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Fordham University Business Fall 2021

A Holistic Approach to Marketing
Summer 2022
from the office
of the dean
Donna Rapaccioli Headshot

Over the past 15 years, so much has changed in business.

There has been great innovation. In 2007, Apple released the first iPhone, and a year later, Tesla produced the first electric sports car. The mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto launched bitcoin, sparking new interest in digital currency. Social media platforms revolutionized the way we build brands, and a deepening social consciousness inspired more sustainable design, a demand for greater diversity in the workplace, and higher expectations for corporate accountability.

The business world also faced unprecedented challenges. We experienced the longest recession since World War II and a global pandemic that set the world still, upending supply chains, threatening companies and livelihoods, and forever reshaping our global workforce.

As my tenure as dean of the Gabelli School of Business comes to a close, I realize how much business education at Fordham has transformed, too. We have made great strides in preparing students to become compassionate business leaders, and we have celebrated many milestones along the way.

Masthead

Fordham Business summer 2022
Editor-in-Chief
Donna Rapaccioli, PhD
Dean, Gabelli School of Business

Executive Editor
Michael Benigno

Managing Editor
Claire Curry

Creative Director
Ruth Feldman

Contributing Writers/Reporters
Joe DeLessio, FCLC ’06
Jenny Keeler
Kelly Kultys
Nicole LaRosa
Chris Quirk
Gabrielle Simonson

Fordham University President
Joseph M. McShane, S.J.

Provost
Dennis C. Jacobs, PhD

This publication is published by the Office of the Dean of the Gabelli School of Business, with offices at 441 E. Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458 and 140 W. 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023.

Fordham Business welcomes your comments and suggestions. Email gsbnews@fordham.edu.

Does Fordham have your correct contact information? If not, please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 800-314-ALUM or
alumnioffice@fordham.edu. Or update your profile at forever.fordham.edu.

Opinions expressed in this publication may not necessarily reflect those of the Fordham University faculty or administration. © 2022, Fordham University Gabelli School of Business

Editor-in-Chief
Donna Rapaccioli, PhD
Dean, Gabelli School of Business

Executive Editor
Michael Benigno

Managing Editor
Claire Curry

Creative Director
Ruth Feldman

Contributing Writers/Reporters
Joseph DeLessio, FCLC ’06
Jennifer Keeler
Chris Quirk
Gabrielle Simonson
Stevenson Swanson
Jennifer Woolson

Fordham University President
Joseph M. McShane, S.J.

Provost
Dennis C. Jacobs, PhD

This publication is published by the Office of the Dean of the Gabelli School of Business, with offices at 441 E. Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458 and 140 W. 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023.

Fordham Business welcomes your comments and suggestions. Email gsbnews@fordham.edu.

Does Fordham have your correct contact information? If not, please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 800-314-ALUM or
alumnioffice@fordham.edu. Or update your profile at forever.fordham.edu.

Opinions expressed in this publication may not necessarily reflect those of the Fordham University faculty or administration. © 2021, Fordham University Gabelli School of Business

Contents

Fordham Business / Volume 22 / Summer 2022
Two-way street
two-way street
Students and leading corporations in New York City benefit from internship programs, competitions, and research and consulting projects made possible by the Gabelli School’s deep connections with industry.
Sense Appeal
Sense Appeal
What’s the way to consumers’ hearts? The five senses. Here’s how marketers are building brand loyalty by eliciting emotions through taste, sound, and vision.

Contents

Fordham Business / Volume 22 / Summer 2022
features
Leading with purpose
leading with purpose
As Donna Rapaccioli, PhD, steps down from her role as dean of the Gabelli School of Business and returns to teaching and research, she leaves behind a legacy of growth and transformation that maps the course for the future of business education at Fordham.
Two-way street
two-way street
Students and leading corporations in New York City benefit from internship programs, competitions, and research and consulting projects made possible by the Gabelli School’s deep connections with industry.
Sense Appeal
Sense Appeal
What’s the way to consumers’ hearts? The five senses. Here’s how marketers are building brand loyalty by eliciting emotions through taste, sound, and vision.

