Stern's founding dean, Charles Waldo Haskins, the Society is made up of some of the School’s most generous and loyal donors.

Haskins Award winner Ambassador Carla A. Hills was also honored for her outstanding achievement in business and public service.

1. Geeta Menon, Dean of the Undergraduate College, and members of the undergraduate classof 20142. (from left to right) Benjamin Golden (MBA ’11), Mary Ann Ehrlich, and Stephen Ehrlich(MBA ’56)3. Ruth L. Brodsky (MBA ’62) and Grace Brodsky4. (from left to right) Alumni Council member Daniel Rubin (MBA ’04), Julia Hoagland (MBA’95), and Edgar van Schaik5. Alla Drusman Liberman (BS ’97) and Stan Liberman (BS ’97, MS ’03) 6. (from left to right) Carol Ann Valles; Peter Henry, Dean; and Jean-Paul Valles (PhD ’67) 7. (from left to right) Alumni Council members Brian Zakrocki (MBA ’06), Melvin Stein (BS ’53),and Kris Ann Brady (MBA ’10)8. Shevon Newman (BS ’09) and Snigdha Chadha (BS ’11) 9. Attendees took their seats before the dinner and award presentation began.10. (from left to right) Peter Henry, Dean; Roderick M. Hills, Jr., Professor of Law, NYU Schoolof Law; and William R. Berkley (BS ’66), Chair-Designate of the NYU Board Of Trustees andChairman of the NYU Stern Board of Overseers11. Roderick M. Hills, Jr., Professor of Law, NYU School of Law, accepted the award on behalfof his mother, Ambassador Carla A. Hills.

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34 Sternbusiness 10


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Sternbusiness 35

The DreamEvery year, nearly 50,000 young people applyfor one of the just 5,000 seats in our entering

freshman class. Thanks to our exceptional faculty,top-ranked programs, and unique location, NYU is

a dream school for students around the world.

The NeedNYU provided gift aid that met only 40% of our

undergraduates’ total need, placing a heavier bur-den of debt on our students.

The Goal$1 billion in scholarships by 2017, to ensure thatevery deserving graduate and undergraduate stu-dent has a chance to achieve their dreams, unlock

their potential, and unleash their ambition.

The MomentumVisit sternalumni.nyu.edu/giving to be a part ofthe momentum and support NYU Stern students.

Alumni Return to Campus for Stern Reunion and NYU Alumni Dayjoyed a luncheon featuring an update on the School andacademic programming as part of NYU Alumni Day.

We look forward to sharing photos from Reunion2014 with you in the next issue of STERNbusiness. Youmay also visit sternalumni.nyu.edu/reunion2014 toview photos of the event.

Now in its fourth year, the Stern reunion tradition re-turned this November to honor the classes of “4” and“9.” The festivities began on Friday, November 7, withclass cocktail receptions and a night of dinner and danc-ing at the Waldorf Astoria for all 50 years of graduates.On the following day, November 8, Stern alumni en-

Mark YourCalendars!

Alumni Holiday

CelebrationCelebrate the holiday season with your fel-low Stern alumni at the annual AlumniHoliday Celebration on December 11,2014, at the New-York Historical Societyin New York City. For more information,visit sternalumni.nyu.edu/holiday.

JOIN THE

Share Your Scholarship Story

If you were a scholarship recipi-ent while a student at NYUStern, we want to hearfrom you. Contact us at212-998-4040 [email protected] to tell us your story.


36 Sternbusiness

Create a Lasting Legacy at Your Alma MaterWith a planned

gift to NYU Stern,you can leave aphilanthropiclegacy to youralma mater whilehelping to ensurethat future genera-tions of studentswill leave theSchool prepared totackle the problemsof an uncertainand ever-changingbusiness world.

Gift planning isa meaningful wayto establish a last-ing connection to Stern and to reap potential incomeand tax benefits for you or your estate. These types ofgifts include bequests, trusts, appreciated assets or se-curities, charitable gift annuities, and gifts of per-

Thank You,Stern Donors!

Because of the gen-erosity of our alumniand donors, NYU Sternraised a record-breaking$40.9 million for fiscalyear 2014. The impactof these gifts will be feltby our students andfaculty for years tocome. Thank you forsharing in our successand making it possible!

sonal property orreal estate.

Alumni andfriends who’ve pro-vided for Stern’s fu-ture receivemembership inNYU’s Society of theTorch. Members ofthe Society receivecomplimentary invi-tations to specialUniversity events,information aboutthe most current es-tate and tax-plan-ning techniques,and copies of select

University publications. For more information on how to plan your legacy at

Stern, please contact Craig Eozzo at 212-998-0681 [email protected]


The Stern community is 100,000+ strong and in more than125 countries. Make connections, find friends, and shareinformation and updates using Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn,NYU SternConnect, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+.

Join the Conversation

Sternbusiness 37

Todd Fellerman Named Chairman of NYU Stern Alumni Council

The NYUStern AlumniCouncil wel-comes ToddFellerman (MBA’09) as its newChairman.

