In Wake of ISIS, Former UN Ambassador Helps Iraqi Nonprofits Take a Leading Role

Ambassador T. Hamid al-Bayati
Photo by Tom Stoelker

T. Hamid al-Bayati, Ph.D., the former permanent representative of Iraq to the United Nations, came to Fordham's Lincoln Center campus on Oct. 16 to respond to increasing violence in Iraq and Syria. The ambassador told a crowd of nonprofit leaders that their work is an important response for the war-torn region.

The event was sponsored by the Graduate School of Social Service and the Graduate School of Business Administration.

Al-Bayati, author of From Dictatorship to Democracy: An Insider's Account of the Iraqi Opposition to Saddam (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011) said that supplementing coalition forces with on-the-ground aid is essential for the people of Iraq to survive the effects of war. With more than four million refugees in the country, funding and coordination of the various NGOs is a must. To that end, the ambassador said he will be working with Fordham’s Center for Nonprofit Leaders to coordinate New York-area nonprofits and link them with their Iraqi counterparts.

The ambassador said that, with recent killings of aid workers by ISIS, it is best to let the Iraqi nonprofits take the lead rather than sending in foreign aid workers who might find themselves vulnerable to attack.

“Many are worried about WMDs (weapons of mass destruction), but you know what WMDs are now? A cell phone and an app,” he said, referring to readily available technology that has allowed recent beheadings by ISIS to terrorize Americans and other Western nationals in the privacy of their own homes.

Al-Bayati said that the consortium of NGOs in Iraq would allow donors to pick which nonprofit they would like to help. The NGO would in turn be responsible for reporting back to the donor with progress. He added that the Iraqi NGOs could also help bring businesses into the country as well.

The ambassador continually stressed the importance of coordination. He said that the United Nations still lacks the enough experience to coordinate NGOs, and they have their own bureaucracy to contend with.

“Communication is not the issue. Technology has solved that, but security remains number one,” he said. “By organizing our efforts, the NGOs can complete each other rather than compete with each other.”

-Tom Stoelker 

IR Students Kick Off the Year with the Experts

Next week, students of Fordham’s investor relations (IR) program will set the tone for the new academic year in an interactive event with prominent executives in the IR field.

Corporate Access and the Benefits of the Non-Deal Road Show
Wednesday, Sept. 3
6:30 p.m.
12th Floor Lounge / Corrigan Conference Center
Lincoln Center Campus | 113 West 60th Street

The event, which is sponsored by the Fordham Investor Relations Society Team (FIRST), will feature two IR experts — Corey Kinger, senior director of Brainerd Communications, Inc., and Julie Neumann, director of corporate access for Cowen and Company.

“[Kinger and Neumann] are terrific women who are at the top of their game in the investor relations world,” said John Walsh, adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Business Administration. “These [FIRST] events are interactive between guests and MIR students, and everyone is welcome.”

FIRST is a student group that comprises members of Fordham’s master’s degree in investor relations (MIR). Launched in 2011, the MIR program is a 39-credit program that takes place one weekend per month and features small, personalized classes that use an experiential approach.

The program serves individuals who want expertise in the field of investor relations as well as current business executives seeking advanced training in investor relations for enterprises that are preparing for public offerings or are already publicly traded.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, email FIRST.

— Joanna Mercuri

GBA Takes Home Several Springtime Wins

Now that the celebratory dust surrounding commencement is finally settling, the Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA) deserves a shout-out for some impressive recognition it received recently.

Each year Fordham’s Executive MBA program is recognized by Poets and Quants magazine, as the program climbs its way up the magazine's ranking of rankings list.

“It’s based on performance on other rankings so it’s very interdependent,” explained Francis Petit, Ph.D., associate dean of executive programs. “So if you keep doing well on other rankings, like Financial Times or Bloomberg, it'll have positive effect.”

Poets & Quants ranked the program 39th worldwide, up from 41 in 2013, and 42 in 2012. Petit cited the program’s international emersion elective as key to its success.

In addition, CEO Magazine ranked Fordham’s EMBA as a tier one program.

Another big win for GBA came directly from one of its students. MBA student Michael Hartigan took first place in this year’s All-America Student Analyst Competition sponsored by Institutional Investor magazine.

The competition brought together more than 2,100 students from over 81 universities, to trade $100,000 in virtual money. The four-month contest scored students in the same manner as any major investment house would to assess their own employees.

“Michael took a very solid approach from constructing a sound portfolio of three stocks that he felt were uncorrelated and took calculated risks,” said Robert Fuest, an adjunct professor at Fordham and the faculty advisor for students in the competition.

“He understands the difference between a good company versus a good stock; sometimes it could be a good company, but it’s a bad stock. And he gets that.”

In addition to Hartigan, seven other MBA students made it into the top 100 contenders, making Fordham the leading school in the competition.

“Part of what we’re doing is giving students practical experience and discussing business as it is in real life, not just theoretical,” said Fuest, who is also the COO of Landor and Fuest Capital.