Quotables

8
PVH Corp. grants to support faculty research in Corporate Social Responsibility
Illustration of a person holding a flag and hand up on top of a mountain
$120k
Prizes awarded to winners of Fordham Foundry Pitch Challenge
Illustration of awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd
52
Participating organizations in the Responsible Business Coalition
“Making the transition to the nonprofit sector means leading with your heart instead of your head sometimes.”
—Malachy Fallon, BS ’83, MBA ’89, GSS ’15, Executive Director, Xavier Society for the Blind
“ESG is not a feel-good issue. We believe that sound ESG practices can drive value creation and improve long-term performance.”
—Catherine Winner, MBA ’09, Managing Director, Global Stewardship Team, Goldman Sachs Asset Management
“We are asking policymakers to make sure that the information coming directly from [app] developers is trustworthy.”
—Yilu Zhou, PHD, Associate Professor of Information, Technology, and Operations at the gabelli school
Experiential learning pulls out certain qualities from a student that are hard to replicate in a classroom environment.”
—Ikechi Okoronkwo, Executive Director, Mindshare

News

Introducing the New O’Shea Center for Credit Analysis and Investment

Black and white headshot portrait photographs of Bob O'Shea, BS '87, and Michael Gatto
Bob O’Shea, BS ’87, and Michael Gatto
ON MARCH 15, THE GABELLI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS officially launched the O’Shea Center for Credit Analysis and Investment with a reception at the University Club. The event was attended by more than 170 alumni, supporters, and friends.

The center is dedicated to educating students, supporting alumni, and collaborating with industry leaders across the global credit markets. It was founded with $2 million in gifts—$1 million from Bob O’Shea, BS ’87, and his wife, Michele, FCRH ’88. The second came from Michael Gatto, a partner at Silver Point Capital, a Connecticut-based investment firm co-founded by O’Shea. Gatto, who is also an adjunct professor at the Gabelli School, will serve as the center’s director.

Donna Rapaccioli, PhD, dean of the Gabelli School, said the center will enable the school to integrate credit analysis into the curriculum and to impact the credit industry by serving as a center of excellence.

New Offerings in ESG Literacy and Sustainability Reporting

LAST FALL, the Gabelli School of Business became the first in the country to offer a course specifically designed around helping undergraduate and graduate students pursue the top professional credential in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting.

Thanks to a collaboration with the Value Reporting Foundation, the new course, titled Sustainability Reporting and SASB Standards, allows students to learn Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) principles through case studies, data sets, guest speakers, and other resources. At the end of the course, students are prepared to take the Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA) Level 1 certification exam.

Sustainability accounting is how a company’s social and environmental impacts are measured, analyzed, and reported.

“Sustainability disclosures are the future of reporting information,” said Barbara Porco, PhD, clinical professor and associate dean of graduate studies at the Gabelli School, who is an instructor for the course. “We’re preparing students for the future.”

Students learn how sustainability issues can impact a company’s value and how to integrate data on ESG issues into reports, corporate strategy, and investment analysis.

The Best Buy for a New Generation

A photograph of six Fordham Gabelli School students within the Consulting Cup team proposed a plan to attract Gen Z consumers to Best Buy and expand the tech giant's social impact
A photograph of a Best Buy Teen Tech Center
A photograph of six Fordham Gabelli School students within the Consulting Cup team proposed a plan to attract Gen Z consumers to Best Buy and expand the tech giant's social impact
A Consulting Cup team proposed a plan to attract Gen Z consumers to Best Buy and expand the tech giant’s social impact.
AFTER SIX GABELLI SCHOOL STUDENTS chose Best Buy for their project in the Consulting Cup, insights from their own experiences led to a unique opportunity they uncovered for the tech giant to attract Generation Z customers and make a powerful social impact at the same time.