Fellermanworks at Amazonas the SeniorManager and In-dustry Lead inthe ConsumerPackaged

Goods/Food Beverage Industry. In thisrole, he leads a team of account executiveswho support the media partnerships andadvertising sales for multiple Fortune 500brands. Before Amazon, Fellerman workedat Google in the Advertising and Sales di-vision as the Senior Business Lead for theJohnson & Johnson US business, coveringall business partnerships and digitalstrategies. He was with Google for fiveyears, having held both sales and market-ing strategy roles in the Finance andHealthcare verticals. Prior to Google, heworked for many years in financial serv-ices as a Relationship Manager at USTrust, Bank of America Wealth Manage-ment. Fellerman also has a background inanalytics and media-mix modeling fromthe Hudson River Group. He received hisundergraduate degree from Cornell Uni-versity and his MBA from NYU Stern.

STAY CONNECTED

Have you moved recently? Changed jobs? Update your information on-line at sternalumni.nyu.edu/update or by calling 212-998-4040 toreceive important updates about the School, information on careerservices, and invitations to alumni events in your area. Help us to beenvironmentally responsible by providing your email address. 37


1950sMarvin Scott (BS ’59), of North Bergen,NJ, has been inducted into the New YorkState Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

1960sFred Goldberg (MBA ’64), of Belvedere,CA, had his book, The Insanity of Advertis-ing: Memoirs of a Mad Man, published byCouncil Oak Books.

William R. Berkley (BS ’66), of Green-wich, CT, has been appointed Chair Desig-nate of the NYU Board of Trustees. Berkleyis also Chairman of NYU Stern's Board ofOverseers.

1970sJohn C. Tsunis, Esq. (BS ’73), of Is-landia, NY, was appointed Chairman of theNew York State Hospitality & Tourism As-sociation, the country’s oldest lodging as-sociation.

Ronald L. Klein (MBA ’75), of LittleSilver, NJ, has joined the Board of Trusteesof the Visiting Nurse Association HealthGroup.

Floyd Tupper (BS ’75, MBA ’77), ofNew York, NY, has been appointed to theBoard of Directors at Kingstone Compa-nies, Inc.

Antonio C. Alvarez, II (MBA ’76), ofAlpine, NJ, founded Pinoy Relief, a charityfocused on providing direct relief to thevictims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philip-pines. Alvarez also serves on NYU Stern'sExecutive Board.

Peter De Nicola (BS ’76, MBA ’78), ofStamford, CT, has been elected Vice Presi-dent and Director of the Tax Executives In-stitute, in Washington, DC.

M.F.A. Dillon (MBA ’79), of New York,NY, has published Class and Society,

which discusses the contribution of rolemodels to socio-economic success.

Jean-Louis Ekra (MBA ’79), of Abidjan,Cote d’Ivoire, is the Chairman and Presidentof Africa-Export-Import Bank (Afrexim Bank),an international bank headquartered in Cairo,Egypt.

Peter S. Florian (MBA ’79), of Norwalk,CT, has been appointed as Senior Vice Presi-dent of Sales and Marketing at Complete Dis-covery Source.

Stewart Lyons (MBA ’79), of Studio City,CA, won a Golden Globe Award in the BestTelevision Series - Drama category for Break-ing Bad. Lyons is a line producer.

1980sSteven Falci (BS ’80, MBA ’81), ofDublin, Ireland, has been appointed CFO atPax World Management LLC.

Audrey Appleby (MBA ’81), of Green-wich, CT, and her work with Alzheimer’s pa-tients was documented in the short film TinyMiracles.

Nicolas Berggruen (BS ’81), of NewYork, NY, has teamed up with Arianna Huffin-gton to launch the WorldPost, which was an-nounced at the World Economic Forum inDavos.

Amar Singh (MBA ’82), of MonmouthJunction, NJ, has been appointed to ExecutiveVice President and Chief Business Officer ofSorrento Therapeutics, Inc., a late-stage clini-cal oncology company developing treatmentsfor cancer and associated pain.

Laurence Shadek (MBA ’83), of Alpine,NJ, has been appointed to the Board ofTrustees at Franklin & Marshall College.

Janet Tighe (MBA ’83), of West Linn, OR,has been named Principal, The ColonyGroup, an independent wealth managementcompany.

Stelios Papadopoulos (MBA ’84), of GreatNeck, NY, is now Chairman of the Board of Bio-gen, Inc., a public biotechnology company.

Michael Tarnok (MBA ’84), of MountKisco, NY, has been elected to the Board ofDirectors of Dyadic, a global biotechnologycompany.

Henry P. Williams (MBA ’84), of GlenCove, NY, joined Canaccord Genuity, an inde-pendent financial services firm, as ManagingDirector, Head of Maritime, Energy Services &Infrastructure.

Gary Katcher (MBA ’85), of Greenwich, CT,was honored with the Visionary Award by theFoundation Fighting Blindness at the “Bankingon a Cure” Gala.

Cynthia Selover (MBA ’86), of McLean, VA,has joined Capital One Bank’s middle marketlending team as Senior Vice President and Re-lationship Manager.

Frank Seth (MBA ’86), of New York, NY, hasjoined NACR as Vice President of the NortheastRegion.

Joseph J. Sitt (BS ’86), of Brooklyn, NY,was named “Entrepreneur of the Year” at theErnst & Young 2014 Awards Gala.

Peter J. Degnan (MBA ’87), of BaskingRidge, NY, has been named the managing di-rector of the William Penn Foundation.

Elizabeth E. Flynn (MBA ’87), of New York,NY, has been appointed to Webster FinancialCorporation’s Board of Directors.

Garrett L. Gray (BS ’87, JD ’90), of Wood-mere, NY, has been elected to the Board of Di-rectors of the Nassau Lawyers’ Association ofLong Island.