“I think that taking a clinical aspect to learning is critical. They do it in law, they do it in medicine, and they do it in some business schools. This competition helps us to do that here.”

Corrigan Conference Center Officially Unveiled

The Lowenstein Center’s 12th floor was officially christened the E. Gerald Corrigan Conference Center in a ceremony held on Oct. 17.

The ceremony, which was postponed from last year due to Hurricane Sandy, honored E. Gerald Corrigan, Ph.D., GSAS ’65, ’71.

Corrigan, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a managing director of Goldman Sachs, was honored at a dinner attended by Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham; Stephen Freedman, Ph.D., provost; Msgr. Joseph G. Quinn, vice president for mission and ministry; David Gautschi, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration; and

Nancy Busch, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Also in attendance were recipients of the endowed scholarship fund that Corrigan established in 1999 and which has provided financial support to undergraduate students for nearly a decade.

Corrigan has served on the Fordham University Board of Trustees and has been a mentor and educator to Fordham students. In 2007, he made a $5 million gift that funded the E. Gerald Corrigan Chair in

International Business and Finance in the Schools of Business, and he continues to generously support university initiatives.

Michael Sansarran, GSB '13, former Corrigan Scholar, Nicole Campiglia,
FCLC '13 former Corrigan Scholar, Matthew McDonnell, FCRH '14,
 current Corrigan Scholar, E. Gerald Corrigan, Maygan Anthony, FCRH '14,
 current Corrigan Scholar, and Mark Espina, FCRH '16, and current
Corrigan Scholar. (Photo by Bruce Gilbert)

—Patrick Verel

Family Money Trees

After graduating from business school, Jean Howard walked away from her family's business, an electroplating company, for what she thought would be greener pastures. But if she had to do it over again she said she "absolutely" would have diverted her post-grad time and efforts back to the family business.

"Many students who are from family businesses want to strike out on their own, but it's important for them to put to look at these business opportunities pragmatically," said Howard.


Howard, who works on special projects for the Graduate School of Business Administration, is putting the final touches on a Tuesday, June 4 symposium, Turning the Family Tree into a Money Tree. The Fordham Institute for Family and Private Enterprise will host the event, through Fordham Accelerator for Business, in the 12th-floor Lounge/E. Corrigan Conference Center at Fordham's Lincoln Center campus.

Two family-owned businesses will be on hand to discuss their companies' challenges and successes. The Fabrega Family has restored an historic building, transforming it into a successful "eco-fairy castle" hotel. Solen and Habibe Altop will share their stories as women running a successful bed manufacturing company in a conservative patriarchal environment in Istanbul, Turkey.

The keynote speaker will be Sarah Hemminger, Ph.D., founder of the Incentive Mentoring Program. While most of the speakers will focus on traditional family structures, Hemminger is interested in non-intentional families that might choose to support someone from a broken family unit, such as teachers who band together to help a student struggling due to problems at home.

"Hemminger's innovative thinking bridges cultures and households," said Howard. "It is healthy mentally, physically, and economically and it's really the wave of the future."

To register for the symposium click here. 

Here's a video of Hemminger giving a TED talk about her work...

-Tom Stoelker

GBA Launches Seminar Series with NYC Power Brokers

The Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA) will launch its Business and the City seminar series on Tuesday, March 5, with some of the biggest names in government, real estate, and urban planning slated to speak. Sponsored in part by Verizon, "Hurricane Sandy as Inspiration for a ‘New’ New York" will take a critical look at designing, building, and funding infrastructure in the post-Sandy metropolis.

"The series is intended to be the beginning of a protracted conversation," said David Gautschi, Ph.D., dean of GBA. "Cities have become so important in advancing standards of living and economic development, that infrastructure has become a bigger issues than the fiscal cliff, and New York City serves as a natural case study."

Gautschi pointed out the overall economy is "hyper dependent on activities that happen in Lower Manhattan," an area that mostly sat in the dark and beneath water for several days after the hurricane.

Indeed several of the speakers will speak directly to infrastructure challenges with very real authority. Patrick Foye, FCRH'78, LAW'81, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will discuss post-Sandy challenges with Kevin Burke, LAW'77, CEO, Consolidated Edison.

Joining Foye and Burke in the daylong discussion will be:

• Richard Ravitch, former NY State Lt Governor, former Chairman, MTA

• Cas Holloway, Deputy Mayor for Operations, City of New York

• Christopher Levendos, Executive Director of National Operations, Verizon 

• John Zuccotti, Co-Chairman, Brookfield Office Properties

• Mike Wallace, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of "Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898"

• Carol Kellermann, President, Citizens Budget Commission 

• Lee Sander, Chairman of the Regional Plan Association; President and CEO, HAKS Group; former Executive Director and CEO, MTA

• Nicole Gelinas, Searle Freedom Trust Fellow, Manhattan Institute; Contributing Editor, City Journal

• Abraham M. Lackman, President, Praxis Insights, former Budget Director, City of New York, Scholar in Residence, Fordham University 


Follow the conversation on Twitter at #bizNYC.

-Tom Stoekler