The Consulting Cup is an annual competition in which teams of sophomores identify a challenge faced by a major company and come up with a creative fix.

While Best Buy has traction with many generations of consumers, the students’ research revealed a gap among their own Generation Z. A large Best Buy store sits just one-tenth of a mile from the Rose Hill campus, but no one they knew at Fordham had ever been inside.

Two Women look through a clothing rack

Responsible Business Coalition Pilots Impact Index

What’s the story behind a piece of clothing? Who makes it, how is it made, and what types of materials are used? And what’s the easiest way to provide consumers with that information? Answering those questions are the main goals of a new Impact Index developed by the Gabelli School’s Responsible Business Coalition.

“The Impact Index came out of conversations with brand and retail CEOs wanting a framework to highlight ESG standards,” said Frank Zambrelli, the executive director of the coalition, which includes a network of executives, researchers, nonprofits, and educators. “Consumers have decided they want to know what they’re eating or putting on their body or investing in and the impact of those elements.”

The coalition worked in partnership with Accenture, a professional services company, 30 international brands and retailers, and Vogue magazine to develop a framework and label that brought together “what the consumers wanted, what the brands and retailers were able to provide, and what the science-based communities deemed to be important,” Zambrelli said.

Father McShane:

A Legacy of Transformation

Joseph M. McShane, S.J.,

who has led Fordham University for nearly two decades, fostering one of the most remarkable periods of sustained growth in the 181-year history of the Jesuit University of New York and providing steady, decisive stewardship amid the coronavirus pandemic, will step down as president on June 30. On April 27, Fordham named the new campus center at Rose Hill in his honor.

“It has been a blessing to work with so many talented and devoted faculty and staff, and with more than a hundred thousand gifted and community-minded students,” he said.

Man in black sweater

Father McShane:

A Legacy of Transformation

Joseph M. McShane, S.J.,

who has led Fordham University for nearly two decades, fostering one of the most remarkable periods of sustained growth in the 181-year history of the Jesuit University of New York and providing steady, decisive stewardship amid the coronavirus pandemic, will step down as president on June 30. On April 27, Fordham named the new campus center at Rose Hill in his honor.

“It has been a blessing to work with so many talented and devoted faculty and staff, and with more than a hundred thousand gifted and community-minded students,” he said.

CLIMB Summit Spotlights Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

In February, the Gabelli School hosted its fifth annual Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) conference. Renamed the “CLIMB Summit” this year, the event attracted 140 prospective graduate students from as far away as Alaska, California, Africa, China, India, and the United Kingdom.

“We hope that [the event] is a reflection of how important we feel this community is,” said Lawrence Mur’ray, senior assistant dean of graduate admissions and advising. “It is our goal to commit to cultivating a community of engagement.”

Kicking off the day were keynote speakers Lance LaVergne, chief diversity officer and senior vice president of global talent acquisition at the global fashion company PVH Corp., and Bliss Griffin, MBA ’19, entertainment inclusion consultant and a current student at Fordham School of Law, who discussed diversity, sustainability, and the challenges those with marginalized identities face when entering today’s workforce.

News Bits

Top 20 U.S. News Rankings

The Gabelli School was ranked in the Top 20 in seven US News & World Report specialty subject areas.

Centered in Diversity

The Full-Time MBA Program achieved STEM designation and the Gabelli School became a Reaching Out MBA partner school to support LGBTQ+ students.

Innovation Reigns

Stanford University named Communications and Media Management Area faculty member Bozena Mierzejewska Faculty Innovation Fellow.

Sports Talk

An April 2022 Sports Business Symposium featured panelists from the NBA, the Milwaukee Bucks, NYCFC, and the NFL.

A Growing Network

The Career Development Center (CDC) created 250 new employer relationships this year.

Top 20 U.S. News Rankings

The Gabelli School was ranked in the Top 20 in seven US News & World Report specialty subject areas.

Centered in Diversity

The Full-Time MBA Program achieved STEM designation and the Gabelli School became a Reaching Out MBA partner school to support LGBTQ+ students.