John McAvoy (MBA ’87), of Brewster, NY,has been appointed Chairman of the Board atConsolidated Edison.

Thomas R. Wright (MBA ’87), of SanFrancisco, CA, has joined JMP Group’s ex-ecutive committee as the firm’s Director ofEquities.

George Barrett (MBA ’88), of Colum-bus, OH, has been elected to the Board ofTrustees at Brown University.

Charles L. “Chip” Olson (MBA ’88),of Simsbury, CT, has joined People’sUnited Bank as Senior Vice President,Wealth Management.

Michael Schwartz (MBA ’88), of Stam-ford, CT, has been named CMO and Execu-tive Vice President at Eka SoftwareSolutions.

Belinda Sheets (BS ’88), of Stamford,CT, founded Foresight Consulting, Inc.,which specializes in customized tacticaland strategic program and project manage-ment for the retail, commercial, and corpo-rate divisions of financial institutionsaround the globe.

Daniel Karas (MBA ’89), of Plano, TX,has been promoted to Chief Lending Officerof Triumph Savings Bank SSB.

Michael Nash (MBA ’89), of Ridge-wood, NJ, has been elected to serve as aDirector of Landmark Apartment Trust ofAmerica, Inc.

Steven B. Wendel (MBA ’89), of Box-ford, MA, has joined the capital markets’multifamily division at CBRE Group, acommercial real estate services and invest-ment firm, as Federal Housing Authority(FHA) Lending Head of Production.

1990sSeth Diamond (MBA ’90), of Glaston-bury, CT, has joined Janney MontgomeryScott LLC as Vice President-Investments atthe company’s Glastonbury branch.

38 Sternbusiness

c l a s s n o t e sSend us your news, update your contact information, and access the contact information of your fellow alumnithrough NYU SternConnect, Stern’s online alumni community, at sternalumni.nyu.edu.


Sternbusiness 39

Samir Mirza came to NYU Stern for his MBA degree with thegoal of building a strong professional network for himself, but hedidn’t imagine forging some of his most important contacts dur-ing the very first few days of orientation. During that fatefulweekend, Mirza met fellow Stern student Brian Long and NYUalumnus Andrew Jones (BS ’06), and together they conceptual-ized an idea for an advertising technology start-up that wouldlater spark them to create TapCommerce, now the leader in mo-bile advertising retargeting technology. In July 2014, Twitter an-nounced its agreement to acquire TapCommerce for $100 million.

Through the experience with their initial start-up, Mirza ex-plains that he and his co-founders “saw a lot of gaps betweenwebsite and mobile advertising,” and so, shortly after graduatingfrom Stern, “we decided to shift our focus to mobile ad retarget-ing.” This paid off, and they were the first to develop technologythat enables consumers using mobile apps to receive targeted ads based on their browsinghistory. Ad retargeting is a practice that has become common for advertisers targeting desk-top and laptop computer users, but TapCommerce has broken ground in the mobile space.Its clients, including e-commerce brands like eBay, Hotels.com, and JackThreads, have con-tinually renewed their campaigns because it offers them a solution to the retention problemthey face, while advancing their mobile advertising to allow for relevant and real-time com-munication with their consumers.

Originally from Chicago, Mirza received a computer science degree from the Universityof Illinois and spent his first few years after college working as a software engineer and ITconsultant. He decided to apply to business school because he was intrigued by the role ofbusiness and finance in the world of technology. He chose Stern for its prestigious reputa-tion in finance and its location, and to be part of the exciting New York City start-up com-munity. Naturally, given his computer science background, Mirza built the originaltechnology platform that TapCommerce operates on and performed the initial coding. Now,as chief technology officer, he manages the entire technology team and oversees the platformarchitecture. He speaks excitedly about the way TapCommerce has integrated with variousprogrammatic ad exchanges that allow digital ad buying in real time, saying, “We get hun-dreds of thousands of ad requests per second to our servers, translating to billions of auc-tions per day. The technology behind it is very cool.”

Mirza and his TapCommerce co-founders have truly built their venture from their NYUnetwork: Of the whole start-up team, seven are NYU-affiliated, including two early hiresfrom Stern, Shanif Dhanani (MBA ’12) and Brian Malkerson (MBA ’12). Besides connect-ing him to a group of like-minded yet diverse individuals, Mirza says, “Business school al-lowed me to explore different areas and helped me realize what I’m truly passionate about.”He advises current students and fellow alumni not to be afraid of failure and to take risks,noting that he went through several unsuccessful ventures before arriving at TapCommerce.He offers, “If you are a student or a graduate of Stern, you know you are highly qualified.Even if you have multiple failures, you’re going to be fine.”

H i s S t a r t - U p I s P o w e r e d B y S t e r n i e s

Robert C. Fink (MBA ’90), of New York,NY, won the “Young Man of the Year Award”at the 118th Annual Real Estate Board ofNew York Banquet. Fink is the Director ofLeasing at the Winter Organization, a realestate investment, development, and man-agement firm.

Samir Mirza (MBA ’12)

Anthony Giobbi (MBA ’90), of Ridgefield,CT, has joined Newtown Savings Bank asSenior Vice President of commercial lending.

Jonathan Litt (MBA ’90), of Greenwich,CT, has been appointed to the Board of Di-rectors of Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, an

owner, manager, and developer of officeand class A residential real estate in theNortheast.