Innovation Reigns

Stanford University named Communications and Media Management Area faculty member Bozena Mierzejewska Faculty Innovation Fellow.

Sports Talk

An April 2022 Sports Business Symposium featured panelists from the NBA, the Milwaukee Bucks, NYCFC, and the NFL.

A Growing Network

The Career Development Center (CDC) created 250 new employer relationships this year.
Alumni

Messages of Faith in Raised Print

Malachy Fallon
When Malachy Fallon, BS ’83, MBA ’89, MS ’15, attended a mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 2016 a few months after he became the executive director of the Xavier Society for the Blind, its mission took on an even deeper meaning. The annual mass, celebrated on the feast day of St. Lucy, the patron saint of the blind, is the highlight of the year for patrons of the nonprofit. All of the Mass Propers are in Braille, created by the Xavier Society, and the celebrant, lecturers, and most attendees are sight impaired.

“It hit me immediately,” Fallon said. “This is why we do it and why it’s so very important. It’s that type of work; you’re touching individuals deeply and directly. Our tagline is, ‘We provide faith and inspiration in Braille and audio,’ but it’s our patrons who are the inspiration.”

Fallon’s move to the Xavier Society followed a 30-plus-year career at Standard & Poors where he started out after earning a bachelor’s degree in finance and an MBA at Fordham. He spent most of his time in the public finance group doing bond ratings on state and local governments and larger nonprofits. After several years in New York, he moved to Texas to open S&P’s Dallas office. At the time, he and his wife Maureen were busy raising four children. Fallon kept close ties with his alma mater, and his daughter Emily, FCRH ’13, is an alumna of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

Paving the Way for First-Generation College Students

Adrienne Boykin
Raised by her mom in a small town in upstate New York, Adrienne Boykin, BS ’09, knows the challenges that under-resourced college students face in preparing for their college journeys. She brings that personal experience, along with her background in accounting, to her role as chief financial officer of America Needs You, a nonprofit that offers mentorship and intensive career development to low-income, first-generation college students.

“This is very close to my heart because I am a first-generation college graduate,” said Boykin, who transferred to the Gabelli School in her sophomore year. “It’s work that is easy to be passionate about.”

During her time at Fordham, Boykin participated in the Alumni Mentoring Program, where she connected with a professional who worked in the accounting field. “She gave me real-life knowledge about what it was like to work in public accounting,” Boykin said. “It encouraged me to become a mentor later on in life.”

The early years of her career were spent in the for-profit sector, first at PwC and later at Balchem Corporation, where Boykin rose up the ranks to senior accountant. She also launched the accounting department’s first high school summer internship program and mentored a student from her alma mater.

sense
appeal

By Chris Quirk
New ways marketers are using taste, sound, and vision to evoke emotion and build consumer bonds
Consider the Pepperidge Farm Goldfish® cracker—the shape, the saltiness, the color, the scent. You can probably recall the precise sensation of eating one right now. That’s no accident. “Anybody can take a laminated dough and make a cracker, but the toasted notes, the texture, and the eyes and smiles—which aren’t on all the crackers—all of those things are carefully crafted,” said Frank Rapacki, MBA ’03. “And people don’t just get all those sensory attributes, people create bonds with those products.”

As the director of innovation and sensory design at Campbell Soup Company, Rapacki spends a great deal of time thinking about and calibrating every aspect of the way customers experience Campbell’s offerings, which, in addition to soups and the popular Goldfish snack, include other household products like Milano® cookies and Prego® pasta sauces. “Sensory marketing is understanding all the physical qualities of a product,” Rapacki said. “How do you take into account the entire sensory experience, as well as all of the emotional experiences that those products can communicate to a consumer, and do it in a salient way that makes people connect with a brand?”

sense
appeal

By Chris Quirk
New ways marketers are using taste, sound, and vision to evoke emotion and build consumer bonds
Consider the Pepperidge Farm Goldfish® cracker—the shape, the saltiness, the color, the scent. You can probably recall the precise sensation of eating one right now. That’s no accident. “Anybody can take a laminated dough and make a cracker, but the toasted notes, the texture, and the eyes and smiles—which aren’t on all the crackers—all of those things are carefully crafted,” said Frank Rapacki, MBA ’03. “And people don’t just get all those sensory attributes, people create bonds with those products.”