Anthony Malloy (MBA ’90), of Ridge-wood, NJ, has been named CEO of NewYork Life’s investment management division.

Erik E. Prusch (MBA ’90), of Kirkland,WA, was named CEO at NetMotion Wireless,a provider of enterprise mobility manage-ment software.

Willow Bay (MBA ’91), of Los Angeles,CA, has been named Director of the Univer-sity of Southern California’s AnnenbergSchool for Communication and Journalism.

Thomas M. Boehlert (MBA ’91), of NewYork, NY, is the President and CEO of FirstNickel, a Canadian mining and explorationcompany.

John Chu (MBA ’91), of Burlingame, CA,has been elected President and CEO of Pa-cific Specialty Insurance Company.

Violet Diamant (MBA ’91), of Astoria,NY, has joined Morningstar Credit Ratings,LLC as Managing Director of Asset-BackedSecurities, Ratings, and Research.

Elliott Kugel (MBA ’91), of Westbury, CT,was named one of the “Top 1,200 Advisorsin America” by Barron’s in February 2014 forthe fifth consecutive year. He was also recog-nized by the Financial Times in their “Top400 Financial Advisors” in 2014.

Jane Mackie (MBA ’91), of New York, NY,has been appointed to Vice President, Fair-mont Brand at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.

Robert Ollwerther (MBA ’91), of NewYork, NY, has been named COO at TPG Spe-cial Situation Partners.

Kenneth B. Rotman (MBA ’91), ofToronto, Canada, is Co-CEO and ManagingDirector of Clairvest, a Toronto-based privateequity management firm.

William I. Woodson (MS ’91), ofWellington, FL, has joined Citi Private Bank,a subsidiary of Citigroup, as Managing Di-rector and Head of the North America familyoffice group.

Andrew Kripke (MBA ’92), of Weston,CT, has joined the Abu Dhabi Investment Au-thority as Director, US Private Equity.

Elissa Bickoff Fishman (MBA ’93), ofNew York, NY, has joined the Board ofDOROT, the New York-based agency with amission of alleviating social isolation amongthe elderly.


40 Sternbusiness

When Annbeth Eschbach set out to revolutionize the spa andfitness industry, she turned to NYU Stern. With the help of herMBA degree, she explains, “I was able to birth not only a newbrand and company, but a business that is directly in the path ofprogress.” Prior to enrolling at Stern, Eschbach, founder andCEO of Exhale Enterprises, Inc., worked for a high-end athleticclub and spa conglomerate operating more than 50 spas and ath-letic clubs in different markets with different names, sizes, pro-grams, and positioning. That experience, she recalls, “led me todream of creating a singular brand and business from the groundup to fill a void in the market for a brand experience that deliv-ers the kinds of powerful life-changing results that are achievedat destination spas – without having to travel from home and dis-connect from your daily life.” Exhale was the first spa concept to

depart from the traditional spa orientation of pampering and luxury to a more holistic ap-proach of transformation and healing.

Eschbach characterizes the structure of Stern’s Executive MBA program as “genius,” elab-orating, “It was not possible to take time out from my work or career to go to b-school. I hadto do it simultaneously. It was the best lesson in multi-tasking in the world. And the intensityand richness of being in school with a small group of people who have already been workingand who can share their life and career journeys with one another brought the program to awhole other level.” She believes that the emphasis on group learning dovetailed perfectly withthe cultural shift toward collaboration in the workplace and that, in her experience, the Ex-ecutive MBA students exemplified this by “focusing less on competition and more on learn-ing for learning’s sake.” It was through her experience at Stern that Eschbach affirmed herdesire to become an entrepreneur, after listening to her classmates share their experiencesabout work in large corporations and the energetic maneuvering that it would take to getthings accomplished. “Besides giving me confidence, my Stern degree gave me all of the basicbuilding blocks to start my company – drafting a business plan, creating a five-year model –when it came time to do it, nothing was a mystery,” she says.

Today, exhale has grown from a dream, set of financial projections, and a business plan toan award-winning well-being brand with 23 properties in 11 markets, dozens of proprietaryprograms, a large and engaged guest base, and 2,000 associates aligned around the brand vi-sion and mantras. Exhale is rapidly growing; demand for the brand is at an all-time highfrom real estate developers and demand for the programs from consumers is at an all-timehigh. “We are opening three new properties this year, another four next year, and have sev-eral more in the pipeline.” The company’s growth has been fueled by its unique ability to sat-isfy hotel and commercial real estate developers’ need for a comprehensive well-beingoffering that can attract both property guests and the local community. In today’s urbanmarkets, it’s no longer enough to deliver just a spa or gym experience, and as a lifestyle brandthat encompasses spa, healing, and relaxation treatments, as well as boutique fitness classes,exhale has been well-positioned. Constantly innovating, Eschbach spoke excitedly aboutexhale’s newest proprietary class addition, Core Fusion Extreme, a high-intensity intervaltraining class that has taken New York City by storm.

Reflecting on exhale’s measurements of success, Eschbach says, “We are just as metrics-focused as we are people-centric and program-centric. Our quantitative metrics are absolutelyas sacred as our ‘soulful’ metrics. It’s a nice cultural balance.”

A B a l a n c e d A p p r o a c h

Annbeth Eschbach (MBA ’90)

Mary Ellen Georgas-Tellefsen (MBA ’93),of Ocean Grove, NJ, and her husband’s SeaSpray Inn has been named a winner in the 2014TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice awards in the“B&Bs and Inns” category.

Doug Grigg (BS ’93), of Rye, NY, has beennamed Chief Sales Officer at Plex, a cloud-based ERP for manufacturers.

Michael Aufrichtig (BS ’94), of Brooklyn,NY, is the head coach of Columbia University’smen’s fencing team.

Andrew E. Kaplan (MBA ’94), of Summit,NJ, has been appointed to Aspen Group’s Boardof Directors.

Jonathan Liss (BS ’94, JD ’97), of West Or-ange, NJ, has been awarded the Julius andBessie Cohn Young Leadership Award for com-munity outreach by the Jewish Federation ofGreater MetroWest New Jersey.

Nils Paellmann (PhD ’94), of Jersey City,NJ, has been named to the Board of the NationalInvestor Relations Institute (NIRI). Paellmann isthe Vice President and Head of Investor Rela-tions at T-Mobile.

Debbie Wapensky (MBA ’94), of Engle-wood, CO, has been appointed CFO at TrustCompany of America.

Eric Wolford (MBA ’95), of Danville, CA, hasjoined Accel Partners, a leading Silicon Valleyventure capital firm focusing on early andgrowth stage venture investments, as VenturePartner.

Jonathan Lieber (MBA ’96), of Norfolk, MA,has been named Senior Vice President andCFO of Metamark Genetics, Inc., a leader inthe discovery of molecular and prognostictests for cancer.

Eric Mandl (BS ’96), of New York, NY, hasbeen named Senior Managing Director ofGuggenheim Securities, the investment bankingand capital markets division of GuggenheimPartners.

Randle Schumacher (BS ’96), of Del Mar,CA, was nominated to the short list for BestOriginal Song at the 2014 Academy Awards forthe song he co-wrote, “Younger Every Day,”from the feature film “3 Geezers.”


Sternbusiness 41

For Robin Harris, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley,the path to an undergraduate degree from NYU Stern wasfar from conventional. The eldest of eight children, his lifechanged dramatically, when at age 15, his family moved fromNew York City to Alabama, and again when his stepfatherpassed away during his freshman year of college. At that time,he decided that the best thing he could do for his family wasto leave school, get a full-time job, and begin earning money.Recognizing that his long-term goals would not be possiblewithout college, he moved back to NYC to live with his grand-mother, joined the National Guard, and looked for work.

As a young man with a great deal of discipline and respectfor authority, Harris and his military credentials were a per-fect fit for an entry-level stock processing job at a commercial

bank on Wall Street. While some may have found the duties tedious, Harris applied hisstrong work ethic to make the most of the opportunity and quickly moved through a se-ries of operations positions at numerous firms, which allowed him to learn “the frontend, the back end, and all the steps in between,” he explains. He eventually landed atGoldman Sachs and became an integral member of the custody department, as well as arepresentative at the company’s on-campus recruiting events, which ultimately led himto question his own decision to drop out of college many years earlier.

Some 15 years into his career, Harris decided he needed more schooling to take thenext step forward and so enrolled at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Stud-ies to earn his bachelor’s degree in technology. Soon after beginning his coursework, a fac-ulty member advised him to consider finishing his undergraduate degree at Stern, whichultimately proved to be the right move. While classes at the School were intense and de-manding, the experience was also extremely rewarding. He relates, “I wouldn’t be in theposition I am in today without my bachelor’s degree from Stern. Learning how to createand support transformational change was invaluable.”

Since earning his degree, Harris has consistently sought out opportunities to becomean agent for organizational change. Today, he heads Morgan Stanley’s business servicescenter in Baltimore, which employs more than 1,100 people and provides global supportfor a wide range of operations, finance, and compliance functions. Hired in 2008, in col-laboration with multiple stakeholders, he has implemented a number of new programsthat have helped realize the center’s tremendous potential, including new recruiting andemployee-engagement strategies, and has turned the Baltimore center into a real growthand success story. He also truly embodies Morgan Stanley’s core value of “giving back”by volunteering with a number of organizations focused on mentoring and creating op-portunities for veterans and other under-represented groups. He serves as a board mem-ber of several nonprofit organizations that enrich the local community, including theWaterfront Partnership of Baltimore, Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, and Down-town Partnership of Baltimore, and serves on the Towson College of Business and Eco-nomics’ Advisory Board.

Harris’s advice to Stern students and fellow alumni is the same wisdom he shares withnew Morgan Stanley hires on day one: “Value the network you are creating. Its impor-tance may not be evident instantaneously, but have confidence you are building some-thing you’ll be able to leverage throughout your professional life.”

A S e l f -M a d e M a n

Robin Harris (BS ’98)

Stephanie Adams (MBA ’97), ofCookeville, TN, has been appointed to the po-sition of Electronic Resources Librarian withthe rank of Assistant Professor at the Angelo& Jennette Volpe Library at Tennessee TechUniversity.

Marina Aslanyan (BS ’97), of Fort Lee,NJ, has been named CEO of SmartLinx Solu-tions, a company that specializes in humancapital management solutions.

Anatol Feygin (MBA ’97), of Westport, CT,has joined Cheniere Energy as Senior Vice Pres-ident, Strategy and Corporate Development.

Lance Meyerowich (MBA ’97), of NewYork, NY, has been appointed Vice Presidentof Investor Relations at Coupons.com.

Jill Wiseman (MBA ’97), of New York, NY,has been appointed to Vice President, Market-ing of MPayMe, the developer behind the mo-bile payment solution ZNAP.