As the director of innovation and sensory design at Campbell Soup Company, Rapacki spends a great deal of time thinking about and calibrating every aspect of the way customers experience Campbell’s offerings, which, in addition to soups and the popular Goldfish snack, include other household products like Milano® cookies and Prego® pasta sauces. “Sensory marketing is understanding all the physical qualities of a product,” Rapacki said. “How do you take into account the entire sensory experience, as well as all of the emotional experiences that those products can communicate to a consumer, and do it in a salient way that makes people connect with a brand?”

Bottle Opening

Leading with Purpose

For 15 years, Dean Donna Rapaccioli, PhD, BS ’83, led the Gabelli School through an unprecedented era of transformation, forever changing undergraduate and graduate business education at Fordham. At the end of June, Rapaccioli will step down from her role as dean and return to teaching and research as a member of the faculty.
woman with glasses clapping her hands
“My legacy is for every student to graduate with the skills they need to become compassionate business leaders who contribute to society while living balanced lives.”
—Dean Donna Rapaccioli, PhD
I

n May 2007, Donna Rapaccioli, PhD, stood at a podium to address graduating seniors for the first time since being confirmed as dean of Fordham’s undergraduate College of Business Administration, as it was known at the time. She shared a story about her interview for the role. If she were to serve as dean, the hiring committee asked, what would she want her legacy to be?

She ran through some possible answers before responding. She could say her legacy would be an impressive new building to replace Faber Hall, a former Jesuit residence on the Rose Hill campus where the business school occupied a few floors. Or she could say that her legacy would be securing a multimillion-dollar donation to strengthen the school’s future.

But “these just weren’t ambitious enough,” Rapaccioli told the senior class and their families. “I knew what I wanted my legacy to be. It was truly simple as legacies go, and yet supremely important to me.”

A Two-Way Street

A Two-Way Street
Corporate partnerships cultivate talent, drive innovation, and enrich business education at the Gabelli School
Big ideas are born at the intersection of industry and academia. It’s where innovation flourishes and creativity is unleashed. It’s where the magic happens at the Gabelli School.

In the classroom or at the workplace, opportunities made possible by bridging academia and industry—internships, consulting projects, competitions, and research—enable business students and faculty to collaborate with leaders across numerous industries and build pathways toward the future.

For corporations, these relationships yield cutting-edge data and strategic plans to enhance efficiencies and improve sustainability practices. They also offer the fresh perspectives of new generations of business professionals as well as consumers, and facilitate the recruitment process by delivering a steady stream of qualified talent who can prove their worth on the job.

“Our interns bring great energy and excitement to our firm,” said EY Campus Recruiter Renee Morrison, BS ’14, MS ’15. “They are eager to learn and they have a fresh perspective. They complement and enrich our culture here and help us to keep a strong brand in the market.”

Ideas

Faculty Research

vector illustration of man looking at map on phone
Dominik Molitor, PhD, Assistant Professor of Information, Technology, and Operations
Smartphones can act as our personalized shopping assistants when it comes to looking for great deals. However, when you use your phone to search for discounts before you shop or eat, you may not think about how you’re actually interacting with businesses—or how they’re interacting with you.
Couponing websites and mobile applications provide offers from nearby restaurants and retailers. According to Dominik Molitor, PhD, assistant professor of information, technology, and operations at the Gabelli School, advertisers assume that the closer they are, the more likely it is that a customer would choose their business over another that is farther away.