Michelle Crecca (MBA ’98), of Wilton, CT,has been appointed Senior Vice President ofStrategy and CMO for Prudential Group Insur-ance, a business of Prudential Financial, Inc.

Terence Kelly (MBA ’98), of Ridgefield,CT, has been appointed to the Board of Direc-tors at Cardex.

Haralampos Prassakos (BS ’98), ofWayne, NJ, has joined Sterling National Bankas a First Vice President, Market Credit Direc-tor to take part in creating the premier rela-tionship-based commercial bank in the NewYork Metro Area.

Mark Schiff (MBA ’98), of Madison, CT,has been appointed President and CEO ofSightlines, LLC.

Matthew Deschamps (MBA ’99), of OldGreenwich, CT, has been appointed to theBoard of Trustees at Franklin & MarshallCollege.

Robert S. Gabruk, II (MBA ’99), of Flem-ington, NJ, has been appointed to the role ofSenior Vice President of Customer Success &Insights at Symphony Health Solutions.

Michael Keara (BS ’99), of Hoboken, NJ,has been hired as a Senior Equity ResearchAnalyst for Prime Executions, Inc.


42 Sternbusiness

Ilene Kelman (MBA ’99), of Brooklyn, NY,has joined Manulife Asset Management Pri-vate Markets as Marketing Director for PrivatePlacements and Commercial Mortgages.

Joseph Massman (MBA ’99), of KansasCity, MO, has been named a “2014 CFO of theYear” in the large nonprofit category by theKansas City Business Journal.

Elwy M. Taymour (MBA ’99), of Cairo,Egypt, is the Co-Founder of Pharos Holding, aCairo-based investment firm.

2000sMark T. Holst-Knudeson (MBA ’00), ofNew York, NY, has been appointed Presidentof ThomasNet.

Christopher McHeffey (MBA ’00), ofMonmouth Beach, NJ, has joined RealityShares, Inc. as Regional Sales Director.

Ruben Roy (MBA ’00), of Nyack, NY, hasjoined Piper Jaffray as a Senior Research Ana-lyst covering semiconductor and semiconduc-tor capital equipment companies.

Jordan Hoffner (MBA ’01), of San Fran-cisco, CA, has been appointed CEO of Feder-ated Media, a digital content marketingcompany.

Elizabeth J. Hsu (BS ’01), of Wantagh, NY,was promoted to Senior Director of CorporateStrategy at Time Warner Cable.

Ann McCarthy (MBA ’01), of Fairfield, CT,has been named Director of Development andCommunications at The Human ServicesCouncil.

Edward M. Rishty (BS ’01, JD ’04), ofNew York, NY, has been named a Partner atthe law firm Debevoise & Plimpton.

John Bailey (MBA ’02), of Stamford, CT,has joined the Board of the Fairfield CountyCommunity Foundation.

Eric Bertrand (MBA ’02), of New York, NY,co-produced “Alive Inside: A Story of Musicand Memory,” a documentary film that won anAudience Award at this year’s Sundance FilmFestival.

“Global resources delivered locally” is how New York na-tive Monica Issar describes the educational experience thatNYU Stern imparts to its students, and it is one of the prin-cipal reasons she selected the School for her undergraduateand MBA studies. Stern enabled Issar to acquire a global per-spective through both her coursework and the diversity ofthe students surrounding her, a perspective that she bringsto her position as Managing Director and head of the JP Mor-gan Asset Management and Foundations Group.

Although she was always passionate about business, Issarstarted out as an undergraduate at NYU’s College of Artsand Sciences because she believed a liberal arts educationwould give her the best foundation upon which to build herfinance career. She transferred to Stern after just one eco-

nomics class, reasoning that if she were enrolled at Stern, she would be learning fromprofessors who were financial services practitioners as well as academics. Indeed, sheaffirms, that was the case. Her teachers’ willingness to share their stories of the realworld – both successes and failures proved invaluable. Issar explains: “These firsthandexamples have stayed with me throughout my career as reminders of resiliency. Evenpeople at the top, CEOs, face uncertainty during strategy changes and mergers. Butthey survive and bounce back.”

A few years later, while working at JP Morgan, she returned to Stern for an MBA de-gree, which reinforced her global perspective. “My classmates were from all over theworld, so I was learning about their lives and beliefs on a daily basis. My classes also re-flected that global outlook: I remember learning about how US companies like Coca-Cola were creating strategies for growth in Asia, and teachings like that really tiedeverything together for me,” she recounts.

At JP Morgan, Issar started her career in equities research, moved over to portfoliomanagement, and then completed an associates’ training program in order to take aposition in the firm’s Private Banking division. As an Investment Specialist, she advisedpublic company CEOs and hedge fund managers on their personal financial affairs. Shethen founded another group that consults endowments and foundations that may nothave a Chief Investment Officer on areas like strategic asset allocation and risk analy-sis. Now, as Managing Director and the head of the JP Morgan Asset Management andFoundations Group, she leads a team that provides customized advisory services and in-vestment strategies to some of the largest charitable organizations in the world. Shecredits her education at Stern for her imparting an understanding of the level of trustnecessary to excel in the money management industry and how to earn that trust.

Whether at the office or spending time biking with her two children, Issar keeps inmind a dictum from her grandfather: “Aim the highest; seek the highest.” She explains,“It means to always dream what’s possible. It’s something I did when I was a teenagerand dreamed of going to a global, cosmopolitan university, and it led me to paths Icouldn’t have dreamed of.”

A im t h e H i g h e s t

Monica Issar (BS ’96, MBA ’03)


Sternbusiness 43

Eric Mandell (MBA ’02), of Roanoke,VA, has been appointed Executive Direc-tor of Parker Professional by ParkerUniversity.

Juan Monroy (MBA ’02), of Brooklyn,NY, has been appointed COO of Mac-querie Mexican Reit.

Grishma Parekh (BS ’02), of NewYork, NY, has been promoted to ManagingDirector at Carlyle Group, a global privateequity firm, where she will lead the firm’sglobal market strategies group.

Angela Faye Taylor (MBA ’02), ofSunnyvale, CA, has been named Presi-dent of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.

Kevin McGowan (MBA ’03), ofPhiladelphia, PA, married Sara Cotton onOctober 26, 2013, in Narberth, PA.

Michael A. Metzger (MBA ’03), ofChappaqua, NY, has been appointed tothe executive management team of Re-gado Biosciences, Inc., where he willserve as President and COO.

Ahmed Ozalp (MBA ’03), of Cairo,Egypt, founded Akanar Partners, a corpo-rate finance and strageic advisory firm.

Dr. Emil Chynn (MBA ’04), of NewYork, NY, was recently featured on Fox TVfor being the first opthalmologist in theUS to implant platinum eye jewelry.

Mark F. Lagratta (MBA ’04), of NewYork, NY, married Emily Gold on June 21,2014, in New York City.

Michael J. Rose (MBA ’04), of NewYork, NY, married Alexis Zhu on June 22,2014, in New York City.

Vivien Azer (MBA ’05), of New York,NY, has joined Cowen Group, Inc. as aDirector for the Beverages and Tobaccosector.

Randall Klein (MBA ’05), of Brooklyn,NY, joined the senior management team ofComplexCare Solutions as President.

Tricia Norton (MBA ’05), of Woodbury,CT, was named President of EB Brands’Fitness Division.

Yin Woon Rani (MBA ’05), of JacksonHeights, NY, has been named Vice Presi-dent, Integrated Marketing, at the CampbellSoup Company.

Xiao Xiao Sun (BS ’05), of Beijing,China, has joined the Royal Bank of Scot-land (RBS), as Director of Debt Capital Mar-kets (DCM), Asia.

James Yi (MBA ’05), of Caldwell, NJ,was named Market Leader, South Korea, atBurson Marsteller, a global public relationsand communications firm.

Kriti Bhandari (MBA ’07), of Windsor,CT, published a book, Cheating on yourCorporate Job: A Comic Look at the StartupDream.

Adam C. Gagas (MBA ’07), of Oswego,NY, has been elected to the Board of Direc-tors at Pathfinder Bank.

Irina Novoselsky (BS ’07), of OldBridge, NJ, has joined Novitex EnterpriseSolutions as Head of Business Develop-ment.

Spencer Schwartz (MBA ’07), of Ridge-field, CT, has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Atlas WorldHoldings, Inc. He will continue to serve asthe company’s CFO in his new role.

Paul Sydlansky (MBA ’07), of Horse-heads, NY, has joined the Board of Directorsof the Arc of Steuben Foundation.

Noah LeFevre (MBA ’09), of New York,NY, has been appointed Director of Athleticsat Manhattan College.

2010sYuki Arai (MA ’10), of Saitama, Japan, isthe Co-CEO of Book Field Capital, aTokyo/Hong Kong-based investment firm.

Matthew J. Slaine (MBA ’11), of Greens-boro, NC, married Michele Zatkis on March 8,2014, in New Orleans, LA.

Ron Zember (MBA ’11), of New York, NY,married Whitney S. Fishman (MBA ’12),on June 1, 2014, in New York City.

Stefan Casillo (MBA ’12), of New York,NY, has been promoted to Senior Consultantat Mars & Co, a global management con-sulting firm specializing in business strat-egy and operational improvements for largecorporations.

Eric Morrow (MBA ’12), of Stamford, CT,married Dr. Amy Hoch on May 17, 2014, inNew York City.

Yonadav N. Tsuna (BS ’12), of New York,NY, co-founded Empire Biscuit, a Southern-inspired, 24-hour biscuit restaurant located inthe East Village.

Fritswa Baffour (MBA ’13), of Portland,OR, was promoted to Marketing Associatefor Nike.

Rony Chammas (MBA ’13), of San Fran-cisco, CA, is the Co-Founder and CEO ofPeerSpace, a peer-to-peer marketplace forproductive spaces, including offices, studios,theaters, restaurants, and more.

K. J. Martijn Cremers (PhD ’13), ofSouth Bend, IN, won the second annual Jour-nal of Investment Consulting Academic Paper

Harold Wagle (BS ’41)

E. John Yuells (BS ’43)

Joseph Goloff (MS ’47)

John Kassab (BS ’49)

Robert Campbell Forbes (MBA ’52)

Mirjan Ivanetic (MBA ’52)

John A. Matthews (BS ’56)

Haig Varjian (BS ’56)

Lawrence Katz (MS ’61)

In Memoriam

Competition for his paper, “EmergingMarket Outperformance: Publically TradedAffiliates of Multinational Corporations.”Cremers is a Professor of Finance at theMendoza College of Business at the Uni-versity of Notre Dame.