Yilu Zhou, PhD, Associate Professor of Information, Technology, and Operations

With technology at our children’s fingertips, parents share the universal concern that they may be exposed to violence and inappropriate content online. Considering that more than 3,000 apps are added to Apple’s App Store and Google Play daily—roughly 10 million every year—it is nearly impossible for parents to monitor everything their children are downloading, even when they check maturity ratings.
While movies and video games are rated by professional organizations, mobile app ratings are generated based on developers’ self assessment, according to Yilu Zhou, PhD, associate professor of information, technology, and operations at the Gabelli School. Developers complete a survey, she explained, but “the guidelines are vague and the developers’ interpretations vary.”

Without a standard system to ensure accuracy, can these ratings be trusted?

In the working paper, “Protecting Children from Inappropriate Mobile Apps: A Deep Text-Image Multi-Modal Learning Approach,” Zhou explored inconsistencies in the mobile app self-rating system by using machine learning to create a computerized mechanism that analyzes and flags apps containing mature content, such as violence and explicit images.

People
Q&A

Catherine Winner, MBA ’09, on Investment Stewardship and the ESG Myth

As managing director of the Global Stewardship Team for Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Catherine Winner, MBA ’09, oversees Goldman Sachs’ global proxy voting policy and issues concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion and disclosure of ESG data.

In a Gabelli School Investment Stewardship Series’ presentation sponsored by the CFA Society New York, the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis, and the Museum of American Finance in February, Winner shared her thoughts on the impact of corporate governance on a company and its shareholders, and why ESG is much more than a “feel-good” concept.

Catherine Winner, MBA ’09, on Investment Stewardship and the ESG Myth
Catherine Winner, MBA ’09, on Investment Stewardship and the ESG Myth

Catherine Winner, MBA ’09, on Investment Stewardship and the ESG Myth

As managing director of the Global Stewardship Team for Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Catherine Winner, MBA ’09, oversees Goldman Sachs’ global proxy voting policy and issues concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion and disclosure of ESG data.

Q: What does corporate governance mean to you?
A: We view corporate governance as the structure within which a company is managed—in other words, how a company is controlled and operated. Our belief is that sound corporate governance creates a framework that allows a company to be managed in the interest of shareholders and broader stakeholders. While the environmental and social components of ESG are increasingly high profile, we see strong governance practices as underlying it all and ultimately key to enabling progress on strategic issues.

Books

Banking and Effective Capital Regulation in Practice:

A Leadership Perspective
Sophia Velez, BS ’99, MBA ’06, PhD, CPA
Banking and Effective Capital Regulation in Practice: A Leadership Perspective NOW AVAILABLE banner

Due to a historical lack of attention to the importance of modeling, measuring and managing risk, senior bank leaders are struggling to implement unified practices within their financial institutions that could address the gaps posed by risky management behavior, rogue trading, liquidity crises, prohibited investments in mortgage-backed securities, and default risks aligned with loans. In her book, Banking and Effective Capital Regulation in Practice: A Leadership Perspective (Routledge, 2021), Sophia Velez, BS ’99, MBA ’06, PhD, CPA, discusses the theories at play between bank managers and shareholders, a topic that gained importance as a result of the banking crisis and fueled the need for more efficient risk management and ethical managerial practices.

Profile

Collective Soul

Researcher Studies How Social Connections Shape Innovation
Jie Ren, PhD
Jie Ren, PhD
Marie Papp
Jie Ren, PhD, is fascinated by how people’s collective actions on the internet help individuals and organizations innovate, market, and make financial decisions. This ranges from how users connect on social media platforms to share tips on the stock market, to how the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected online product reviews as more people shopped from home while coping with the quarantine.

Ren first recognized the power of connectivity among people of different backgrounds offline when she worked as an English translator at an international exhibition center in Beijing and met people from around the world. “It was a big culture shock and I felt like the whole world was connected,” she said. Now an associate professor at the Gabelli School, Ren is weaving her background in business, science, and engineering with her interest in collective online behaviors to explore how they can shape business.

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