J. Patrick Geraghty (MBA ’13), ofRutherford, NJ, has been named Partnerat Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley, P.C., amulti-service law firm.

Kelly Goldston (MBA ’13), of Brook-lyn, NY, is a Senior Manager of Acquisi-tion Marketing for Diapers.com.

Meika Hollender (MBA ’13), of NewYork, NY, launched Sustain condoms withher father, Jeffrey Hollender. Their mis-sion is to empower women to take chargeof protecting their sexual health with a fairtrade, toxin-free product.

Geoffrey G. Karapetyan (MBA ’13),of New York, NY, married Jay Serpe onMay 10, 2014, in Beacon, NY.

Gareth Gaston (MBA ’14), of MorrisPlains, NJ, has been named ExecutiveVice President, Virtual Banking at USBank.

Whitney T. Krueger (MBA ’14), ofNew York, NY, married Duncan Kopp onJune 14, 2014, in Watch Hill, RhodeIsland.

Clifford F. Ransom (MBA ’14), of Bal-timore, MD, was named Editor-in-Chief ofPopular Science.

Maryrose Miller (MBA ’61)

Michael R. Stein (MBA ’64)

Victor W. Pizzolato (BS ’66)

Edward Shopkorn (MBA ’70)

Tracy Copple (BS ’96)

Leslie Uku (MBA ’06)

Satori Hama (MBA ’09)

Abraham Gitlow, Dean Emeritus of NYU Stern, 1965-1985


44 Sternbusiness

n the history of NYU Stern, notmuch has been written about DeanJoseph H. Taggart. He was a quiet

individual. He barely published, andhad no descendants to describe his ac-complishments to later generations. Yetit was Taggart who transformed NYU’sGraduate School of Business Adminis-tration (GBA) from a part-time,evening school into a robust,full-time MBA program, acritical chapter in the storyof Stern’s evolution.

Taggart was born inWakefield, MA, a couple ofyears after the turn of the20th century. He graduatedfrom Yale in 1924, earningan MBA from Harvard and aPhD from Columbia. Accord-ing to his 1984 obituary inThe New York Times, he was chief of fi-nance and tax research at the Depart-ment of Commerce in the 1940s.During World War II, he was a major inArmy air intelligence, and afterwardserved as economic adviser and directorof planning for the Foreign LiquidationCommission in Paris and Washington.Prior to joining Stern, Taggart taughteconomics and finance at Rutgers,Lehigh, the University of Southern Cali-fornia, and the University of Kansas.

In a centennial history of NYU Stern,the late former Undergraduate CollegeDean Abraham Gitlow wrote that Tag-gart arrived at the School with a dis-tinctly different worldview than hispredecessor deans, who were “oldschool.” Unlike them, Taggart “was notwedded to the tradition of part-timeevening education, and had strong feel-ings that a full-time day program at themaster’s and doctoral levels would yieldlarge academic benefits to GBA’s qual-ity.” Similarly, Taggart’s favorable view

conditioning, the rumble of trolleycars, and the barest facilities.

When Taggart became Dean in1959, he launched a series of innova-tive extracurricular programs inorder to appeal to alumni and per-suade them to stay committed to theSchool. Playing to the many financeand economics alums, he initiatedspeaker events, fundraisers, and con-ferences, causing some grumbling,Kavesh said, among faculty in theother disciplines. He also steered theundergraduate curriculum away frommore vocationally oriented coursessuch as Business English and Secre-tarial Studies.

But Taggart was only just begin-ning. The GBA’s traditional eveningMBA program delivery agreed withsome of the top faculty because itfreed them to spend their days con-sulting to industry or government.When Taggart broached the idea of afull-time program, he found he had alot of convincing to do. “Going full-time was a political battle,” Kaveshsaid, mainly because it required abigger commitment from the faculty.“Taggart would convene departmentchairs and would cajole and applysome mild pressure. And he was ableto bargain it through. The full-timeprogram sprang fully grown from thebrow of Joe Taggart.”

With expanded faculty ranks andofferings, the School soon joined theranks of the other leading businessschools in the New York area andbegan increasingly to attract studentsfrom across the country and globe.Taggart retired from NYU in 1970. In1983, he was awarded New York Uni-versity’s C. Walter Nichols Medal forIntegrity, Enterprise, and Service.

MARILYN HARRIS is editor of STERNbusiness.

of the doctoral degree as an academiccredential and the importance of re-search productivity for promotion andtenure differed from earlier administra-tions.

Disruptive innovationProfessor Robert “Dr. Bob” Kavesh

(BS, ’49), the Marcus Nadler Professorof Economics and Finance, Emeritus, re-members Taggart well. In 1958, Taggart,then two years into his associate dean-ship, lured Kavesh away from ChaseManhattan Bank to teach economics atthe School. At the time, Kavesh recalled,GBA was a temple of finance and eco-nomics education, with gurus like Mar-cus Nadler and W. Edwards Demingteaching hordes of ambitious, largelymale, World War II veterans who aug-mented their day jobs at banks and bro-kerage firms with evening classes in therectory of downtown’s Trinity Church.“The conditions there were unbelievablyhorrible,” Kavesh recalled, with no air

PastPerformance

Unsung HeroDean Joseph Taggart and the Making of NYU Stern’s Full-Time MBA ProgramBy Marilyn Harris

I

Dean Joseph Taggart was instrumental intransforming NYU’s business school into aworld-class institution.



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